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    Judith Fetterly On - The Great Gatsby - PDF

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    Vicky Diez Rey

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    THREE THE GREAT GATSBY Fitzgerald’s droit de seigneur for male visory. nA Farewell Arms, the tealiztion of romantic love covers and diguises howl, in The Great Gay, the to Stmotions coexist and are coeqal. Like most of F. Scot Flugeral’s work, Te Gret Gait x spun out upon the {wittemotionl ipules of romanticem and moral indig- 2 Fagerads dt de segneur 1s ration. But unlike his earlier fetion, The Great Gatsby resents a complex vision of the interrelation hence the ‘vo impulses, and its final meaning resides in an wider standing of the nature of that relationship. ‘That women are the focus of both emotions is a primary hey to this Understanding. Inthe archetypal American experience of romantic nostalgia, in which the sense of wonder i ints ‘mately and instantly coupled withthe sense of los, wenren are the symbolic counters. es hardly irrelevant tot the Garraway/Fitagerald vision of a leet Ameria is 30 elearly linked to Gatsby’s vision of Daisy, for in the male mind, hich is at once Gatsby, Carraway, and Fagerald, the i. pulse to wonder is instinctively asacited with the image ‘of woman, and the ensuing gambis ofthe romantic imag ‘nation ae played outin female metaphors In this able ot ‘he New World in which Gatsby is the incarnation of the American dreamer and his history is the history of the "American dream,’ its Daisy herself whois Arnica, the “fresh green breast ofthe new world In “lege XIX" John Donne invokes the sense of wor Ader associated with the discovery of America ("Oy ‘Americal my newfound land") to describe hs emotion ot seeing his mistress at her moment of “full nakedness"; in The Great Gutsy Fitzgerald reverses the process and by close scrutiny of his mistress reveals America tobe bite whose green breast “once pandered in whispers to the last. and greatest of all human dreams” Both the vense of won. ler and the sense of loss are associated with women, ad ‘women are the object of the novels moral indignation jst as they are the object ofits romanticism. Thus, the pater which best defines dhe central ation of The Grew Gatsby is ‘that of investmenddivestment, through which the golden irl is revealed o be a common weed and the fresh green breast of the new world turns pander to men's dreams, feeding them not on the mill of wonder but on the fou dus of bootleg uo yn verry i WeIRRY a Sp vEN ung Jog? 4 ror] 7 MGT Mtl: Eby “PUL % Tie pry ™ “Tue Gasar Garsny ” He went er house, a it wich ter oes om Co {BSyor then aloe, Keamased ihe had never ben TEN ena howe before. Buc wht gave am a of ited imenky ns ht Day Hed tase a Re Saige myer atu ys in of bean Teen bef and col has other bedrooms, 8) “erat ies lg place though coridors and apne dh wee nt tasty ad id aay alee 1 MEP enand being an ele of ths years Unising matorcare so of dances whose Bowers were Torey withered ious cats thinks of Day in elation to the objets tat wor Sea hee tndeeds he cannot separate his vison of her Rom ks vson of the howe in which she Hier forthe tte gui ur of bres intensity” nox fom the ree Ey tes there but fom the Fac tha he ee Toe ar Dany so at home i thi ch word from thats heh excluded overwicini Gatsby. She becomes Titan nhs mind with hat house and that worl, an der com repretnt for hin life of romantic ‘is commenmurte with hs wi inaginings. Day eras did eigen 8 for Gasby the house of romance which he can only enter ‘rough her But Daisy does not simply represent or incarnate that magical world Gatsby desires; she is herself the ultimate object init Its she for whom men compete, and possess: ing her isthe clearest sign that one has made ic into that ‘magical world, Gatsby's desire for Daisy iv enhanced bythe fact that she ithe object ofthe desires of so many other men: “It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes" (p. 148) “Theie desire ratifies his sense of her symbolic significance, ‘That Daisy isthe most expensive tem on the market is point Tom makes when he gives her on the night before hey are married a suing of pearls valued at $350,000, Daity that which money exists to buy; her presence both indicates the fact of money and gives point to its poses Son. Having her maker Tom Buchanan's house in East Egg finished and “right; not having her makes Gatsby's ‘mansion in West Eg incomplete and “wrong” It isnot surprising, then, that Daisy's meaning should erystallie for Gatsby, and for Nick, atound the perception that her twice is fll of money. One cam only wonder that i tok, them s0 long to formulate the obvious, ‘But money is never juse money tothe imagination that