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Great Gatsby Religion

1166 Words5 Pages

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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