Ethics in Gatsby: An Examination of American Values

The Article “Ethics in Gatsby: An Examination of American Values”, by professor Tony McAdams, discusses the ways in which Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby provides “an excellent ground for the examination of American ethics” in respect to wealth, class, and the “American dream” (McAdams 111). The article outlines his analysis of Fitzgerald’s clever characters, and of the ways that the values of the 1920’s, the era that the book was written, impacted Fitzgerald and were incorporated into his great novel. In the first movement, McAdams focuses on the main characters, such as nick who matures from a “priggish country boy to a mature wiser man” (McAdmas 113), who mirrors the six stages of physiological development. He believes that the moral and circumstantial experiences Nick is exposed to in the east has transformed him into acquire a sense of the hidden complexity and hardships of the rich life. He proceeds to discuss Gatsby’s life of delusion, and the reasons why he is such an attractive character. Although Gatsby is “adolescent in live and, and makes us of others” like Nick for “his own selfish purposes”, McAdams argues that readers still admire him because of his charm, commitment, and “embodiment of the American Dream” (McAdams 114). He also analyses Tom and Daisy and how they “personify the doubts that Fitzgerald seemed to feel towards the wealthy world”. He also brings up that all the characters seem to be in some respect—liars. Another point that McAdams touches on is the corruption of American Values, and how these corruptions affected both Fitzgerald’s life and later, the plot and characters in his Great Gatsby. After a close study of Fitzgerald’s background, McAdams found that the writer himself was turned down by two rich women that he loved because like nick, he was not rich. According to McAdams, “The Great Gatsby is a commentary on the themes of wealth and class in America in the Roaring 20’s”(McAdams 118) and that the American Dream is in fact, a “Dream corrupted by materialism”.

Alexandra Giedd
Rachel Zidar
Stephen Rogue

Dream, Design, and Interpretation in The Great Gatsby by David L. Minter

" [There is] a radical difference... between building a house and writing a poem about building a house."

-Kenneth Burke


David L. Minter suggests that "Jay Gatsby...is a builder as well as a dreamer" and that "on the other [hand]....Nick Carraway...is a narrator as well as a spectator." Gatsby devotes his life to becoming a self-made man and to achieve the American Dream. Nick merely narrates the legacy of Gatsby and tells the story of the people he has affected. Minter believes that gatsby is prone to destruction because of his impossible dream to reunite with Daisy. Minter reffers to Gatsby as a "builder" to explain how Gatsby lives his life while "spectator" Nick is just a wallflower who merely tells the story of Gatsby. However, at the end of Gatsby's life, it is Nick who takes action and prepares plans for Gatsby's funeral arrangements and becomes "an imaginative interpreter (86)." . To Minter, Gatsby's dream is unnatainable and even a waste of time to believe one could reach ever reach such a dream (being with a married woman, in this case), yet Minter finds Gatsby's death pitiful and "tragic (87)." In the novel, it is Nick's job to interpret Gatsby's story, while it is Gatsby's job to attempt to obtain the "dream."


Analysis:
Minter's analysis of mysterious Gatsby and reserved Nick is correct. Gatsby is doomed to fail because he alienates himself and leads a quirky lifestyle. His mysterious upbringing, suspicious success and his obvious affair lead to his demise. In fact, Gatsby's actions throughout the book are entirely on purpose; Gatsby is literaly a self-made man because he carefully creates Jay Gatsby out of James Gatz. He puposefully moves across the bay from the Buchanan home in hopes of seeing Daisy again. He nicknames Nick "old sport" to ensure a new (and one of few) true friendships. While Nick cannot agree with many of Gatsby's choices, he certainly respects him and his ability to dream. While painfully obvious to Nick, he reflects on Gatsby's death and notes, "his [Gatsby] dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it (Fitzgerald 180)." Nick is a "builder" after Gatsby's death because it is his duty to finish Gatsby's story and legacy in a way in which one would pity Gatsby instead of feel scorn for the hurt he has caused.

Citations:
Minter, David L. "Dream, design, and Interpretation in the Great Gatsby" :82-9.
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1992.

