“I’m sorry about the clock”: The significance of time in the Great Gatsby

This weekend was exciting for me, as I was reminded why I have developed such a strong passion for the Great Gatsby: somewhere in the radiant, masterfully concocted world that Fitzgerald built, there is some metaphor that I have not recognized yet; and it is this type of artistry, this suffocating stranglehold Fitzgerald has on his prose that keeps me coming back to the novel. I view the Great Gatsby as the definitive masterpiece of American literature, and like Gatsby’s smile, it is the type of work that I may “only come across four or five times in life”.

With that said, I’d like to share my newest revelation regarding a specific scene in the novel: when Gatsby is first reunited with Daisy and breaks Nick’s clock. As a disclaimer, I can not call this a self-revelation, as the idea was sparked by a book that I recently read on the Great Gatsby: Chronology, Composition, and Narrative Technique in the Great Gatsby, by Thomas A. Pendleton.

Also, for those who are unfamiliar with the scene, you can watch the movie version of it here (starts at 2:30):

When I first read the novel I thought very little of Gatsby’s blunder; I viewed it as sort of comic relief, and thought it was implemented to show how Gatsby’s cool, collective persona fades away when he is with Daisy. I thought it juxtaposed Gatsby’s character when he dealt with Daisy (clumsy and flustered) and Gatsby’s character when he dealt with every other character (cool, calm, collective) expertly, but I really didn’t see any other significance, which – looking back – was extremely naive of myself. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, themes that Fitzgerald touch on frequently is the permanence of the past and the significant of moving on in life. How I didn’t make the connection between Gatsby knocking over a clock, which is the physical representation of time, and these two themes absolutely bewilders me.

A major internal struggle that Gatsby faces throughout the novel is the inability to move on in life; Gatsby is convinced that he can erase the last five years of Daisy and Tom’s marriage, and continue his relationship with Daisy as if time hadn’t skipped a second since his last encounter with her five years ago. The quote that most perfectly elicits this struggle of Gatsby is as followed:

“Can’t repeat the past?” He cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”

So back to the clock scene.

Gatsby drops the clock when he is first reunited with Daisy. Given that fact, I believe it is accurate to infer that in that moment, for Jay Gatsby, time stopped; life as he knew it without Daisy suddenly ceased to exist, and it was time to start a new life, built on rekindled love and the ability to be with Daisy. As readers we know for Gatsby, it was not enough for Daisy to simply leave Tom and start a life with him: it was necessary for Daisy to dismiss her marriage with Tom and act as if the last 5 years never happened. Gatsby wanted to vaporize the idea that at any point of time in Daisy’s life, she actually loved Tom; and given other evidence from the text, it is logical to assume that Gatsby’s breaking of the clock represents this.

“I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,” he said, nodding determinedly. “She’ll see.”

However, what makes this scene so exciting is that I think it represents something completely different for the reader. For Gatsby I believe it represents his unrelenting obsession to recreate the past and dismiss the last five years as ever happening. For the reader, however, I believe the scene is meant to foreshadow the temporariness of Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship. One certainty of life is that it goes on. No matter what we do, or how hard we try, it is physically impossible to stop time from moving on. The clock continues to tick.

Gatsby drops the clock right before he and Daisy restart their relationship. The clock breaking is meant to signify this temporary relationship that is about to ensue. However, as I just stated, even when the clock breaks, time continues to drag on. Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship throughout the book is a short, non-permanent break from reality; a relationship that as readers we know will ultimately end, with life continuing on like nothing happened. Even when the clock is temporarily broken, we know that time is still ticking, life is still going on. Having the clock fall and break is Fitzgerald’s way of telling the reader, Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship is simply the clock breaking for a while. We can pretend it’s going to last, but eventually the reality of life is going to come crashing down. 

Sort of like a vacation to Disney World: you go with your family to a magical fantasy land where everything is perfect for a few days, but even when you’re there, real life is happening beyond those walls, and eventually you have to come back to it

Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship is like your trip to Disney Word; it’s amazing and magic; but in the end it’s just fantasy.