made a fetish of being rich: “that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell ini, the jingle of i, the cymbals song oft. High ina white palace the kings daughter, the golden gil” (p. 120)- Money is coin of the realm of romance, and the golden get is valued not just because she Drovides ‘access to the kings palace or because she is ex pensive. She i valued as well for the connotations that shimmer in the words “high” and “white”—a rarefied ingtlom, pure and fre, where the imagination reigns slid by the ashy wasteland ofthe real world and romps lke the mind of God. The high white palace isan analogue for Gatsby’s"Seert place above the toes” from whic he 6 “Tur Grear Gareny ‘an look down on the world and “suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder”; and Daisy herself becomes, af the metaphors suggest, che symbol oF the posibilices for wonder that his imagination creates (p na) ‘The pervasive spatial metaphor, however, reveals an- ‘other aspect of the golden gil crucial to her hold on the impersonality ofthe romantic imagination, She is hard to set; she has to be worked for, dragons must be fought, fastles penetrated, and walls aed Amd the harder she is to get the more she is valued, because the quest for and possession of her gives the pitk-wuited knight his identity. When Gatsby weds “his nutterable visions” to Daisy's “perishable breath” and makes her his holy gral, she bee comes the organizing point of his existence, providing him with a structure that determines what he wil do and who he wil be, She becomes his access to a certain sel-image “he wanted to recover something, some idea of bimsell perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy” (P. 114) tis ‘hrough Daisy chat Gatsby acquires the image of himself as {he falthfl unto death the one for whom time and change ‘mean nothing, whose love is pure Rame that feeds upon and fires itself: Iis through het that he realizes himself the posture of the dedicated lover who reads a Chicago cewspaper for five years in the hope simply of eating a flimpse of her name. Is for her that he accomplishes the heroic feat of making himself into a millinaie, and itis for her that he builds his palace in West Egg. This investment of elf Jai mean of course, hat Gatsby needs Dany validate i Since everything done forker, she mls teens as invesmcnt in het and she must provide a response commensurate toi. The ritual of validation isthe last of the symbolic functions Daisy performs for Gatsby. Gatsby will have his great re tunion with Daisy only at hi house o, if thats impossible, then next door toi, for he dacs not wish to see her but rather for her to see what he has done for her, as only Fiagerale's dot de sincur n through hier eyes will his vision of himself be made real The same implivit demand is there when he spills out be, fore her his wealth of gorgeous shirts: they are deployed to ‘act tribute from her. Ite no wonder nat Day cree What response could possibly be adequate to this denon stration? er tears are an understandable reaction at once to the pathos inthe demonstration and to the pressure on her to be valuable enough to validate the identity so pa, Fully see before her, But tis impossible for anyone 1 be this valuable, and 30 Daisy is inevitably inadequate to Gatsbys vision, Daisy cant help but fail Gatsby, because such failure i inherent ithe terms of his ques; or to put it in terns ofthe pater fs developing, the invesiment ofthe romante imagination is prelude to the divestment of moral indignation because ‘the one eeates the conditions for the other. Gatsby's "un. ltterable visions” have, afterall, been quite conaously wed to Daisy’s “perishable breath” The disparity between object and investment could hardly be more obviows ‘Thus, possession of Daisy is necesarily accompanied by & sense of diminishment As L wet overt ay good:by Isa thatthe expression of bewilderment had come back ino Gaby face thosgha fain doube had oecutred to itn as to the quiy of hc breseat happiness Amos five year: There mus have bere moments even thi afternoon when Daisy tabled short of his dreamt through her on fal bu because ofthe colossal vialty of his lsson. I had gone beyond hen Be, Yond evrything. He had thrown himself to wih sore Sve pasion, adding co ie all she time, decking out wah very bright feather that drfed his way. No motto fre freshness can challenge whats tna wil store up ins thon here 97) In its analysis of the romantic imagination, The Great assy reveals that the romantic potential of any. object ‘depends on its inaccessibility (surely the Tact that Gatsby 7 ‘Tae Guear Garsny has made his fortune from prohibition is one of the mest builiant touches of the novel) Gatsby's partis seen from Nick’ cottage are one thing and