Jimena Lazarte
Avery albert
Claire Grunes

Gatsby is a Pathological Narcissist

Giles Mitchell explains the theory that Gatsby’s journey was driven not by optimism, but by a sense of perfection and omnipotence perpetuated by narcissism. A clinical profile of Gatsby’s character is used to connect behavioral tendencies to symptoms of pathological narcissism. Mitchell views Gatsby’s idealization of Daisy as a mirror for his own perfection. He spiritualizes her to worship himself− he basks in a reflection of his own perfection and creates a paragon to which he feels entitled. Since he lacks real emotional intimacy with anyone, Gatsby exploits those around him while he absolves himself of all culpability. Mitchell asserts that Gatsby’s narcissism contributes to his “Son of God” persona which entails omnipotence, entitlement, and grandiosity, which all are substitutes for the repression of real circumstances. Gatsby creates his own identity and rejects his unfavorable parentage, background, and situation. Another characteristic of narcissists is their desire to control time, an effort to abolish any threats that might undermine their worth. Gatsby exhibits this when he continually tries to return Daisy and himself to the time they fell in love. His “tawdry romanticism” conceals his underlying impersonal coldness characteristic of narcissists, and his dual character deceives people into believing he possesses morality and humanity. In the end, Gatsby’s self-absorption overcomes his sense of reality: when Daisy rejects him, Gatsby grieves the loss of his narcissistic mirror and commits “emotional suicide”. Essentially, Mitchell believes that Gatsby is faithful to the “Jay Gatsby persona” and dies for his egocentric dream, rather than allow the dream to die itself.

Mitchell’s thesis claims that the novel contains “insuperable evidence” of Gatsby’s narcissism, but this is an overstatement of Gatsby’s character. Mitchell accredits all of Gatsby’s actions to his narcissistic complex. While he provides legitimate evidence that matches symptoms of pathological narcissism, Mitchell ignores the possibility of other circumstantial evidence that may have influenced his actions. Although narcissism may have provided some impetus, there are other aspects of his character that are not as obsessed with “grandiosity” as Mitchell claims. For example, the creation of the “Jay Gatsby” may have been a product of infantile fantasy, something a “seventeen-year old would be likely to invent” (Fitzgerald 98). “Gatsby”, although an idealization of himself, acknowledges reality and comes to accept its terms. Gatsby realizes that, regarding the quest for Daisy, “he had lost a part of it, the freshest and the best, forever” (Fitzgerald 153). Mitchell also discusses the idea of a dual personality, between corruption and benevolence, which Gatsby uses in order to manipulate others around him. However, hypocrisy and a desire to reconstruct one’s identity are common flaws of human beings. Although Gatsby may have been carried away by his “overwhelming self-absorption,” it does not mean that he is entirely disconnected from reality.

Giles Mitchell is a professor of English at the University of North Texas. He has written other works detailing pathological narcissism including analyses of characters in Dostoevskii's Crime and Punishment, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, and Miller’s Death of a Salesman.

Works Cited
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1992.
Mitchell, Giles. “Gatsby is a Pathological Narcissist.” American Journal of Psychoanalysis 51.4 (1991): 387-96.

Monica Cho
Allison Duh
Soumya Yanamandra

"Freeze!" -- The Economy

Summary

The article “Freeze!” starts off by focusing on a banker that has working for sixteen hours, carefully watching the collapse of the global economy. All of sudden, the world is having extreme credit problems and the economy is in a “frozen” state. The American economy alone has gone down 8.4 trillion dollars in the last year. When something bad happens with in the economy, people start to freak out. They try to sell anything they can, such as stocks, and they stop putting lots of money in banks. There is a lack of interbank lending, and money is beginning to “dry up.” Blame is being placed on nearly everyone: politicians, the wealthy, the poor, various political parties, and banks.
It is believed, that in the end, Americans will ultimately pull through this crisis by working harder, implementing new policies, and slowly paying off debts as they did in the past during the Great Depression. However, a person can only work so hard – there are only so many hours in the day. Worst case scenario: America may no longer be the most powerful country in the world, and we will become a little poorer. But in the end, globally, we will overcome the economic slump.


Questions

1. The end of the article mentions that this crash may "the end of the empire". Is America really an empire, and can we really consider this the end of the United States as a financial superpower? How much will this impact the rest of the world?

2. How has the blame game affected the progress of solving the global economic crisis?

3. How might the upcoming election affect the economy? What kind of impact might either candidate have on the economy if he became president?