Time is still ticking, even if the clock is broken for a while.

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Notes

• I’m thoroughly enjoying Trimalchio, Fitzgerald’s first complete draft of the Great Gatsby
• GTFO registrar if I want to take Chaotic Dynamical Systems. BU schedule registration absolutely sucks and I’m going to write a strongly worded letter expressing my dissatisfaction
• I don’t look good in light blue pants

“It’s a favor Jay. Just a favor”

When Nick tells Gatsby he’s going to invite Daisy over for tea, and Gatsby offers a sideline job as an expression of gratitude, Mr. Carraway says my favorite quote in the entire movie:

“It’s a favor Jay. Just a favor”

The best part is that Gatsby is absolutely floored at the idea that Nick would do something for him simply out of kindness, without expecting anything in return. It’s so sad, that someone lives in such an artificial world that he simply can not believe that someone would come along and perform an act of kindness for no reason but good intention. And unfortunately, its a theme that is still very prevalent in the real world. 

Life today is often compared to life during the jazz age. We live in a world plagued by commercialism, where the dollar rules all, and as a result, members of society often believe success is merely a function of material wealth and societal status. Another glaring similarity between Fitzgerald’s 1920s and life today is the interaction of people.

Everyone has heard the quote, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, as if the main goal to meet and interact with people is to use them to progress in life later on. Just like the characters in the Great Gatsby, many people today use others for parties, money, and job opportunities. And unfortunately, as a society we sort of just accept this foundation for relationships: that it is our duty to provide our closest friends with some quantifiable or tangible benefit, as if friendship alone isn’t enough.

As a result, when people come along and genuinely enjoy doing good things for others, like Nick Carraway, we begin to question their motives. Like Gatsby, we can’t fathom that certain people would want to do something nice for us simply out of the kindness of their heart. And that’s really, really, really, god damn unfortunate. 

Everyone has value. Our job is not to exploit it, but to care for it and appreciate it, letting that person know they matter.

There are special people out there – people that enjoy helping others simply out of the kindness of their heart, and because it makes them feel good. Not everyone is a Daisy and mooches off of others, performing good deeds with only self interest in mine. Unfortunately, because there are so many Daisies, and not enough Nicks, that society has begun to view this act of doing good deeds for ultimate personal gain as just a natural part of moving up in life. We see it everywhere in life: people do community service to put it on a college application, do their bosses extraordinary favors to get a promotion.

The reality is: Doing good things does not make you a good person.

Motivation matters. Why are you doing the things you’re doing? Is it to put on a resume, or is it because you genuinely enjoy helping others. For the only time in your life, be a Nick Carraway; do good things as a favor. Be special. Be extraordinary. Volunteer at a place because it will make others smile.

Exemplified by Gatsby’s and Nick’s close friendship, doing good things because you genuinely care about the happiness of others is what will help build your closest and most special relationships. Not only that, but it will genuinely change society. Society has grown so accustomed to the artificiality of today’s world, that people are absolutely bewildered when someone does something good for no reason but to help others. These people are special, and don’t come along too often.

Change that.

So today, volunteer at a soup kitchen, visit a senior home and spend time with the residents, give some spare change to a homeless person, or simply hold a door open. Make someone’s day for absolute no reason. We can only realize the value of each other and ourselves when we begin to truly value the well-being of society as a whole.

Be Nick Carraway. Do something good.

Don’t worry about what others think of you: Great Gatsby Theme Analysis

Think back to middle school and try to recall how many assemblies you had about “being yourself”, “not giving into peer pressure”, and “not worrying about what others think”

Self Identity and the concept of being true to yourself are two major themes addressed by Fitzgerald in the Great Gatsby.

Part of the reason that the novel is so tragic and heartbreaking is that Gatsby had good intentions. Through all of his lying, parties, and stories about his past, Gatsby genuinely wanted everyone to like him.

