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I argue that the core of Gatsby's American Dream is his desire to become a member of the highest social class. Daisy comes from a traditional American family, ...
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C e n t r e f o r L a n g u a g e s a n d L i t e r a t u r e E n g l i s h S t u d i e s
Johan Åkesson ENGK Degree project in English Literature HT 2017/ Centre for Languages and Literature Lund University Supervisor: Cecilia Wadsö-Lecaros
The American Dream has been a central theme of American literature since the early nineteenth century. The American Dream has subsequently become a tool for depicting the uniqueness of America. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) are two classic American novels, depicting the American Dream in different social and racial contexts. This essay examines the representation of the American Dream in these novels, focussing in particular on Fitzgerald’s characterisation and criticism of the consumerism of the 1920s, and on the themes of invisibility and racism in Invisible Man. The essay also considers the relationship between the protagonists of both novels and the liberal, capitalist American ideology, concluding that both protagonists suffer from a naïve and fatal belief in the American Dream.
1. Introduction F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel portraying the roaring 1920s has been the subject of ongoing literary research for decades. The Great Gatsby has been analysed as a tragic love story and its symbolism with references to American political, economic and social history is well-known. The novel’s relationship to the American Dream has been noted by many researchers (Callahan, Keshmiri). I will expand on the discourse of the American Dream by not only looking at the representation of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby but also in another classic American novel. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) is set during the 1920s and 30s, narrated by a nameless African-American protagonist who wishes to be seen and acknowledged in an America governed by white power structures. Opting for these two novels in a discussion of the American Dream allows me to discuss and analyse the Dream across racial and social lines as one novel is set among affluent white Americans and the other narrated by an African- American from the South journeying through the country trying to claim visibility in a society which does not acknowledge him. The protagonists are of different ethnicities and exist in vastly diverse worlds, but their existence is directly linked to chasing their respective American Dream. My goal is not to compare the representation of the American Dream in a binary sense between the novels as different features of the Dream are represented. I aim rather to determine that even though aspects of the American Dream are represented differently, both novels show the failings of the Dream. Furthermore, both novels support the idea that if any individual fails to achieve their American Dream, then that failure is their own responsibility. According to the American Dream, financial and intellectual capital should in theory nurture success, whoever you are. The protagonists represent American liberal and capitalist ideology and their experiences offer a damning verdict on the opportunities for social mobility and happiness. The cornerstones of what constitutes the Dream were expressed 150 years before the term was coined. In theory, the American Dream is supposed to be an accessible vision for every citizen of The United States. The Declaration of Independence announced by Congress in 1776 states that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (USHistory). Cullen defines the keywords equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as inherent components of the American Dream (5). In The Epic of
America (1931), the American historian and writer James Truslow Adams describes the American Dream as a dream: of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. […] It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman can be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognised by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position. (404) The Dream’s components, opportunism and a cemented belief in the good of life and the nation, become even more stringent when we acknowledge that his work was published during one of the most turbulent periods of American history. According to Samuel, the American Dream was a unifying vision that set the nation apart and became America’s only influence on world civilisation (14). Consequently, the American Dream became an important symbol of American identity in a historical period marked by social, economic and political chaos. Over the decades following Adams’ work, the American Dream developed from a singular dream into multiple dreams – dreams of upward mobility, social equality and fame and fortune. In order to contextualise the American Dream’s cemented role in American society and literature, this essay will include an overview of the American Dream within literature, followed by the representation of the Dream in The Great Gatsby. The focus will be on Jay Gatsby’s disillusioned pursuit of the Dream and how Fitzgerald uses Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson to represent different aspects of the American Dream. Moreover, I will consider what aspect of the Dream Daisy represents for Gatsby, arguing that he desires her because she represents old money and the social class of which he aspires to be a part. Invisibility, racism and the role of geographical representation in Invisible Man will be analysed in order to discuss how the American Dream is obstructed and unattainable for the novel’s African-American narrator. Finally, the essay will recount for what the novels reveal about the failings of the American Dream where aspects of narration will be discussed.
