Thinking Activity- The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald

This blog is written in response to the thinking activity given by Dr. Dilip Barad sir on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald at the Department of English, MKBU.

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a novel written 1925 by the American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel is set in the Jazz Age also known as The Roaring 20s. The setting of the novel is Long Island near New York. The story of the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.

For the deeper understanding of this novel in that regard we had the film- screening of the movie ‘The Great Gatsby” that was released in the year 2013 that was directed by  Baz Luhrmann and the leading actors were  Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan.

How did the film capture the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties, the Flappers & the Prohibition Act of America in the 1920s?

The movie captures the Jazz age and the roaring twenties through the parties of Jay Gatsby where uninvited people from all places of New York come to enjoy the Dance, music and alcohol. The songs like “A little party never killed nobody” and “Back to back”  are fitting in the movie.

The flapper culture is also represented by the characters of Jordan Baker and Daisy. Jordan is a famous golfer and a young lady who is very careless and a person who lives in the moment, for Daisy also goes the same but with only one difference that she is married. Daisy and Jordan are also the ladies who have a rich lifestyle, carefree attitude and also no relevance to the economy or politics of America or the World.

The Prohibition Act of America in the 1920s, that put a ban on the access of alcohol but it gave way to criminal activities and illegal smuggling of liquor. The bootleggers smuggled liqueurs and made huge profits from it. The protagonist of the novel Jay Gatsby is also one of those persons who made money from the illegal bootlegging of alcohol who is aligned with persons like Meyer Wolfsheim and formed a syndicate type of system to do their illegal businesses that we can understand through the constant phone calls received by Jay Gatsby. Some critics said that Al Capone was the real life inspiration for the character of Gatsby who was also involved in bootlegging and made several millions of dollars a year in his involvement in his criminal activities.

How did the film help in understanding the symbolic significance of 'The Valley of Ashes', 'The Eyes of Dr. T J Eckleburg' and 'The Green Light'?

 'The Green Light'

“He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of a dock.” - Nick Carraway

The movie starts with Jay Gatsby on his dock watching the Green light across the river where Daisy, the love of his life, lives with her husband Tom Buchanan. The Green light throughout the story is presented as a symbol of Hope and ambition. The dream of Gatsby that was almost complete. The dream was to get back to Daisy. That was the only reason for every action of Gatsby and his ultimate goal and destination. The Destination seems to close as he can see it but also very much at a distance and like a mirage that was chased by him.

Nick Carraway says in the movie for the Green Light that,

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

 'The Valley of Ashes'

The Valley of Ashes is a large dumping place of industrial ashes and is located between West Egg and New York. The Valley of Ashes is represented as the ugly side of industrial development and the Wasteland created by the fast- forward moving world. The Valley of Ashes is created by social decay created by those rich mannered people of high class society who do not see anything further than their pleasure. 

The Valley of Ashes also represents the vulnerability of the working class people represented  by characters of George Wilson and his wife Myrtle. They are left to live in the dirt and become victims of lies and deceit of people like Tom Buchanan.

 'The Eyes of Dr. T J Eckleberg' 

"But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose. " -narration of Nick Carraway

The Eyes of Dr. T J Eckleburg’ is a Business hoarding in the middle of The Valley of ashes. In that advertising billboard there are two bright eyes that seem to watch everything that happens and everyone who passes by. The Eyes of T J Eckleburg is almost like the eyes of God who judges and observes every good and worse happenings.

George Wilson says while pointing to the Billboard that,

 "God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing."

 The Eyes have only meaning because the characters like George Wilson put meanings in it otherwise the Eyes also represents the meaninglessness and despair of the world.

On the other hand it is also a representation of the industrialism that in the middle of the Valley of ashes where the poor hard working people who are losing the vision of equality, are being manipulated, who are driven by the vision of those rich people are making meaning into that hoarding that is also a part of a business propaganda.