The True Heir of the American Dream by Marius Bewley

“The True Heir of the American Dream”

Marius Bewley suggests that contrary to popular belief, The Great Gatsby “offers some of the severest and closest criticism of the American dream that our literature affords” and that the theme of Gatsby is the withering of this dream. He also calls to mind the fine line between “the American vision of life at which the reality ends and the illusion begins.” This idea of reality versus illusion is very interesting in reference to Gatsby’s character. In Bewley’s opinion, Gatsby is the embodiment of reality and his only obstacle is his inability to “[see] through the sham of his world or his acquaintances very clearly.” It is not the fault of the average American to succeed, but the possibilities of life in the Jazz age that caused the “material and spiritual [to] become inextricably confused.” He also proposes that Gatsby is a “mythic character” and that “no other word describes him.” This idea of a “mythic character” comes form Jacques Barzun’s essay “Myths for Materialists” where he describes the mythic character as a “[figure], whether fact or fiction” who embodies the ideas of “destinies, aspirations” and “attitudes typical of man.” Gatsby fits this description in his “heroic personification of the American romantic hero, the true heir of the American dream.”
Bewley makes some very interesting observations about what Fitzgerald intended to imply with The Great Gatsby. Clearly, Gatsby fits the description of a “mythic character” because of his representation of man’s effort to achieve the American dream. Bewley also suggests that Gatsby’s hope to be with Daisy survives even as he faces societal obstacles and is eventually killed because of this hope. However, while he is physically killed, his spirit continues to survive within everyone’s personal dreams. He, like all people, “beat on...against the current, [and] borne back ceaselessly into the past” (180). While Bewley does make many claims that we agree with, we find many to be flawed. While The Great Gatsby offers criticisms of the American life, Gatsby does not symbolize the reality of the American dream in a corrupt period, but instead symbolizes the pressure of society to prevent people from being too wishful. Gatsby is not reality, but is the illusion; he changed his name from James Gatz and dedicates his fake life to win over the illusion of his dream. It took society to keep his anchored in reality, but eventually his dream overwhelms him. Bewley says that Gatsby has “no secrets and no hidden corners,” yet his entire life is just one big secretive game. If Gatsby is critical of the corruption of society, it is just a critical of the impossibility of people’s dreams.

Marius Bewley is a literary critic and the author of The eccentric Design: Form in the Classic American Novel.

Works Cited
Bewley, Marius. “The True Heir of the American Dream.” Readings on The Great Gatsby. Rpt. of “Fitzgerald’s Criticism of America.” Sewanee Review Spring 1954.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Scribner, 2004.

Ary Farrell
Eric Levin