Through American literature we can trace the American Dream as a representation of hope and idealism turned into disillusionment, depravity and falsity. Nineteenth-century writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman wrote of the emerging U.S. democracy and hymned man’s love for the land. The dark side of the Dream emerged in literature from the mid-nineteenth century with writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James and Mark Twain who became disillusioned by a changing America and wrote of finance, capitalism, industrialism and social corruption. Twain’s suggestion that the American Dream was flawed at its core was further explored during the early twentieth century by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It became a trend for twentieth-century writers to personify the Dream as a beautiful young woman such as Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby , the beautiful but vacuous fairy girl of George F. Babbitt in Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt (1922) and Faye Greener in The Day of the Locust (1939). Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner and John Steinbeck have as modern American writers written about the Dream’s hollowness. (Kehl) Bennett and Royle bring up two historical arguments of literature where [t]he historical context of a literary work – the circumstances surrounding its production
desires can never be realised no matter how much money he has. In this sense, Gatsby personifies the dissolution of the American Dream in an era marked by accumulating wealth and material goods. Ellison’s protagonist, on the other hand, measures himself against the influential African- American leaders who fought to proclaim the minority’s voice at the turn of the century. In the novel, an African-American interpretation of the Horatio Alger myth is discussed through the protagonist’s ventures. Alger was a prolific American writer whose novels most often involved a “rags-to-riches” narrative which had a formative effect on American literature and society. Levine claims that “the nation was imbued with the notion that Man could progress according to the Horatio Alger model, that the individual moulds his own destiny” (24). Alger’s work revolved around a teenage boy whose hard-working nature enabled him to escape poverty. However, it was often not the boy’s diligent effort itself that rescued him from an impoverished fate but an unexpected act of honesty or bravery. Instead, Alger’s protagonists might return a sum of lost money or salvage someone from an overturned vehicle which brought him and his predicament to the attention of a wealthy individual. Therefore, the Alger model can be applied to claim that a poor individual can try his best and work hard but ultimately, he is dependent on the financial aid of a wealthy outsider. The effort is there, and the American Dream is present in the individual’s psyche but that might not lead anywhere without financial assets. The protagonist of Invisible Man represents the African-American translation of the Alger model. The protagonist is influenced by Booker T. Washington, the educator and author who was a prominent leader in the African-American community during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Yarborough accounts for Washington’s impact on African-American philosophy as “Washington presented a parallel paradigm: a young black boy, born a slave and raised in poverty, who achieved a position of power and celebrity through diligence, humility, integrity, and patience” (Yarborough 48). This contrasts to Alger’s orphan protagonists who insured success through courage, honesty, determination and intelligence. Washington’s ideas had an effect on African-Americans in a tremendous way but, according to Yarborough, must be “viewed in the context of the national emphasis on self-help current at the time of his rise to power” (47-48). Ellison’s character’s relationship to Booker T. Washington is expressed in a pessimistic fashion as will be shown below.
