TRAGIC TRAITS EMBROIDERED IN GEORGRAPHY IN F.

SCOTT

FITZGERADLS THE GREAT GATSBY

Francis Scott Fitzgerald in his famed novel The Great Gatsby made a significant

contribution to future generations as a social commentator of his time, helping us to better

comprehend 1920s America's social context. Through romantic story of a self-made

millionaire and his yearning for lost love, author gives us insight into the age of flourishing

economy, prohibition, increase in organized crime, omnipresent materialism and the lack of

morality. The main character, Jay Gatsby, serves as a metaphor for the decay of the American

Dream. As an inhabitant of the densely populated, urbanized East, he represents new social

class that embodies the American mythos of rising from rags to riches. In comparison to the

western rural landscapes and open spaces, that in a symbolic way represent freedom and

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escapism from the reality, East and especially New York area is a fast growing monster of

concrete and wires, full of never sleeping industrious men. During the 19th century, and

especially in the time of the California Gold Rush, hundreds of thousands of people went

from East to West, but at the beginning of the 20th century migration routes became opposite.

Even the microcosm of New York has become alienated place separated between districts

where aristocracy lives (East Egg), and those inhabited by newly rich people (West Egg). In

Fitzgerald's story constant struggle for social recognition and appreciation prompts people to

accumulate more wealth that will eventually become their curse. For decades many

individuals arrived to East in hope to earn some fortune. However, inflation of materialistic

ambitions led to the Great Depression and the U.S. economic downturn in the 1930s. People

lost their homes, jobs and everything they had went to ashes. Jay Gatsby also dreamt of the

East, but not because of the money but merely because of the love he wanted. As a romantic

individual living in the cynical age Gatsby did not stand a chance; his amorous character

became his tragic trait that put him six feet under. In the end it seems as if Fitzgerald is

telling us how neither solely money or love has necessary power to make one's life ideal,

because those are changeable states of luck, different but mutually dependant East and West,

ying and yang that give rise to each other in turn. The only constant is the middle, the valley

of ashes where reality buried underneath the waste of false expectations and illusions resides.

Luka Pejić

March 2009