joonsooyoon

I find myself relating to Gatsby, and Gatsby most of all; Mr. Carraway, the internal narrator and self-proclaimed honest man, I find less than satisfactory. I believe Carraway is the most hypocritical and judgmental person, despite his claims. He believed himself to be “within and without,” and yet I find that his inaction and concealment of his own moral self to be a worse sin. At least Tom and Daisy understood and expressed, to some extent, their wealth, pride, status, and moral decay. Carraway was part of this decay, and yet his claims that he was outside, a bystander, nonjudgmental in some way, I find more hypocritical than the traits themselves. Thus, I related to Gatsby, a man who embraced his wealth in pursuit of an impossible love, more realistic and even of higher moral standing than Carraway and others.

Mr. Fitzgerald’s commentary on dangerous materialism and the fading American Dream is certainly at the forefront of his story, indicative of contemporary culture as much as it was in the past. Yet beyond that, I respect Mr. Fitzgeral’s commentary on the human experience, of dreams and love. Gatsby’s love was monstrous and all-consuming, and yet it was this love that brought passion and excitement. The message is one of love, and the shaping force that it puts upon man. And dreams, an extension of love in a sense, and Gatsby’s ultimate and disastrous pursuit of them, represent man’s infinite pursuit of an impossible future that only becomes possible once we dream of it. Mr. Fitzgerald illustrates a human nature that chases a dream, a goal, even in tragedy, and that the pursuit itself is noble and righteous.

In conclusion, I will bring to attention two scenes that captured my attention and the intensity of Gatsby and his story. Foremost is where Gatsby sits outside the home of Tom and Daisy, worried about Daisy more than the murdered person. The other is his funeral, in which few significant figures other than Nick and Gatsby’s father came to pay their respects.  I believe it is the right of readers to interpret these scenes as they see fit, and those interpretations are the correct ones. I simply direct your attention to these two scenes because, for the simple fact that in my opinion, these are two scenes that strike and capture the human spirit.