represent the American Dream through a beautiful woman. However, Fitzgerald depicts Daisy’s characteristics not primarily in physical terms but instead shows that she possesses qualities which make her psychologically desirable. Her aura is described as that of an unattainable princess “in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl” with an “inexhaustible charm” and a voice “full of money” (Fitzgerald 76). These words liken Daisy to the most desirable woman on earth and adds a 1920s component to represent the materialistic age – her voice was “full of money” (7 6 ). Even though Daisy is described as a beautiful woman, it is what she represents that makes her so desirable. I argue that the core of Gatsby’s American Dream is his desire to become a member of the highest social class. Daisy comes from a traditional American family, and she marries Tom Buchanan who is of similar stock. What a relationship with Daisy represents for Gatsby is not pure love, but his only way to penetrate the social class distinction and fulfil his American Dream. This deceptive nature of Daisy can be read as a Fitzgeraldian criticism of the wealthy elite class. The narrator comments on Daisy’s seemingly distant relationship with her own daughter, and after Gatsby’s death takes notice of Daisy and Tom’s retreat “back into their own money”, “their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together” (Fitzgerald 114). In The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty , Myers makes the argument that one will not find prolonged happiness by the accretion of material things. Instead, the individual will experience only a brief rush of gratification (135). Daisy is caught between her fiery relationship with Gatsby and the satisfaction of being financially immune thanks to her marriage. Schwartz has reviewed Myers’ book and his claim that being rich “fills our bellies, but leaves us spiritually hungry” (Schwartz 74) is fitting for describing Daisy’s choice between Gatsby and her husband. Fitzgerald’s social criticism of the aristocracy on Long Island positions itself as an obstruction of the American Dream. Where others fail like Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson, Daisy manages to emerge from all events unharmed. Her choice of husband with his inherited wealth offer her financial security which enables her to remain “with an absolutely perfect reputation” (Fitzgerald 50). Another characterisation that allows Fitzgerald to criticise the social structure of 1920s’ America is Myrtle Wilson whose character demonstrates the American Dream’s impact on the frenetic quest for wealth. Myrtle desires a richer and better life through escaping her husband and possessing material things. Regardless of whether Myrtle is subconsciously aware of the American Dream, she believes in the power of ownership, material things and their ability to
create happiness. Her fundamental belief in materialism may be why Fitzgerald dooms her flawed character by sentencing her to a cruel death. Myrtle’s edgy character, free of inhibitions, is suggested from the moment she is introduced; her raw sexuality is expressed through her “immediately perceptible vitality […] as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering” (18). Callahan explores the manifestation of happiness in Fitzgerald’s novel and brings up the connection between property and happiness (380) which is exemplified in the apartment on 158 th^ Street where Myrtle’s accumulation of material goods has created a room filled with over- sized furniture (Fitzgerald 20). For the wife of a poor garage-owner, possessing material things seems to be the crucial factor to pursuing happiness. Material acquisition is also important for Gatsby, but as he reaches a position of great wealth, the qualitative quest for Daisy is of greater importance. Myrtle seems to be more obsessed with the quantity of her possessions. She appears to possess an embellished impatience towards the tediousness of life. This is shown when Myrtle lists all the items she says she has a need for such as a “massage and a wave, and a collar for the dog, and one of those cute little ash-trays where you touch a spring, and a wreath with a black silk bow for mother’s grave” (25). Myrtle’s attitude towards spending money is representative of the increasing consumerism in the American post-war period. Myrtle’s desire to purchase a dog collar while her husband fights for their economic survival is presumably a Fitzgeraldian criticism of the widespread American consumer hysteria and the widespread belief that the American Dream was a material one. Her affair with Tom offers an escape from her seemingly gloomy marriage with George into a world of richness where she can feel like she is sharing Tom’s luxurious lifestyle. Her urge to take part in the culture of materialistic ownership (the over-furnished apartment, the dog collar, the perfume, the gossip magazines) is directly linked to the changing American Dream where Dreams of Consumerism and “Dream of Abundance” (Ownby) becomes essential in order to highlight one’s extravagant way of life. Myrtle’s consumerist behaviour is founded on her belief that consuming and owning things aligned with wealthy people is her only path to fulfil her American Dream. By depicting Myrtle as a slave to the American consumer society, Fitzgerald channels her fatalistic journey which results, just like Gatsby, in tragic death. Ultimately, Myrtle can accomplish her desire of owning material things just as Gatsby can uphold his mansion and luxurious cars, but they are both restricted from their American Dreams due to their inability to achieve social mobility.