Gatsby put on an alluring, larger than life persona to everyone he met, attempting to compensate for his younger years of “being a nobody”. To Gatsby, status was everything: wealth and lavish parties equated to love and friendship and approval by every important person in the world. For Nick, Gatsby’s “greatness” made New York his “golden, shimmering mirage”:

“Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge. Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder” – Nick Carraway

Gatsby believed that with wealth, fame, parties, and a grand persona – no matter how hollow – anything was possible. To Gatsby, approval by others indicated success in life, and that was all that mattered.

The irony of it all is that as readers we know from the start that Gatsby is not all that he advertises himself to be, and that the relationships he builds with every character, excluding Nick, are extremely shallow.

Think of the one person you know who perhaps displays a similarly grand persona on Facebook, where like in Gatsby’s world, we can filter our lives to put on the image that our life is exciting at all times. Now ask yourself how much you really know about that person, and if that person was in need of a favor, would you do it for him/her?

The lesson we should take away from Gatsby is that a life spent trying to impress others and obtain other’s approval is a waste. People spent time at Gatsby’s  house because they viewed Gatsby as an indicator of success of their own lives. However, after Gatsby passed away, not one of the thousands of people who guested his parties showed up to his funeral. The only person to show up to his funeral was Nick.

Think about that.

Not one person who Gatsby tried to impress showed up to his funeral. All of the people who liked him for his wealth, status, and perhaps ambiguity fled at the first site of inconvenience. Gatsby was obsessed with creating an illusion so spectacular that everyone would like him. But in the end, no one was there for him, except Nick. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people in real life like that; people who spend time with you and pay attention to you because like Gatsby, you provide some sort of value to their lives. But when you need something, they are the first to run for the woods.

The only person who was there for Gatsby in the end was Nick. And as we find out mid way through the book, Nick was the only character that knew the truth about Gatsby.

Nick didn’t care about Gatsby’s wealth, his parties, or his image. Nick cared about Gatsby for Gatsby. Unlike Gatsby’s relationship with all the others who went more MIA quicker than my suite mate (If you’re reading this, sorry Charron), Gatsby’s relationship with Nick was actually genuine and symbiotic. Both characters helped each other. It was not simply Gatsby guesting Nick at his parties or funding him financially.

The overarching theme here is be yourself. It sounds cheesy, but trust me: if Gatsby and all of his greatness couldn’t build genuine friendships with people, whatever image you try to put on certainly won’t work. The truth about life is that the people who are worth impressing and building relationships with are the ones you don’t need to try to impress in the first place.

You do not need to be deemed worthy by others. No one gives a shit how much money you have , what fraternity you’re in, what sick internship you have, or what your GPA is.

Don’t spend time worrying about what others think about you, because in the end, those who like you because of how impressive you are, aren’t going to be there when you need them the most. Spend time being true to yourself and true to others. Those are the people that you are going to be closest with. Those are the people that after a really shitty day you can turn to, and they won’t be “too busy” to deal with you.

There are 7 billion people in the world. Think about that for a minute. Seven. Billion. People. Unless you are literally Hitler, a few people are bound to like the true you.

Life is better spent with people. So unlike Gatsby, instead of trying to impress everyone, build close relationships with a few people who you know are going to be there for you in the end. Not for any other reason than because in the end, you’ll be happier.

Don’t chase a Daisy who only likes you for the value you provide for them. Otherwise, you’ll end up shot dead in a swimming pool by a mechanic with some unreal hair flow.

Ain’t nobody got time for that

Ranking the Morality of The Great Gatsby’s Characters

It was tough to figure out what topic to start with for this blog. After all, there’s just so much stuff in the Great Gatsby. It’s essentially impossible to find a perfect spot to dive into the novel for analysis.

So I figured I’d start out with the theme that I find most interesting: morality.

Simply put, every character in the Great Gatsby is immoral. There is not one character – even Nick, who is a self proclaimed judgement free narrator – who doesn’t engage in some kind of bad behavior. However, despite this fact, I think it is possible to place the (main) characters on a morality spectrum, which is what I would like to do.