Gatsby's parties when one ina them are another; inside, Myrtle's apartment i sordid ‘chaos, but outside, looking up, the light in her window ‘suggests “the inexhanstible varcty of lif"; Daisy viewed from the outside as an abject eo be possessed is one thin. and Daisy confronted as 3 person is quite another, for desire depends on impediment, Indeed, Daisy has ‘symbolic power precisely because she suggests that which ‘anmot be possessed atthe same dime thet she excites so intensely the desire to possess, Redoleut of yesterdays ae! {tomorrows but never of todays, her voice exudes "prot {se that she has done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there mere gay, exciting things hovering in the ‘ext hour” (pp. g-10). When camtronted withthe present, she can only ery petulantly,"What do people plan? and" always watch forthe longest day inthe year and then mist it" (p12). As a creature of the present, Daisy is nothing for Daisy possessed ix Daisy lost. mn a leer to Edmund Wilson about The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald described the "BIG FAULT” in the book: -L iave no account (and had no feling about or knowledge ‘of the emotional reladons between Gatsby and Day fron the time of their reunion tothe catastrophe" But surely, far from being a faut, chis omission defies the meaning ofthe novel—that meaning which a lithe later in the same lewter the author says has cluded anost ofthe novels read 1s For the truth ofthe matter is that nothing is less Tele ‘ant to this love story than the details of the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. There are no emotional rela. ‘ions between them to give an account of; there is only at ‘motional relation between Gatsby arid his “unudtersble visions," of which Daisy i the unviting symbol who comes into existence only at the moment when his lips touch reates her asthe incarnation of himself. And inthis story, agers dot de sinew 19 which is preeminently the fable of a past that is future snd 2 future that ia past, nothing could be farther from is point chan an attempt to documenta present. Its con- ‘cern ie with the experience of longing ad the sense of Torta romantic readiness for the future and a romantic nostalgia forthe pas. ‘The patern of invexmenvidivesment that dominates the structure of The Great Gaby x nvoke bythe language Nick chootes to imagine Gash’ lat moments alive “He trust have looked pat an nail ay through igh thing eaves and shivered as be found what a grote thing arose i" (p. 162), Investment makes drexnent Jnerable, The exciton of expectations brings i wake an exseerbated vente of (aut, ada rove becomce gro. terque Beeause one has expected ft to be more that 2 ower, At the bear of the romantic imagination b the need fora sense of bat. In order eo understand thi pa ‘Euan eco of fons we mat examine the otker major pattern in the book aivantagldsadvanage ands con: Comic questions of powers The Grat Cay 1 book Sout power, and the romantic investment and indignant dinesument of women isan aspec of and mask forthe Struggle for power between nen which subject ‘Guay hasan tnnense need 10 “erve” Hi representa tive posture fe that of the ot, gliding Imperceptbly and tountlly mong gests who cannot even thank hin be Cause most of them dont know who he Such a dBpaiy Fetwecn giving and geting i worth focusing oa. Whe Gatsby may give hs partes inthe hopes that Daly or fomeone who knows her wil drop tn, the role of fot i Central to hs personaly. Gaby operates from a need to w “Tie Great Gansov placate, a need to make sure that no one has a grudge Against im, and that he never ower anybody anything When an unknown woman tears her dress s¢ one of his parties, she receives “inside of a week” a package with a few evening gowa init When Nick arranges the meeting with Daisy, he is offered in return for this minor service the posibity fa fortune, When ane ofthe womnen atone of his parties says, “he doesn’t want any trouble with ay thd” she has put her finger om Gaetby. What he wants is the image of the perfect host, bidding farewel to satished ‘guess from the top of his sare in magaificent isolation, ‘Behind this need to assume the posture of the world’s servant, the magnificent giver who is above and beyond the need for service in retin, Gatby's conviction that in spite of his wealth he is tolerated inthe world of Toms ad Daisys by a grace for which he can compensate only by an ‘excess of service. His definition of himself afer alli iat ‘of the interloper par excellence who took Daisy "because the had mo real right co touch her hand” (p. 149). When Gatsby firsts meets Daisy, his positon in relation to her it fone of disadvantage, and his romantic investment in het Brows out of his perception of himself as the excluded