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Despite telling the story of Gatsby’s downfall, Nick does not present him as a particularly dark character, instead expressing admiration for Gatsby’s “extraordinary gift for hope” and “romantic readiness.” But Gatsby’s romantic hopefulness functions as a flaw, rather than a virtue. It leads him to crime, violence, and ultimately a form of suicide, when he takes the blame for Myrtle’s death.
One could argue that the rigidity of the American class system means Gatsby is fated to fail to achieve his dream, an example of tragedy being determined by fate. Another interpretation is that Gatsby willfully chooses his dream over reality, a counter example of tragedy being impelled by free will. Nick suggests this interpretation when he says, about Gatsby’s last moments, “he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.” Either way, Gatsby’s inherent flaw leads to his ruin and the death of several characters, as in the classic definition of tragedy.
In
In the novel, the encroachment of modernity is seen in the descriptions of the valley of ashes, as well as the “red-belted ocean-going ships,” trains, and most of all, automobiles. The sardonic descriptions of the latest innovations, such as “a machine which could extract the juice…of two hundred oranges…if a little button was pressed two hundred times,” implies a certain amount of anxiety about the increasing automation of everyday life. Fitzgerald portrays both the exhilaration of urban landscapes – “the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye” – and the lonely anonymity of workers in the “white chasms” of the city.
In some aspects, however, Fitzgerald deviates from modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Their novels
Fitzgerald’s use of irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to mock hypocritical social types also qualifies
In
Fitzgerald satirizes capitalism in general with the figure of the man selling puppies outside the train station who bears “an absurd resemblance to John D. Rockefeller.” By comparing a powerful tycoon to a street vendor, Fitzgerald satirizes the self-importance of the American ruling class.
But while some social satire retains a superficial tone throughout,
Satire is often limited in its ability to engage emotions of sadness, sympathy, and melancholy, and Fitzgerald uses a more serious tone to communicate these emotions. He expands his main characters, especially Nick and Gatsby, beyond caricature into fully realized, believable individuals.
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