The novel’s title is deeply ironic - There is nothing ‘great’ about Gatsby - how far do you agree with this view?

Plan: Yes there is nothing great about him: He is a “swindler” and a bootlegger.  There is nothing great about someone who undertakes illegal activities in order to get money. He associates himself with Wolfsheim who has fixed the world series. He gets many phone calls from his criminal companions - in the last moments of his life he instructs that one of his colleagues should not be rescued from the police and that he should be left without help. He has a white card, shady and is obviously corrupt. “My present quarrel with you is only this: that to make G really great, you ought to have given us his early career - Edith Wharton F agreed that G was “blurred and patchy” - how can he be great if we know so little about him and all we know about him is through Nick, is arguably an unreliable source? 2. He is not great with regards to his social status and not being a member of the aristocracy  He was the son of “farm people” - He has come from a traditional agrarian background and does not have inherent family wealth and aristocracy. Ironically, he doesn’t have the traditional European concept of family land (which wealth is derived from) and therefore he is not accepted into the upper echelons of society. Buchanan is a Scottish Land owning clan and Gatsby hasn’t got any land because he left it when he was young. He lives in West Egg, symbolic of his lack of inherent class. In the scene with the Sloans, we see that he has no idea how to handle social situations. They clearly don’t want to associate themselves with him, but he follows the Sloans who are on horseback in his car. He is out of kilter with societal regulations. “Who’s elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd” - “He’s a regular tough underneath it all” - He gets physically intimidated and put in his place like Tom in the plaza scene. He tries to hark back to European heritage which he doesn't have (Oxford, Mary Antoinette style music rooms, French Chateau styled house, selling jewels in Rome, library) in order to try and instil status in himself. Perhaps the best image of his failure is when there is no one at his funeral apart from Nick and his dad. He has failed, he is not ‘great’. He has left no legacy, no one remembers him. Nick says that he “tried to think of Gatsby, but he was already too far away”, only a day or so after his death. It i interesting that Nick and his father are from the Mid-West, which is the geographical area and values associated with that area that Gatsby tries to disconnect himself with. He has failed to adhere to and respect these values. Is Fitzgerald suggesting that these values are the longest lasting and most valiant? 3. He is not great as he breaks the traditional American values which Fitzgerald indicates should be the desired values in society  Reverse migration, moving frontier etc. Agrarian, family values etc. He is subsumed by consumerism and has an outward showing of material wealth. No, he is great: He is one of the only characters of the novel to have a dream and hope in an age of cynicism.  He has an “extraordinary gift for hope”, a “heightened sensitivity to the promises of life as if he were connected to one of those intricate machines that measures earthquakes ten thousand miles away”, a “romantic readiness such that [Nick] had never seen in another person”. He is a romantic hero who’s hope and spirituality was in marked contrast to the cynicism and spiritual corruption of the time. Nick says that “Gatsby turned out alright in the end. It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short winded elations of men”. Gatsby is worth, “the whole damn bunch put together”. Gatsby is one who “grew more and more correct as the fraternal hilarity increased” - a romantic pillar in a society void of integrity and hope. 2. He was a war hero - Lionel Trilling suggests that Gatsby is actually America We know he is a decorated war hero. If what Lionel Trilling says is true, then how can he not be great. He is representative of the American Dream and the chasing of passions. He is the self made man and this might not mean that he doesn’t have intrinsic social class but he can be an example to the average working class American that they can make something of theme selves too. Dan Cody noted how he was “quick and extravagantly ambitious”. His list, “study electricity”, dumbell exercises show how determined he was to make something of himself. Thomas Hanzo, Gatsby’s career is “a variation of the American success story” 3. His failure and death is indicative of his spiritual greatness Gatsby dream becomes exposed in the Plaza Hotel because the materialistic quality of the hotel is incompatible with the spirituality of his dream. Gatsby dream is immaterial. “unutterable” yet he ‘wed[s] his unutterable vision to [Daisy’s] perishable breath”. Daisy is physical, materialistic and perishable, incompatible with his dream. As Daisy is metonymic with the values that Fitzgerald loathed in society, consumerism, moral corruption then it it these values that ultimately led to the failure of Gatsby’s dream. In the Plaza Hotel, “only the dead dream fought on, trying to touch what was no longer tangible”. His dream becomes exposed and can’t survive the superficiality of the hotel scene. Therefore, through the failure of his dream, the reader can see how colossal and spirituality rich his dream was. He was too human, too emotional and superior to the decaying world around him. This therefore shows how great he was. 4. His possessions, parties, shirts, huge and unique house. He is great through the sheer extravagance and vitality of his existence. His cream coloured suits, his Rolls Royce, his house are all great and decadent.