Dutsider and his vision of her as the privileged insider "She was the Bre "nice girl he had ever haown. in various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people, but always with indiscernible barbed wire be- tween" (p. 148). Daisy represents for Gatsby an ulimate position of advantage: “[e] was overwhelaingly aware of Daisy, gleaming like silver, sife and proud above the not struges of the poor” (p- #50) ‘The sense of disidvantage, of being outside the rick house and the vich life nto which the rich git has vanished and of realizing the need to ge that rch gi ifone i going to get that house and that life, has, however, undercut rents of hostility. Yet this hostility never surfaces in Gatsby Is Nick who registers the emotions implicit in Gatsby's Fingers’ droit de eigewr a experience and psychology that Gatsby himself could not express without losing the wntef-consciousness which saves him from the moral indicement consuming the rest. ot his world. The strategic brilliance of The Great Gay es in this division of the psychological action of investment divestment between Gatsby and Nick Itisthis strategy that allows Fitzgerald to eat his cake and have it to. Nick and Gatsby are, of course, not opposites but analogues: the similarities between them are fnsistent enough to make us aware of their shared identity. Central here is their mutual need to appear at an advantage be- Lind which bes shared sense of disadvantage, The an- portance for Nick of appeating at an advantage is seen it the way he chooses to begin his narrative. Nick i rediately explaina tous that hei tolerant becase of sone audvice his father once gave him: "Whenever you feel like ‘riticizng anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that You've had.” While his fathers advice seems to open up areas of tolerance for those who are les advantaged, it ale provides Nick with the rationale for immense anger at those who seem more advantaged. And as we soon begin to doubt Nicks tolerance, so-we begin to suspect his inital self presentation and to discover that, like Gatsby, his true Sense of himtll that of the disadvantaged outsider, This is surely one of the meanings of Nick's statement that his has been a story of the West~of people not at home, reat- ing to a world vshore codes and structures they don't understand. But even within this group of Westerners, ll ‘of whom are at some disadvantage inthe East, Nick seems to fel uniquely disadvantaged. His socal awioeardness is apparent in the cwelve lemon cakes he provides for Cats bys reunion and in the queer behavior of the old Finn he ‘employs to assist him—a striking contrast to the grace and tdegance of Daisy's home, complete with butler, where Nick confesses, "Vou make me feel uncivilized, Daisy" (p 8 Tie Guear Gavan 19) In the midst of potentially explosive situations it i [Nick who feels the awkwardness and who ties to maintain the patina of convention in defiance of the raw emotions around him. Indeed, in almost every instance of social interaction, Nick appears tbe awkward, out of place. and ‘uncomfortable The connection between Nick's sense of dissdvantage nd his identification with Gatsby is made explick at one point in the book. In explaining the reasons for is ot having seen Gatsby fora period of time during the si ‘mer, be 339s, "Mostly I wat in New York, routing around with Jordan and trying to ingratnte myself with her senile atunt™but finally T went over to his house one Sunday afternoon” (p. 108). Nick then describes the scete which wok place that afternoon when a casual attendant at one (of Gatsby’s parties brought Tom Buchanan infor a drink, The point of Nick's account isto record at once Gatsby's touching "readiness the rudeness of Tom and his friends and his own sense of outrage at Gataby's humiliation Nick’ fierceness is the result of identification with Gatsby, for Gatsby, of course, does not how that anything has hnappened. Buc Nick eat sand the Wea that Mrs, Sloane, despite her invitation, doesnt really want Gatsby to cine to dinner, because he can't stand the idea of himelf tot ting ater Jordan. Thus, inking on the stance of Gatsby's defender against the insults of the workd (TM get some- body for you, Gatsby. Don’t worry, Jost erust me aad 11 ‘et somebody for you"), Nick is symbolically seeking to avenge his own sense of insult and to adjust the balance of ower a lie ‘What is striking about the scene discused above is ts conjunction 30 seemingly casual (but thi isa book which ‘depends considerably on a series of seemingly casual con junctions) of Gatsby's humiliation and Nick's relation 10 Jordan. The nature of the connection that The Great Gtsly reveals between a male sense of disadvantage and ates ‘tegeras drit de seignur as toward women