The Nation: Follow Up for Sarah Palin

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081027/pollitt/print

If John McCain wins the election, it is possible that he may overturn Roe v. Wade. No questions related to women have been asked, so not much is known about John McCain's view on equal pay, Supreme Court, violence against women, and rape kits. Palin's view of abortion is this: she believes that the person should not abort the baby even if the conditions are infavorable. However, she contradicts herself by saying that the circumstances would be awful or there will be many negative consequences to the birth of the baby. In a recent CBS interview, she metioned jail time for victims of rape who had an abortion. This has never happened before, so the question that comes up is really why she mentioned it in the first place.

Discussion:

1. Is it right for Palin to be going against generations of women and a Supreme Court Decision?
2. Do you think that Sarah Palin would keep her right-winged views if she was a victim of rape?
3. What affects your decision on which candidates you support?
4. What are the predicted effects if Roe v. Wade is overturned?

"Back to the Jungle"

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200809u/tainted-milk

"Back to the Jungle" - By Corby Kummer

“Back to The Jungle” talks about the growing issue of the unreliability of obtaining safe food in the world. Kummer talks about how international crises such as the tainted milk in China are becoming too common, and about how little is currently being done to protect against them. US companies are also failing to help stop this problem, as many manufacturers are ignoring and holding up recently passed laws that intend to protect the country from food poisoning. The manufacturers think that it is too expensive to follow certain procedures, such as identifying food origins by country, which would help people decide which foods they want to buy. Despite their view of its unimportance, this type of information could help consumers make a decision about what products they think are the safest to consume. More concerns have arisen from pet food poisoning, which has killed and caused many pets to become ill. In her book, Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine, Marion Nestle warns that this food poisoning in pet food is just a sign of things to come in human food, and uses animal experiences to serve as a warning. There is evidently a problem with food safety, and Kummer makes it clear that the FDA or another new organization needs to step up and try to help protect the public from these issues.

Discussion Questions:

1. Can you really put a price on safe food?
2. What products do you believe are the safest to consume?
3. Do you believe the FDA is doing all it can do to keep the food industry healthy and safe?

The End of Aviation

http://www.tnr.com/environmentenergy/story.html?id=78260c55-a850-478f-9ffd-b8023fd89459

“The End of Aviation” by Bradford Plumer (from The New Republic)

“The End of Aviation” discusses rising gas prices and their effect upon commercial flight and long-distance travel, and also what that means for people’s lifestyles. The rising oil prices have shown a definite trend of destruction, causing the end of “twenty-five airlines… this year… three to four times the usual yearly rate.” Another issue mentioned is climate change, and how several eco-groups are fighting for higher aviation taxes and speaking out against planes (“WE FLY, WE DIE”), as they are a high energy-consuming form of travel. It is mentioned that the cutbacks in airlines could actually be beneficial for them, if handled correctly, but sharp downsizing could still cause bankruptcy.

The article also notes the difference between the attitude towards flying in the 1950s, and that of today. Before, it was ridiculously expensive, and people dressed up when they went on extravagant planes with dining salons and beds. But after Congress deregulated the industry, smaller airlines began to gain more hold because middle-class people were willing to ride in discomfort to get to places that were previously inaccessible. The expansion of air-travel allowed people to vacation abroad, communicate over longer distances easier, and jump on a plane to go to a meeting for just one day; it also provided an opening for terrorism and communicable diseases. But nowadays, the increasing cost of flying will mean more teleconferencing, reluctance to move away from family or vacation far from home and hurt hot vacation spots like Las Vegas and small towns with struggling airports.

Making air-travel eco-friendly is, however, much harder than it will be with cars. Cars already have early improvements to use less gas, and more independent hybrids are on the way. On the other hand, airplanes use so much more energy that the task will be much harder. The technology required to improve jets’ fuel efficiency even further besides small things like charging more is at best, in early-planning stages. Other options that the article suggests are high-speed trains, and the return of airships and zeppelins.

Follow-up Questions:

1. Do you think that America’s air-travel would ever come to a complete stop?
2. How would the bankruptcy of airlines affect the U.S./world economy?
3. Is there a significant cause for worry in regards to global warming coming from the inefficiency of airplanes?