replies that “of course you can” (Fitzgerald 70-71). Gatsby’s inability to redefine his relationship with Daisy after years apart is what dooms him from thinking and acting rationally. He relentlessly refuses to let go of the past where he and Daisy were involved in a meaningful relationship. Instead, Gatsby exists in his own illusion based on his shared history with Daisy and thus is not capable of altering his image of her as she is his “incorruptible dream” (Fitzgerald 98). Gunn names Gatsby’s wonder and idealism a “tragedy” (175), stating that what kills him is his excessive illusions and dreams of a future with Daisy. When the awaited reunion between Gatsby and Daisy occurs in Nick Carraway’s house the narrator comments on Gatsby’s disillusioned mind as “Daisy tumbled short of his dreams – not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (Fitzgerald 61). Daisy could have acted and spoken in the exact way she did when the two of them first meet and fell in love and still, Gatsby’s built-up image of her would convince his mind that she was not the same. The force of his illusion – his American Dream – takes over how he thinks and acts. As Gatsby cannot redefine himself without Daisy, he fails to realise what Invisible Man ’s protagonist at last comprehends – that the individual must define his own identity in order to come close to an American Dream. This common point represents what was mentioned in the introduction: namely, that the failure of an individual to achieve their American Dream is to be attributed to the shortcomings of that individual rather than to those of the socio-economic system which they inhabit. Gatsby’s traits show the duplicity of his character and the belief in the American Dream. His attributes are honourable and inspiring; however, in due course, the same characteristics result in his death, which defines Gatsby as a tragic protagonist. Fitzgerald’s fictional creation shows both an admirable and disillusioned protagonist. We see a hopeless romantic as well as a naïve fool. Gatsby’s perpetual hope and idealism are representations of the American Dream’s central components. Therefore, as his dream collapses what remains is the worthlessness of the aspiration for fame and fortune. Financial expectations also figure Gatsby’s romantic depression as he represents young men’s conviction that having money enables men easily to capture the woman of their dreams. The dichotomy of Gatsby can be interpreted as a dark side of the American Dream’s idealistic ideas, driven by the expectations of the upper class in the growing consumeristic American society.
4. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison’s 1950s novel Invisible Man depicts the misadventures of a nameless young African-American narrator from graduating high school to the intense race-tensions in Harlem. The protagonist’s physical journey and psychological development is marked by his invisibility in society and the racist structures of early twentieth-century America. In the sections below, I will discuss Invisible Man ’s eagerness to be acknowledged and the racism he suffers which obstructs his American Dream. Furthermore, I will bring up other factors which doom his prosperity, such as his naïve belief in geographical migration and respected leaders. Invisible Man ’s themes of invisibility, racism and migration make it, as Yarborough puts it, “[o]ne of the more complex, multifaceted novels in twentieth-century American literature” which “reverberates with myriad themes and motifs central to the black experience in the United States” (Yarborough 47).
