Blindness is Not Greatness
The 20th century was the “Golden Age” and the “Jazz Age” in America. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered as the most beautiful and sad in the Jazz age, but it reflects the true society in that age. The tragic plot and beautiful language make this mysterious and fascinating novel to be one of the best creations in the 20th century. However, the title itself is already controversial, is Gatsby great? The argument has never stopped. In Nick Carraway’s opinion as the narrator, he absolutely has fantastic personality. “Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn” (Fitzgerald 2).
He changes his name, goes to big city to find his dream. Five years after, he even gives up his life for his lost love. Is this dream worthy enough for Gatsby to give up everything? As a matter of fact, it is just a dream. He does not want to believe that it is just a dream. I would say that is his blindness rather than greatness.
Five year ago, he had a brief but unforgettable love with Daisy. After him coming back, he still thinks that he can complete the incomplete love with Daisy even though she is already married. “‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ I ventured. ‘You can’t repeat the past’ ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can’ ” (Fitzgerald 110).
He wants to repeat the past, in order to fill the blankness of past five years. “He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his head” (Fitzgerald 110).
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All he hopes is looking for the time, going back to five years ago, skipping the affliction of yearning. In other word, he is too obsessed with the past memory.
According to some criticism, Gatsby chases too much, money, love, and the past time. However, he is just a man who immerses in his past memory. “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never love you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house—just as if it were five years ago” (Fitzgerald 109).
Just as if it is five years ago, he would do everything to skip these five years. He remembers every detail happens to Daisy and him. All he wants is bringing the beautiful past dream to the present time, and complete it with Daisy in the future.
Love could be permanent, but people could not. Daisy is no longer that girl wearing white dress, who throws the pearl necklace into the trashcan. She became acquisitive and sophisticated, knowing that she had better act that she does not anything even though her husband is cheating on her. She still flirts with men although she would not give up her family, and her marriage with Tom. “His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own…So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lip’s touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete” (Fitzgerald 111).
He still thinks that Daisy loves him. Even though Daisy just said few words to him, it is enough to bring Gatsby to the past again. But time witness how Daisy changes, and how the society changes. Her husband, her family, and her desire of wealth, what Daisy chooses for her life changes her. Probably she really did love him before, heart and soul, but after five years. The feeling of love has already been left by her in the past, from the moment she picks up her pearl necklace. The reality would be cruel to face, but he can never change it. Therefore, he chooses to block his sight, immersing in his past memory.
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Gatsby wants it to be timeless, but the time has already left him behind. That is the reason why he gets lost again, for Daisy. He tries to tell himself that Daisy still loves him. “‘Look at that,’ she whispered, and then after a moment: ‘I’d like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around’ ” (Fitzgerald 94).
Is Daisy being real or fake at this point? Apparently, he makes her think of all of their past memories, even though it is still hurtful after five years. However, it makes no difference to Gatsby. For him, his dream seems just in front of him, so close that he can grab it with his hand. But in fact, Daisy left their dream five years ago, when she chose the pearl necklace instead of his letter.
For Gatsby, he knows that there is a blurred and foggy window of truth in front of him, but he refuses to clean it. He would rather to trust that it is a dream. But ironically, he wants to make this dream come true although he realizes it is only a dream. “‘They’re such beautiful shirt’, she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirt before’ ” (Fitzgerald 92).
When Daisy cried in front of him just because he has more beautiful clothes than she does, does Gatsby feel nothing of it? I think the answer is no. “‘She’s got an indiscreet voice,’ I remarked. ‘It’s full of—’ I hesitated. ‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly” (Fitzgerald 92).
Although he knows that Daisy has already become an acquisitive girl who immerses into the money world. He still believes that she will love him back. Five years distance blinds him. “Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon” (Fitzgerald 93).
Nothing he wants more than Daisy saying ‘I love you’, in order to complete the broken dream to fill up the five-year blankness in his heart.
Maybe he thinks that he lives in happiness. But in fact, he just stays in his own world, feeling like his dream and goal is just in front of him. However, he can never catch his goal. In other words, he fails to bring the past memory to the present time. When he feel like he can almost catch his ‘green light’; when he stretches out his arm and try to catch it, and he can catch nothing. How miserable he will be, feeling that your goal is coming closer you, but actually, it is getting further and further. “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (Fitzgerald 180).
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So he chooses not to recognize the reality, living in his own world, paying everything of him. “The modesty of the demand shook me. He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths—so that he could ‘come over’ some afternoon to a stranger’s garden” (Fitzgerald 78).
One of his most admirable character is he will do everything for his dream. Time, money, whatever can make his dream come true. Even though readers will not think it is worthy. At least I do. “So we beat on, boats against current, born back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 180).
He wants to move forward to the future with Daisy. But unconsciously, blindness makes him go back to the past. Blindness makes him ‘great’, but also ruins him.
For readers, Gatsby is just one of those people who want to chase for their “American Dream”, but get lost in the past at last. Why Gatsby cannot reach his goal? It is because he cannot see the reality. He refuses to enable himself to let the past memory go. Love blinds his eyes. If he knows that the one he has been obsessed with is just the shell of wealth and fakeness. He would not lose his life, and his dream will no longer exist. If we want to make our dream come true—no matter what kind of dream we have, we must recognize the true reality—no matter how miserable that will be. At least, do not let anything blind your eyes.