i perhaps best understood ifwe examine a comment Hlagerald mace in recording the profound ef fect on him of being a poor boy trying to win bis rich gt, Zelda: “I have never been able to stop wondering where ‘ny Bends money came from, nor to op thinking that at fone dine a sort of dai de seigneur might have been exer ised to give one of them my gitl”® The burden of this ‘commenti the poor boy's powerlessness, and this power: lessnes is registered most leary through the disposal of his gel. When men invest women with the significance of ‘ultimate possessions they make them the prime counters in their power games with each other. Thus, women, who have themselves no actual power, become symbolic of the power of moneyed men; and while the rel enemy in the passage above i the writer's “fiends” i isthe girl who becomes the repository for the animus of the disadvan. taged male The epigraph for The Great Gatsby provides an image of the connection between the structures of romantic love and the question of power: ‘Then wear the gold at, if that will move her: Ir you ean bounce high, bounce For her too “Till she cry "Lover, gold-hated, high-bouncing lover, must ave you!” “The drama here isa drama of power, and the lesson is how to move one's self intoa position of advantage. Its a lesson [Nick earns well ant provides the patter or much of his lchavior. Implicit inthe epigraph isthe point that women ‘only appear to be immovable, non-appetitie; they only ap pear to have the advantage. In fact, they can be made to fry and to reveal a driving appettive necessity one & willing to play the gold-hated lover. Even ifthe part Sometimes that ofa fol, decorated and gyrating, who trots round and ingratiates himself, iis worth it because the oo “Te Gaear Garsnv ret resounding aarage While Gay plas dhe Dam of the gle hover Rick arcs and ys ou the power game le preesned conse, Ione ofthe cr cens inthe ns when Nek comer loa Eagtovt Tom and aby, ear sens demons sean ofhow Nick opr wae ber) Toms por ‘con of Duby sea the yea in i effon Yo Imprem Nick ws sats The dein o her eho ndintervenes ihe deep ther btn igo ing her porton atthe lsinavefersshing fom uchanatreaabishment The scene on which Nek tetra to ea seme! tc oy hie tbe reat titacordingh sang movonls ts Orchsrator cma hs the wndowe nhs bors Bai ema abou big prayed wih app tone night of the scum: ls Niko paraacd Sed Sts advange in the proce of Be ‘oak para the kof immotiy tt Daoy puso herp oto extern hn de ss ost spre ino mureuring an spongy or faving darted her by coming (One mht tie there of te ene a Mek rae for hing Scr aed in th oon Shay afte To brings ie balloons down earth by stating the mvlow, Dy reas her paras Tong “hough's mormurta Ntk the nea bet gee ang tryst hee ovowly fet doy the mae Dat vce, Nick never ee compete To mc ton houghn patentee tat "ve heard td Days mmr war onto make peopl fen tomar Be Becvnt cic that mae & no less hari” 9) Br of couse, te eniian fm eleven of Nek oul meni so indeed dot ake ay Tos ‘Baring for pln tat te ay of her ke S509 Seti pon node gin sage gerald de signa as {At dinner Jordan and Daisy “talked... with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was 2 ‘ool a their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the alnence ofall dese. They were here, and they accepted ‘Tom and me, making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain oF to be entertained” (pp. 113). But this dis- Interest this cool superiority in the presence of men is only an appearance. A moment after Nick makes ths observa- tion the phone rings, bringing the ugly inusion of Tom's ‘mistress into the apparent order of Das’ life and dislodg: ing her at once from her table and her pose. Then Jordan, ‘who could barely turn her head to acknowledge Nick's pretence i suddenly alert; she sts up, telling Nick to be {qulet as she leans forward to hear what is happening, Im- ‘mobility is revealed as pose and the pose as power politics ‘Alicr dinner Nick bas a te & le with Daiay on the porch. In this confessional scene Nick cast inthe role of ‘Sympathetic listener, while Daisy speaks of her past with Tom: But atthe precte moment when Nick sin danger of toeing moved by Daisy's account of her suffering, "her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my atention, my belie” (28). Uneasy, he looks up, and, sure enough, he dis: ‘overs in the “absolute smirkom her lovely face" hati has all been “a trick of some sort to exact a contibutary emor {on from me" (p. 18). The effec of ths elaborate unmask ing of Daisy is to discount her reliability ax an interpreter of her own experience and to ensure that she wil have m0 ‘ims on our sympathy. Her suffering is reduced to a pose, and her vision of what it means to be born female i Alefined asa