The nameless narrator’s journey can be discussed from the set of dreams that he aspires to fulfil. For the protagonist and his fellow college students, Booker T. Washington’s rhetoric is a gospel of the American Dream. His influence is supposed to be a force of enlightenment but over time it is depicted more and more as blinding and restricting for the Invisible Man. The first example of this occurs when he quotes one of Washington’s speeches as he addresses the white leaders of his college and fails to comprehend the racist exploitation he suffers. He and his fellow African-American students are objectified and dehumanised with their “uniforms pressed, shoes shined, minds laced up, eye blind like those of robots” (Ellison 36). During the Golden Day, the narrator is called “the mechanical man” and described as “a walking zombie” (94). Furthermore, the protagonist finds himself in a white cold hospital after a workplace accident with no memory of who he is. The doctors repeatedly ask him questions relating to his African- American origin and perform electric shock treatment which the doctor enjoyed as African- Americans “really do have rhythm” (231). The doctors’ constant will to remind the protagonist of his origin as well as the event when the college leaders throw money on the ground for the
This dream, the protagonist eventually realises, is impossible to fulfil because of the racist ideology which rules society and defines him solely as African-American and therefore, incompetent. His search for philosophical guidance highlights the African-American search for identity in order to succeed. Booker T. Washington, the Founder and Dr Bledsoe, the President of the college, ultimately fail to offer salvation. Bledsoe is initially a source of great inspiration as he has become a leader in the black community and represents an idealised America just like the Founder, but the Invisible Man’s idealisation breaks into pieces when he realises Bledsoe has been sending negative recommendation letters about him. The failed guidance represents the point that the American Dream must be defined individually and searched for within oneself, as a driven African-American is not allowed to aspire for success. The protagonist believes that being acknowledged is a path to success, but his gullibility creates failure. As the protagonist witnesses an elderly African-American couple being evicted in Harlem, he makes an impassioned speech that incites the bystanders to oppose the law enforcement officials in charge. A member of the Brotherhood notes the protagonist’s impressive rhetoric and urges him to become a part of the Brotherhood. The inspiring and influential Brother Jack satisfies the narrator’s need for acknowledgement by suggesting that “[y]ou shall be the new Booker T. Washington, but even greater than he” (Ellison 307). The Invisible Man’s need to be visible is perhaps most clearly expressed when he acknowledges that “I am what they think I am” (379), thus accepting the fact that perhaps he is forced to let other (white) people define him. The protagonist realises his potential as a thinker in the Brotherhood where he is recognised, visible and admired for his coherent thoughts and rhetorical abilities. Just like the gratifying emotions the narrator initially felt at college and the admiration he felt by Bledsoe, he feels similar in the Brotherhood’s proximity until he realises that they hired him as a messenger for their white ideology. The group has been likened to the Communist Party (Prescott) as all individuals must surrender for the organisation’s cause. The narrator struggles to see the intentions of people he meets as he is blinded by a naïve conviction that people are good-natured. For example, the way in which Bledsoe strips the protagonist’s sense of masculinity as he goes from being a role model to an antagonist: “For three years I had thought of myself as a man and here with a few words he’d made me as helpless as an infant” (Ellison 144). The disappointments the protagonist faces make him realise that he cannot trust respectable leaders as they only reinforce the subordination of African-Americans in society.
Initially, the protagonist believes strongly that all it takes is “only to work and learn and survive in order to go to the top” (355). Even if we accept the fact that he truly does that, he fails to reach “the top” and instead ends up hiding away in his basement, thinking about his agonising dreamlike chronicles. His belief in the American Dream is destroyed because he exists in an unequal society – a fact he cannot change. The Invisible Man possesses the liberalist drive that the early American thinkers valued so highly but his blindness and the racist ideology which he exists in disillusions him. In similar fashion, Gatsby’s disillusion is caused by a personal deficiency, his blind love for the Daisy of his past, and a social structure – the hysteric quest for wealth. No matter how hard the Invisible Man tries to show his worth with rhetorical skills or hard labour white racists and social structures stand in his way.
