"Delusions of American Idealism" by Joyce A. Rowe

Joyce Rowe believes that the much-coveted American dream is replaced by a superficial quest for wealth and power, ultimately leading to a sense of false fulfillment. She speaks of how Fitzgerald confirms myth with history and uses the Dream to exaggerate reality. Rowe identifies Gatsby’s father figures as people manipulated by outside forces, and that their connection with Gatsby is less than personal, as they both use him to further their own interests. She describes Gatsby as a representation of the paradox in which Americans are morally corrupt but yet guilt-free. She views Gatsby as separate from the other characters, all of whom have all lost sight of their own dreams. She explains how Nick Carraway sympathizes with Gatsby by his own attraction to Daisy and dislike for Tom. Rowe views the people who live in East Egg as snobby and arrogant, while those in West Egg are promiscuous and reminiscent of the frontier. She does not believe that Nick’s return to the West was to salvage Gatsby’s dream, but instead he goes back just to leave behind “ugliness, greed, and human sterility” (94). Rowe has a pessimistic view of the Dream, and believes that the book is a story of the fall of the American hopes.

Some of Rowe‘s views on The Great Gatsby are accurate, but others are debatable. Her opinion of Fitzgerald’s use of Gatsby—as a self-made man—is supported by his transformation from less-than-rich lieutenant to wealthy mansion-owner in East Egg. Rowe also views Gatsby as a “meretricious” man with a “Platonic conception of himself” (87), expressed by his eagerness to spend money on his mansion and gaudy car, as well as the parties he throws every weekend. In addition, Rowe’s view on the American dream as being transformed into a superficial pursuit for material things is supported by her explanation of Gatsby’s dream of following the “grail,” which is Daisy, a beautiful, wealthy, shallow girl. She also accurately points out that dreams “ennoble” reality, or exaggerates it, because Gatsby is forced by circumstance to give up his dream of being with Daisy. Rowe claims that Gatsby’s “surrogate fathers,” Dan Cody and Meyer Wolfsheim, ultimately betray him (90). This is true because Dan Cody allows himself to be manipulated by Ella Kaye, and Gatsby does not receive any of his inheritance. Likewise, Wolfsheim relies on Gatsby only for money, and does not even attend his funeral. Rowe believes that most of the characters, all except Gatsby, are connected only in terms of manipulation and dishonesty, which stresses the idea that Gatsby is separate from the others, also because he is the only one who has not lost the vision of his dream. However, Rowe views Nick Carraway’s return to the Midwest as a sort of resignation, instead of a way to save Gatsby’s dream. This is can be contradicted by the idea that Nick views the West as “mankind’s last hope for social and moral redemption” (95). Most believe that the ending of The Great Gatsby offer hope for salvation of the American dream.

Works Cited:

Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Scribner Paperback
Fiction, 1992.

Rowe, Joyce A. Equivocal Endings in Classic American Novels. N.p.: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Contributing group members: Daphne Tan, Kelen Jiang