gimmick to exact tribute, Daisy may ery over (Gatsby's shirts but Nic han seen to that no tears wl be shed over her. Nick's divesting mentality operates on Daisy's invested image to expose her for what she “relly” is—common, as her name implies. Very carefully, he removes the petals thac constitute her alle undl there i nothing left but & 86 “Tue Guaar-Garsey denuded center. The terms Nick uses to describe Daisy Insist on her essential nothingness, Like the frosted wedding-cake ceiling under which she is fist discovered, Daisy's tlk is chater, banter, sugared ait. Nick makes ‘quite lear that one never lent to what Daisy says. Like her face, her voce is disembodied and in Nick's eyes she always flutters, Analogously, she is for Nick atexual Gatsby i not the only ome who is surprised by the appear= ance of her child. Thus, what forthe tavesting imagination isa central ingredient in its obsession —the whiteness of the golden gir, her lack of physieal substance, her ably to project herself entirely ax image—becomes for the di- vesting eye a central source of its indictment. Purity be ‘comes asexuality becomes sterility, and Daisy revealed to be the true inhabitant ofthe wasteland whose casual act of murder rips open the breast of possiblity in the new world, When Gatsby weds his visions to her image, tis but 4 prelude, like the "Wedding March” overheard in the hotel on that fateful afiernoon, to sterility and death, And when Nick reurns to West Fag after his evening with Tom and Daisy to discover Gatsby stretching out his arms toward the green light a the end of ber dack, ane can feel ‘only irony, pity, and perhaps even borsor at the fact that the object of such adoration is Dainy Fay Buchan. HT we wish an iconographie tool for comprehending the dial ‘impulses that play upon Daisy in The Great Gatsy and form lis major psychological action, we need only compare our first view of her with our last: from the high hall, the +osj-colored and agile room where she dominates as the tulimate ornament, the incarnation of men's dreams, she descends to the kitchen pantry, where she si with Tom in conspiratorial silence o¥er a plate of cold chicken and a Bottle of ale. She has indeed become the foul dust that fous in Gatsby's wake itrgeraes rit de signer sr Ww Nick’ relation to Jordan i a less complex version of his relation to Daisy. Although Jordan is ofthe same das as Daisy and ha the same image-making potential (1 knexe now why her face was famiiat—is pleasing contemptuous ‘xpression had looked out st me from many rotogravure Petures ofthe sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs And Palm Beach” [p. 19), Nick never invests Jordan as Gatsby invests Daisy. ‘Thus, the focus of Nick's relation to Jordan is on that part of romance which is divestment ‘And, concomitantly, the power struggle of advantage dis advantage that les behind the need to divest predominates fo that Nick's inceraction with Jordan is stuctured almost centtely in terms of power. “Throughout 4 major part of their relationship, Nick's position in relation to Jordan can be defined as one of Gisudvantage. The disastrous frst encounter, when he feels himsell on the verge of apologizing to her for exis ing, b followed by Nick’ attendance at Gatsby's part where Jordan “saves” him from a skuation so uncomfort. tle that he fay decided the only way out is t0 get hopelessly drunk. The status Jordan provides for him at the party persists when he begins to go around sith her and ir "fattened because everyone knows her name, Then later he confesses that she is security for him—she makes the decade of his thirties look less lonely. Nick is under- ‘andaby rather vague in trying to define bis Felings for Jordan; they do not hear much looking into. From that fret moment, when her example of “complete self- slfcency draws a stunned tibute” from him, he has resisted the paying ofthat tribute, has resented her advane tage over him, snd has sought to destroy her pose. Later in the evening that he frst meets Jordan, he quite consciously plants the Bint, just as he did with Dairy, that theve is omething wrong with her: I had heard some story of her 88 “Tue Great Garsov 0, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had for- sotien long ago” (p- 19). Aga, Nick's ar of easualness, of !Nolerance immune to wnpleasant innuendoes, should not ‘mislead us. When he finally discovers what i wrong with Jordan, it proves to be, despite his assurances to the con- ‘rary, of the utmost importance “The bored aught face that she earned to the world con fealed something-mostaffectaions conceal something ‘Srentaly een though they don't in the Beginning and fe dy I found what twas» Jordan Baker iaincvely Sided clever, shrew men, ad now Fane that this wat because