Why Jay Gatsby Is Straight Edge - Terrier.Woof.

I have not written a post in forever.

For some of you, that’s good news. For the others who actually enjoy reading what I write, I’m sorry. The end of the semester was incredibly busy with long projects for my electives, and a lot of finals to study for, which basically involved learning a semester’s worth of material in a few weeks. Now that the semester is over, and I’m on winter break – which largely consists of sleeping, eating, and catching up on movies – I can finally get back to churning out posts consistently. Before I start though, I need to give a shout out to my main Jewish man Moshe Hagigi for undoubtedly rounding my final accounting grade up about 45 points: Mazel Tov my brotha.

Regarding this post, I’d like to focus a bit on the characterization of Jay Gatsby: specifically how his behavior juxtaposes with his lavish environments, and what that really means.

As a reader (or a movie watcher for that matter) I’m a big fan of character development; I’m extremely interested in the behavior of people in general, and how people’s behavior alters given different environments. From an entertainment perspective, I enjoy books, tv shows, and movies that primarily focus on character, rather than plot, which explains why I like the Great Gatsby so much, and am not really a fan of Inception.

Given that preface, I’d like to dive into Gatsby’s behavior throughout various social settings throughout the novel. One of the first things I ever picked up on while reading the Great Gatsby is that Gatsby never partakes in this festivities at his own parties, and more importantly, never drinks. Analyzing the fact that Gatsby doesn’t “party” at his parties is rather amateur, given that most readers of the novel know that that this behavior merely represents the fact that he throws the party not to enjoy himself, but simply to attract Daisy. What I believe is the important element of this discovery, and what I would like to analyze more critically in this, post is the fact that Gatsby drink, and how that relates to the morality, motives, and personality of his character.

Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald continually touches on the significance of alcohol: Nick states  how rare it is for him to drink, noting that he only had gotten drunk one or twice in his life.  Gatsby talks about how Dan Cody, his mentor, was an alcoholic, which I believe is extremely interesting. On the surface, there really is no purpose of Fitzgerald labeling Cody as an alcoholic; yes Gatsby saves Cody’s life while old Dan was on in his boat one time, but given that there was a storm, the boat was bound to be on course to crash whether Cody was drunk or not. Most importantly,  the most prevalent way Fitzgerald incorporates alcohol in the novel is through Gatsby’s source of money; Gatsby’s main source of income was from bootlegging. Ultimately, I find it incredibly interesting, and a little humorous/ironic that Gatsby made his bones as a bootlegger, and throws lavish parties where people go to get drunk and forget reality for a while, yet he doesn’t drink himself – not even casually/socially. Given these facts, there is no doubt that alcohol is indeed an element that Fitzgerald purposely implemented into the novel, and as readers, we should attempt to analyze what it adds to our understanding of the novel as a whole.

(He is shown holding a drink here. I don’t think he ever actually drinks it)

The fact that Gatsby was a bootlegger, but never drank says a lot about him. Most explicitly it shows the absolute obsession Gatsby had for Daisy; Gatsby was willing to adapt a lifestyle he was obviously against to make money to hopefully impress Daisy and win her back from Tom. This contributes to my theory that Gatsby’s love for Daisy is built on incredibly shallow elements, and ultimately is more about fulfilling a neurotic need, rather than building a relationship with someone he truly loves. Essentially, Fitzgerald could have picked any arbitrary illegal activity for Gatsby to be involved in as a source of money; the fact that he chose bootlegging – compounded with the other focus on alcohol throughout the novel – shows how alcohol truly is an important element that should be considered by anyone analyzing the story. Analyzing Gatsby through a more exterior lens, and taking into consideration the time period the book was published and the societal themes of the Jazz age, it becomes more obvious why Fitzgerald chose to make alcohol one of the themes in his novel; the book was written during the prohibition era, and bootlegging was a very common activity for society’s citizens.

“The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names.”

Diving deeper, I think Gatsby’s refusal to drink alcohol adds a lot to what his character ultimately represents. The main reason why the Great Gatsby is such a popular book is because of the enigma that Jay Gatsby is; he’s so polarizing, mysterious, and paradoxical that the literary world can not reach a definitive characterization of him. Alcohol, at least in my opinion, largely contributes to his enigma. At the core of the Gatsby characterization debate is whether or not he is a good guy; is he a symbol of hope or corruption? The fact that he made his money as a bootlegger, but does not drink the alcohol further blurs the line; he’s neither entirely good (or hopeful), nor entirely bad. His bootlegging proves that on one hand, Jay Gatsby is a symbol of the corruption and excess that plagued 1920’s America. On the other hand, the fact that he doesn’t drink the alcohol shows that he is also a symbol of hope.

The significance of this point is that it shows how Gatsby operates as a person: internally, at his core, Gatsby is indeed a symbol of hope, and I believe a genuinely good person. However, externally, his obsession with Daisy forced him to bootleg and become this symbol for corruption and excess. Essentially, the entire story is a constant personal battle for Gatsby: the bootlegging Gatsby – the one who is obsessed with Daisy and impressing others – and the non drinking Gatsby – the one who has late night chats with Nick – constantly clash with each other, fogging the image he portrays to the reader. Gatsby’s corruption stems from Daisy, and I believe that is extremely valuable to the reader’s characterization of both Daisy and Tom Buchanan. Gatsby’s hope stems from within, showing that perhaps the true Gatsby is really a good guy.

A quote that Nick says that I believe also pertains to Gatsby is as followed:

“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life”

Like Nick, Gatsby was within and without the corruption of the 1920s. He was within the world of corruption by becoming a bootlegger to make money to ultimately impress Daisy, but he was without by refusing to drink. This speaks volumes about how the characters are interrelated to each other, and how the characterization of each major player in the Great Gatsby largely plays off of his/her surrounding characters and environment.

Ultimately, we can conclude from Gatsby’s fairly straight edge life regarding alcohol is that at his core, Gatsby is a good person, and a symbol of hope. But his external needs are so overwhelming that he’s willing to suppress his true self and become something he’s not; all adding to the enigma that he is, and the great debate surrounding how truly great Gatsby the character is.

However, if Gatsby were to drink, his drink of choice would obviously be:

One note I would like to add is from the movie. In this scene Gatsby is depicted as drinking, and ultimately loses his cool, almost punches Tom, and scares away Daisy. While it’s not clear if he is drinking during the similar corresponding scene in the novel, it does represent how alcohol, and the corruption that alcohol is associated with, largely pertains to Daisy and Tom. You can also see how the pink suit that I own looks on Gatsby, which I assure you is a bit more dapper than how it looks on me.

http://robertbethell.brandyourself.com/

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