The Role Of Idealism In The Great Gatsby

Idealism, or Seeing Life Through Rose Coloured Blinders

Viewing the world through rose coloured glasses will undeniably allow one to believe that they can never fail, and that all the universe exists solely to actualize their hopes and dreams -- but at what price? While idealism is among the most powerful of driving forces towards progress and innovation on earth, it can often lead one to forget to assess whether or not their dreams are safe, furthermore, practical. Nella Larsen and F. Scott Fitzgerald in their novels Passing and The Great Gatsby respectively, both explore great tragedies inflicted by main characters with their heads too far invested in a dream to understand that their chosen lifestyles are neither realistic nor safe. Characters

Gatsby lives with the dream of reinstating a past he once shared with the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. His efforts to re-woo her extend those of any normal person; he forges a livelihood as a bootlegger during the prohibition, buys a gaudy house in New York’s West Egg (directly across the bay from Daisy’s in prestigous East Egg), and even attempts to pursue an affair with Daisy, who is married to the brutish and presumably abusive Tom Buchanan. In all of these acts to attempt to live a life that he was clearly not cut out for, Gatsby remains wholly oblivious to the details that sell out the fact that he is an outsider within this life he’s made for himself solely to gain the attention of Daisy. The character, so-called “Owl Eyes”, the large figure of wisdom in the novel remarks on Gatsby’s impressive collection of books; “‘See!’ he cried triumphantly. ‘It's a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism!’” (Fitzgerald 46), after he had given the library a closer inspection upon initially believing the books to be merely empty cardboard boxes. It is a decadent display of Gatsby’s wealth, of course, but, Owl Eyes finds, “‘[he] didn’t cut the pages’” (Fitzgerald 46), meaning he never read the books. Gatsby has the problem of viewing life on a purely surface level dimension. This will go on to cause him greater

This is precisely what readers have found to be within F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Nella Larsen’s Passing. The main characters of either novel are inarguably idealists, and consequently find themselves living lives that are neither realistic, nor appropriate and subsequently pay the highest price for their inability to think or see in realistic terms. H.L. Mencken once described the idealist as “one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it makes a better soup”, perfectly depicting the jeopardy that arises as a result of their unawareness. The question will ever remain; is it better to have seen the beast that is reality for all of it’s ugly truth, or to protect one’s peace of mind behind a pair of rose coloured glasses? Either will bring forth peril, but which choice holds the heavier