The list will begin with the character I find most “bad”, for lack of a better word, and finish with who I believe is most “good”. Again, this is just my opinion, so feel free to disagree.

1. Tom Buchanan – I really struggled putting Tom, the novel’s main antagonist, at number one, because there are certain points throughout the novel where I empathize with him more so than any other character – specifically during the climax of the novel when he finally confronts Gatsby and shows some genuine feeling of care for Daisy. Unfortunately, Tom is also the doer of some of the most immoral, and senseless actions in the entire novel. Tom, most notably, takes advantage of, and encourages a depressed, crazed, Mr. Wilson to kill Gatsby, and then runs away from the entire situation between Daisy, himself, Myrtle, and Gatsby as if he was never a part of it in the first place. Furthermore, Tom is a merciless cheater on Daisy, and engages in such activity in a way that I believe is very different from most other characters. Not that cheating is ever justified, Tom does it not because he passionately loves someone other than Daisy, but simply because he can. Arguments can be made that Daisy cheated on Tom out of passion for Gatsby. Tom, however, seems intent on just doing whatever he pleases for no good reason at all. The reader is never given a sense that Tom actually loves Myrtle, and as Jordan implies early on in the book, Myrtle is not Tom’s only mistress. On a spectrum of adultery, Tom’s cheating is unequivocally near the top. Ultimately, while Tom doesn’t do anything immoral that is that different from any other character, his intentions are much more malicious. Tom doesn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason for his actions. He simply does, because he can.

2. Jay Gatsby – Before I even begin to dive into this haphazardly put together characterization of good old Jay, it must be said that Jay Gatsby is my favorite character in all of literature (and perhaps out of any movie or television show character). Gatsby is so interesting, enigmatic, and painfully likable that it kills me to put him this high on a list ranking how “bad” characters are. However, looking at the book objectively, it’s pretty evident that Gatsby certainly isn’t a stranger to immoral – and even illegal – activity. From a completely moral perspective, Gatsby knowingly goes after a married Daisy Buchanan, and essentially feels no remorse about breaking up a marriage. No matter how passion fueled his love is (which I do question sometimes, but Ill touch on that in a different post), adultery is still adultery. What differentiates his cheating with Daisy from Tom’s cheating is that most of the book allows us to infer that Gatsby truly loved Daisy, while Tom did not truly love Myrtle. Basically, Gatsby’s adultery (even though he’s not married, Daisy is) is a function of passion and love, while Tom’s adultery is a function of just bad character.

In addition, Gatsby is a self admitted liar and manipulator of people. We know that he put on a fake persona to attract Daisy and gain some ethos. We know that his business ventures weren’t just “confidential”. And honestly, lying isn’t too cool. Regardless if his lying did damage to anyone, the simple act of his lying shows that he has the capacity to manipulate people.

However, what I take into account most when it comes to the characterization of Gatsby’s morality is his illegal activity as a gangster and bootlegger. It’s no secret that Gatsby was involved in a lot of illegal activity; given the amount of money he had while knowing his poverty stricken past, the reader can only imagine the corruption Gatsby was involved in. And unfortunately, I think a lot of people who really like Gatsby as a person, and consider him more or less “moral”, fail to take into consideration this aspect of Gatsby’s life.

Last year I read a very interesting essay on the characterization of Gatsby, and a quote that stood out most to me was:

“Even though he’s a handsome, well-dressed gangster, he’s still a gangster”

That quote made me realize a lot about Gatsby. I believe that people, including myself, are attracted to Gatsby’s character because he’s advertised by Fitzgerald as an attractive, well dressed gentleman. Unfortunately, aesthetics speak very little of someone’s character, and I believe it is imperative for the analysis of such a gargantuan character to strip away this illusion that his clothes and charm provide, and judge Gatsby purely based off of his actions. After all, he was in the bootlegging and gangster game with Wolfsheim nearly every step of the way (so Wolfsheim proclaims), and Wolfsheim seems to take the cake for least liked characters. So, despite his good looks and mannerism, as readers we must take into account his immense involvement in what appears to be some really illegal activity, which is why he gets the number 2 spot on my list.

