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Great Gatsby Religion

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered by many as the greatest American novel and is his best known work. The novel explores many themes such as love, obsession, money and the American dream. This essay seeks to dissolve this dream and its depiction in the novel. Furthermore, the essay explores the almost religious nature of the dream and of the novel's titular character, Jay Gatsby. Whilst most of the countries of the old world were built on the basis of religion, the philosophy of the ancient Greeks (or in the case of East Asia the teachings of Confucius) or even nationalism from the age of enlightenment onwards, America was never homogenous in either of these. Right from the start, the country served as a patchwork of different …show more content…

This so-called prophet at first glance looks like the ideal of the dream come true- a young man who acquired obscene wealth seemingly through his own determination and shrewdness. However, as the novel plays out, the facade of the dream slowly starts to unravel. Nick's description of Gatsby as a "son of God" further plays into this idea of the ideal American and the prophet of the nation's dream. But Gatsby is far removed from any typical depiction of a god as most gods are depicted as deeply spiritual beings and Gatsby's obsession is rooted in the physical world and in materialistic possessions. If Gatsby truly were to be connected with a god, it would be "the God of material love" and one of immense greed. Even though the way Gatsby earned his riches isn't explicitly stated, the speed at which he gained his wealth and the fact that the novel is set in the era of the prohibition makes Gatsby being part of the bootlegging business a very likely possibility. Furthermore, Gatsby introducing Nick to the man who "fixed the World Series back in 1919“ Meyer Wolfsheim points to his shady …show more content…

Nick calls the Buchanans “careless people” who “smashed up things and creatures and retreated back into their money” perfectly encapsulates the flaws shown by them. Whilst the Buchanans are shown to be largely negative examples of the wealthy elite with Daisy being at fault for the deaths of two characters and Tom being an abuser, cheater and racist, the main catalyst for the events that occur in the novel, Gatsby himself, shows yet another negative side of the same elite. The Buchanans used the money that they have as a result of their backgrounds as something they will always have to fall back on and for Gatsby on the other his wealth serves as a means to an end, as something that will help him achieve anything he wants. Gatsby, believing that the money would be the key to reclaiming everything he lost and even “repeating the past” shows just how obsessed he is with materialistic possessions and how he himself believes that his wealth gives him transcendental

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Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy, a member of this privileged class, is a reflection of his desire to advance socially and obtain acceptance from the privileged classes. Tom Buchanan, a member of the Old Money, serves as a vehicle for Fitzgerald to stress the sense of entitlement that comes with being born into a well-off family. Tom embodies the arrogance and cruelty of the upper class, using his wealth and power to control and manipulate those around him. Fitzgerald also critiques the American Dream through the character of Gatsby, who’s despite all his effort he is unable to escape his lower-class trappings, suggesting that the pursuit of wealth and status can lead to moral decay and disillusionment. Gatsby's obsession with his past and his longing for the unattainable Daisy ultimately leads to his tragic demise.

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The Great Gatsby is a novel that discusses many issues around money in American society. A direct link to this is Daisy and Tom Buchanan, characters who represent the old money upper class. Throughout the story their true personality appears. The Buchanans’ are centered around wealth to the point that their relationship is built on money and class. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby the characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan convey the theme that when the foundation for a relationship is money in place of love the outcome is a hollow marriage.

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In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald narrates about power, deception, and wealth. In this story, it parades how the rich pillages on others who they believe are below them and the unending inquiry of wealth. Tom Buchanan is a character who is introduced as a man of wealth; he is a very cold man, who never smiles, never laughs, and is never content with what he has in life. His character contributes to the theme of the novel by displaying his personality as one whose social demeanor is interweaved with sexism and has no moral apprehension.

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It was ironic that even Nick, a person who was “inclined to reserve all judgment” (Fitzgerald 1), was able to see how money had made Tom and Daisy careless and lazy. Nick also notices that Daisy and Tom had disappeared right after Gatsby’s death. Daisy and Tom were wealthy enough to move out of Long Island, while they made everyone else solve the problem that they had left behind. It is easy for rich people to become weak and only focus on

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Furthermore, while Nick reflects on Gatsby’s past, he says Gatsby, “was a son of God- a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that- and he must be about his Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception, he was faithful to the end,” (62). The quote implies the reason for Gatsby’s falsified persona of success is that he is insecure about where he comes from. It is also because money alone does not bring the same status that inherited wealth does.

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From the surface, F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic, The Great Gatsby, avowed as the Great American Novel, presents itself as a story of hindered love, much like a Jazz Age Romeo and Juliet. While some components of the story revolve around love, at its core, the novel encapsulates an unquenchable yearning for the past and a poignant exploration of the American Dream's transience. The novel’s conclusion delves far back into the past; beyond the towers of Gatsby’s mansion he built to catch Daisy’s attention and beyond the red, white, and blue of the American flag, a “fresh, green breast of the new world” (180) awaits exploration. The land that “flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes” is the pinnacle of the American dream, with limitless potential and boundless echoes of success.

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Instead of following the American dream of ‘pursuing happiness’ Gatsby focuses on using his assets to bring consummation to an otherwise empty life. This perversion of the American dream serves only to improve his 'image ' to a society that initially rejects him when he is impoverished. It is Gatsby 's belief that wealth makes him a "son of God," a deity that carries out his "Father 's business" through the "vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty" (89) of possessing material objects irrelevant to happiness. To get these earthly treasures, he exploits the “Land of Opportunity” and dabbles in illegal activities, a practice akin to modern corporate scandals. The true purpose of the American dream is lost upon Gatsby, as it makes "no sound" of warning upon his conscience, fading into an omen that becomes "uncommunicable forever" (100).

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self .

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