Precis of “Gatsby Is a Fairy- Tale Hero for the Middle Class”
Robert Emmet Long offers another perspective of why certain characters act the way they do and the significance of it. He starts off by pointing out that although Nick goes back to the West thinking of it “as sanctuary”, it is there where all of the problems started. It was there “that the Buchanan money was made, that Gatsby was closed out of Daisy’s life originally, that Daisy chose Tom”. Thus, Nick is only going back because he “has no place to go” and “can envision no alternatives to the nightmare he has lived through”. Long also explains why Gatsby is so obsessed with having Daisy again. He proclaims that “Gatsby becomes a kind of fairy-tale prince in disguise” and “regards Daisy Fay as a princess”. Moreover, what fuels his infatuation with Daisy even more is the fact that while now he has everything she has ever wanted, he has been “deprived of his princehood while retaining his princehood in an essence”. Gatsby never has been able to enjoy life as a “prince”, because he becomes one for someone else, and works hard to stay one.
While Long provides very interesting perspectives about the book and valid explanations, he misses a few things. He states that Nick is going back to the place that everything happens, and argues that he is only going back because he has nowhere else to go, he misses a vital point: Nick could easily stay in New York. No one is forcing him to leave,; he does have a place to go. Nick merely wants to erase the past, i.e. his life before Gatsby. It does not matter what happened before in the West, because he goes back in hopes of being able to pretend he knows nothing and nothing happened. Also, Long’s opinion of Gatsby’s effort to live the life of a fairy-tale may be a good one , but it is really not an idea that is far- fetched. Daisy, Tom, and Nick are all trying to have happy lives, along with most people in America striving for the American Dream. What is more vital to understanding Gatsby’s obsession is not that he is trying to live like a “prince” and have a story book ending, but he is trying to live in the past.
A few words about Robert Emett Long
Robert Emmet Long is a writer and published a book entitled The Achieving of The Great Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1920- 1925.
Works Cited
Long, Robert Emmet. “Gatsby Is a Fairy- Tale Hero for the Middle Class.” The Achieving of The Great Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1920- 1925. N.p.: Associated University Presses, 1979. 68- 71.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Scribner, 1992.
Rachel Lewis
No comments:
Post a Comment