3. Daisy Buchanan – I think Daisy get’s a bad reputation by a lot of readers (mainly for people’s love for Jay). While Daisy is without doubt responsible for a lot of things: Myrtle’s death (accidental, but she’s still responsible), Gatsby’s death, being a gold digger, and a lot of the conflict throughout the book, it’s hard to say that all of these things were entirely her fault. An argument could be made that Tom had a bigger part in Gatsby’s death than did Daisy. It’s also easy to see how Gatsby helps Daisy escape consequences for killing Myrtle, making them jointly responsible for the hit and run.

Opponents of Daisy also bring up how she basically manipulated Gatsby and then fled away with Tom in the end. However, it is important for readers to take into consideration context and the time period the novel takes place in. The 1920s was a time for immense experimentation and morals within society diminished rapidly, and Daisy’s actions were not that far out of the realm of what was expected for wealthy women at the time. Furthermore, with regard to her cheating: the concept of “family life” diminished just as rapidly in the 1920s, and only peaked again during the late 1940s and 1950s after World War II. While I certainly was not alive during the 1920s, I do believe that her adultery was not any more outlandish than most others, like Jay and Tom.

Ultimately, while Daisy is by no means a good person, I do find it easier to empathize with her, and justify her behavior compared to Tom and Gatsby. She is not necessarily malicious in her intent like Tom, and hasn’t done anything that illegal like Jay has.

4. Nick Carraway – Nick is one of the most dull, yet frustratingly complex narrators and characters in the history of literature. From a morality standpoint, it’s pretty difficult to judge Nick. While I think anyone who has read the novel would say with confidence that he is at least more moral than Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy, its hard to call him moral as a whole. Nick essentially serves as the catalyst for Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, and while he doesn’t do anything particularly immoral, like cheating, bootlegging, or murder, he completely lets everyone else do it.

Nick is at the hotel when Tom is cheating on Daisy. Nick invites Daisy over tea with Gatsby knowing she is married with Tom. Nick keeps Gatsby’s secret regarding the car crash with Myrtle quiet. Put simply, Nick is the classic example of “doing nothing is still doing something”. While I wouldn’t go as far as saying that Nick encourages bad behavior by the rest of the characters, I would say he does absolutely nothing to stop the behavior, which is why I still would consider him immoral.

Additionally, we do see some very tasteful, and more importantly, genuine acts, from Nick throughout the novel. He is very nice to Daisy, and does do a favor for Jay without asking anything in return (which is special in this book). Furthermore, it is evident that he really does care about Gatsby, and would anything for Gatsby completely out of the nicety within his heart.

5. Jordan Baker – I love Jordan Baker. I think she’s one of Fitzgerald’s hidden gems character wise. Some readers don’t like her, and don’t find her significant because of how shallowly Fitzgerald builds her character; out of every character she is developed the least, and is involved in the least amount of scenes throughout the novel. I, on the other hand, like her so much because of those very reasons. However, that’s a different argument for a different time, when I will explain why I love her minimal development and what I think it represents.

Morality wise, I think (mostly) everyone would agree she’s pretty neutral. Yes, she does engage in some lying (nowhere near the magnitude of Gatsby), and is just as much a spectator to immoral actions as Nick; but as a whole, she ultimately contributes the least amount of “badness” to the novel. There isn’t much to say about her besides this. She’s pretty much the girl version of Nick, just not as significant. So she gets the “most moral” spot by default.

Ultimately, it is important to remember that every character in the novel is pretty immoral. I’m not saying Tom is the singular immoral character, and that Jordan is completely moral. I’m simply attempting to put the characters on a morality spectrum.

Thanks for reading!