she feltsater oa plane where any divergence fom ode would be though impossible She was incuraby di honest She wasnt abe to endure being x duadramtage nds given ths unvilingnesy, I suppose she bd begun dea ing in subterfuges whem abe wat very young in onder to -eep that col, sasolent sale turned to the World and yet sauy the demands of her hard, jaunty bod) (pp. 5859) ‘This analysis of Jordan's character works well in Nicks dlsign of divesting Jordan's image ofits potency and of ‘eablishing an advantage in relation to her. Fist, there is the revelation, as with Daisy, that Jordan's image of cool ‘superiority, immovable impersonality isa fagade, an affec- lation designed to cover ravenous needs and the appeti- tiveness of her hard, jaunty body. Then there isthe even tore important revelation that this facade fas been com sHructed because Jordan is unable to endure being at a ‘isadvantage. Thus the source of the image which const tes Jordan's advantage in relation to Nick is revealed to be a sense of disadvantage so massive that she lies pathologically in order to maintain i But Nick does not stop his process of divestment here, for he chooses to follow Up his “analysis” of Jordan's char. acter by referring o an incident that, unless one wnder- Stands Nick's motive, seems tocally irrelevant to what has Flagera's dot de signer 0 one before: “Ie was on the same house-party that we had {curious conversation about driving a ear It started be: ‘ruse she passed so close to some workmen that our fender Hicked a button on one man's coat (p. 59). Given the plot ‘of this novel, to reveal that someone ia careless driver i to identify her aya potential murderer Like Daisy, Jordan isdefined atone who uses the status and power synbolized ‘throughout the novel by the mage of the automobile for her own needs nd pleasures, careless and indifferent to the existence of anyone else. And thus, ike Daisy, Jordan takes her place in the foul dst that floats in the wake of Gasby's death ‘Nick's analysis of Jordan reveals, of course, as much, if ‘not more, about him than it does about her, and we are Jjstfed if we exanine im in the light of his dictuza about the function of alfectations, For surely Nick's sell- ‘deprecation (Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, ‘htewd men’) and hie constant air of tolerant casualness fre as much an affectation a is Jordan's bored, haughty face, And what Nicks affectation covers i, Hot too suspris- ingly, prectely that need which he sees as the source of Jordan's fagade, He cannot bear to be ata disadvantage and so he wile; "It made no difference to me. Dishonesty ina woman is 2 ching you never blame deeply—1 was ‘asually sorry, and then I forgot” (p. 59)- But Nick does fot forget, and he does blame, and the one place where Ashonesty makes a difference to him isin a woman. Nick’ final scene with Jordan isa tur de force of the struggle for advantage, In recounting his last meeting with her, Nick divests Jordan's image of any poteney it might sill have, He remembers thinking that "she looked like a food illustration, her cin raised ltd jaunty her hair the color of an aucun leaf her face the same brown tit tthe fingerless glove on her knee" (p. 178). This descrip tion i eaniniscent of his initial vision of her, bu thee is tui difference to mark the shit that has occurred inthe % “Tw Grear Garsnv balance of power beeween them since then. This time her chin is aized only a ile jaantly, and she x reduced to the level of 2 good illstracon, a sue form of devaluation that suggests at once her affectation, her unreaity, and her easy clasication, and hence dismissal, a8 4 type When Nick has finished saying what he has wo say to puthis lfein order, jordan tells him, “without comment," that she is engaged to someone cee. Nick immediately doubts her, assuming that she i Tying ie order to gain an advantage, bute pretends o be surprised; after thinking for a mo- rent that perhaps he las made a mistake in not marrying Jordan, he realizes he has been correct in his assessment of hherthasn' he just had proof of i) and gets up to say good-bye. A this poine, Jordan invokes the inevitable driv- Ing metaphor in the hope of gaining 3 final advantage, conly to have it backfie: "You sid a bad driver was only Safe until she met another bad driver? Well, met another Dad driver, didn't 1? 