Cullen claims that each version of the American dream is based on orientation and geographical location (160-161). For the Invisible Man, New York City and the district of Harlem is of great significance. He journeys to the big city in pursuit of a job and money to finance his education. His journey does not affect his development in the way he imagines but does prove valuable. Within American culture, the journey from east to west is often mentioned in terms of demographic and spiritual transformation or expansion. However, as Yarborough explains, for African-Americans “the dominant direction has been from the South to the North. Since slave time, when the captives sang of stealing away not just to heaven, but to Philly-me-York, the North has symbolized a place of both refuge and promise” (Yarborough 49). Ellison’s protagonist migrates north with aspirations similar to those expressed in Emmett J. Scott’s “the Land of Hope” and “Northward Bound” even though this part of the country hardly was a promise land for African-Americans. The Invisible Man is warned of this fact by the vet on the bus to NYC: “That’s not a place, it’s a dream. When I was your age it was Chicago. Now all the little black boys run away to New York. Out of the fire into the melting pot” (Ellison 152). This warning does not sway the Invisible Man from his fantasy where he envisages himself outshining Dr Bledsoe as “shrewd, suave and dressed not in somber garments (like his old-fashioned ones) but in a dapper suit of rich material, cut fashionably, like those of the men you saw in magazine ads” (164). He sees himself returning to the South “full of New York
had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one. ( 60 ) Here, instead of an almost magical light appearing in the distance the light is described as something of “colossal significance” that has been lost, or perhaps that a symbolic component has ceased to exist. The reason for this must logically be because Gatsby now is standing close to Daisy being able to physically touch her without stretching his arms towards a distant green light. The green light’s separation from its symbolic meaning can be read in a tragic sense as Gatsby seems to be mentally absent during this scene, ignoring Daisy as she puts her arm through his. I argue that Gatsby here realises that Daisy, and the green light and his American Dream, are all regular to him. Physical objects that were more attractive to him when he reached towards them from afar. The final encounter with the green light is during the novel’s final paragraph where the light no longer remains a visible object. And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. 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. ( 115 ) Gatsby is now dead, Daisy gone, and the narrator no longer resides in Long Island. The green light only exists in the narrator’s memories. Hence, the green light has returned to being a mere symbol. However, the personal deep symbolism that the green light represented for Gatsby in the beginning of the novel has now been shifted from an individual to a collective. The narration shifts from a light that “Gatsby believed in” to a common symbol which motivates “us”, the collective. The novel ends with no longer Gatsby reaching for the green light, but the light is something that we all universally are stretching out our arms towards, hoping to reach it tomorrow or the day after that. But then, as none of the central characters in The Great Gatsby seem to experience happiness is it possible to collectively reach for a common American
Dream? After all, if we accept that the Dream is freed from religious beliefs, as Cullen suggests, then the Dream is founded on American liberalist ideas where it is the individual who moulds his/her destiny. I argue that Fitzgerald uses the green light as a symbol for Gatsby’s failed American Dream, and the novel’s last paragraph stands for the naïve belief that another person, or collective, can reach it. Invisible Man illustrates how the American Dream includes racial limitations for Ellison’s protagonist, as he is on a quest to find his own identity in a world defined by white power structures and senses that a geographical migration to New York City is the path to walk. However, he realises that he and everyone else does not seem to be defined as individuals but as constituents of their race, no matter where one resides. After realising the complexity of black nationalism and its failure in America, the narrator redefines his invisibility to the extent that he retreats from society into hiding and contemplates his own identity. He thinks of himself as a free individual without illusions, claiming that “[l]ife is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many – This is not prophecy, but description” (Ellison 577). Instead of aspiring to fulfil an American Dream according to Booker T. Washington or the Founder, the narrator’s personal philosophy aligns more closely to the famous abolitionist, author and orator Frederick Douglass. His life was self-determined, packed of “unexpected transformations” (381) where the “world in which we lived was without boundaries. A vast seething, hot world of fluidity” (498). The protagonist’s rebirth during the last third of the novel is based on his own acceptance of failure and the realisation of the infinite possibilities and “the beautiful absurdity of American identity” (Ellison 559). Despite the racist abuse, the factory failure and the Brotherhood’s manipulation which point to the narrator’s failed American Dream, he comes to realise that the truth of the Dream might be, as Yarborough puts it, “the opportunity to define oneself as one chooses” (52). When he left his southern hometown hopeful of the North’s treasures he fooled himself to believe that “coming North was a jump into the unknown. […] You could actually make yourself anew” (499). Retrospectively, looking back on his expectations, the narrator defines the blinding opportunism of the American Dream as he just “like almost everyone else in our country, […] started out with my share of optimism. I believed in hard work and progress and action” (576). Not until he hides in his “hole” and accepts that he does not share the “increasing passion to make men conform to a pattern” does he rediscover himself because to