1 mean it was careless of me to make seh a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an hones straightforward person. I thought it was your scert pride." ‘Im thirty) 1 sid. ‘Tm five years too old to le to myself and call # honor!” (p. 179). Nick, a8 always, hat the Last ‘word, and that last word inthis charade of deceptions it the witmate lie, for Nick implies that out of her sense of disadvantage Jordan stoops to the slander of calling him dishonest Advancage, Mr Carraway: ‘The relationship between the patern of investment di vestment and that of advantageldsadvantage isin some ways most interestingly demonstrated in Fitzgerald's treatment of Myrde Wion. If Jordan is Dan's parallel, Myrtle is her opposite, Place ina setting as far ax posible Fageral’s droit de signeur a from the realm where Daisy seigns as ultimate orna- ment—no white palace for her but a set of rooms thove a garage in the middle of the wasteland-—Myrde is rither a nice gil nor a golden git. She is cheap, she is vulgar, she is poor, and she is definitely lower class. Her ‘oatse voice contains no charming murmurs oF magical promises, No disembodied image Mating in diaphanous hae of white dresses and shimmering surroundings, she is filly bodied in her “surplos and sensuous" les IT ever there was an abject chat resisted idealization, itis Myre. ‘And so she is mistress, not wife; she dresses in blues and browns, not white; and when she dares to invoke the s cred name of Daisy, she gets her nose smashed. Yet, a the end Myre res. Her impassioned plunge toward her own particular green light and her subsequent ‘death are registered as a “tragic achievement” and she emerges asa figure of vitality, passion, and reality in the tmidet of the wasteland: "The moutl was wide open and Fipped at the corners, as though she had choked alte in {ving up the tremendous vitality she had stored a0 on {p. 138). Ina final play on a predominant image, Myrde iron’ coarse and unlovely mouth becomes the symbol of her achievement, obliterating the bright charm of Dainys mouth in an Snage of loss that may well lice ear. ‘The opposition between Myre and Daisy is «collision course, and, when the crash finally happens and the dust tlears, Myrtle i idealized and Daisy is devalued. Daisy is revealed to be & common flower and Myrle appropriates to herself the mythic connotations implied in her name “The reasons for this reversal, however, are not hard to find, If the investment divestment of Daisy is the result of her relationship to male power, a woman who has no such relationship will not be subject to the same impulses. Myr tle finally transcendent because from the beginning she fs powerless and disadvantaged. This i eructal Factor to Consider in analyzing the split between dark and white ea Tae Gnuar Garsoy “ladies” in our literate and in understanding the ways they have been portrayed. ‘The mystique that often sur- rout he dark ladies derives from the fact that they com Mute a cass of soclsexualleconomic outeasts whom men ‘an afford to romanticze and ulimately idealize precisely lease they are doomed. It is hardly accidental that Myr. tle’ elevation occas atthe moment of her death. Nor is it Bccidental that ie source is her sexuality. To elevate ‘roman as sexual object it to elevate woman at her most dependent, derivative, and powerless. In Myrle’s death the metaphori tructres which contin the psychological aicion of The Great Gaby come full circle, for the fresh freen breast of the new world that turns pander to men's fireams turns tragic symbol in the ripped-off breast of Myrile Wilson, 111994: in the process of writing an introduction for the Modern Library edition of The Gret Gat, Fitzgerald re- read his novel tnd reexamined his relationship toi in = lfor to define what he had been trying to do aid what his ‘book was about In this reexainination Ftagerald insisted ‘on the essential honesty ofthe book: "Reading it over one fan see how it could have been improved-yet without feeling guilty of any diserepancy From the truth, 25 far as saw ity truth oF rather the equoalent of the truth, the a- tempt at houesty of imagination. I think itis an honest, book... If there is a clear conscience, a book can survive—at least in one's felings about it™ AL the risk of being facile, one might say that such insistence suggests a verttin uneasiness on the subject of the novels truthful fest, aud well t might, forthe imagination to whic, The Great Gat i fatal i in Fat deeply dishonest. agers dot de signeur % ‘One of the major concerns of critical commentary on The Great Gatiby has been the attempt to determine whether or not Nick Carraway ia reltble narator.” This ‘question i prompted by certain dificulis in Nick's char- ‘rier and presentation, among which is, 10 some cities at leat, hie dishonesty. Yet, the interpretations of those cits who see in Nicks dishonesty the key, either wnin- ‘entional or inentional, to Nick's unreliability seem mis. fided, The narrative structure of The Great Gat isnot the reslt of rateles technique and cloudy thinking" it ‘ould be mone accurately described as one of Fitzgerald’ ‘most self

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