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Chapter 1THE PROBLEM

Introduction

The Lord has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for

a day of disaster. (Proverbs 16:4)

If heaven made man, earth can surely find use for him. For there can be

no doubt that God brings that creation into existence and then makes it return to

Himself. It is in his will that he leads man to the road which leads to Him though

many obstacles have come to his way. God, indeed, is powerful over all things.

When man is born to the Earth, he grows up filling himself with knowledge

and values that later urges him to search for self-actualization. Yet, being self-

actualize seems no end, a beyond-limit desire of man to exist significantly. The

ego exists because man go on pedalling desire, because he go on striving to get

something, because he go on jumping ahead of himself.

Man is the only known animal, according to earth-bound existentialists,

that defines itself through the act of living. In other words, first a man or woman

exists, and then the individual spends a lifetime changing his or her essence.

Without life there can be no meaning; the search for meaning in existentialism is

the search for self which is why there is existential psychotherapy. In other

words, man defines himself by living; suicide would indicate that he has chosen

to have no meaning.

To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life. But, existentialism is not

dark. It is not depressing. Existentialism is about life. Existentialists believe in

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living and in fighting for life.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” has been one of the greatest

novels of the 20th century. This involves the life of Mr. Jay Gatsby, a young,

mysterious millionaire later revealed to be a bootlegger. Jay Gatsby, through his

obsessive love for Daisy Buchanan, strive to uplift himself from suffering and

move to a complete grace to reach his greatest existence, being a man and a

lover of Daisy Buchanan.

Existentialism will be analyzed on Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great

Gatsby” and how the characters particularly Gatsby deal with the condition of

existence. Moreover, the current Filipino family’s view on aspiring success in

affairs and careers are also taken into account.

Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this study is to understand existentialism on Francis Scott

Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby.”

Specifically, it attempts to answer the following questions:

1. How do the characters deal with the condition of existence?

2. What are the elements of Existentialism present in the:

a. setting

b. theme

c. characters motive/actions

d. plot?

3. What are the existential-philosophical crises met by the characters in the

“Great Gatsby”?

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4. What literary devices or techniques did the author use in depicting

existentialism in the novel?

5. How does the novel affect the current Filipinos family’s view on affairs and

careers?

Significance of the Study

The study aims to understand existentialism on Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s

“Great Gatsby.” The study is said to be beneficial to the following:

To the students, this research study can enrich their knowledge about

existentialism and how F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the importance of existence of

human life in his novel. They can learn to appreciate the works of Fitzgerald and

eventually, they can be encouraged to read more books. This can also serve as a

guide for them as they grow up and live meaningfully.

To the teachers, this research study can be an instrument for them to

teach students about existentialism in a novel and what is given significance in

this particular Ism. This can help them in understanding Fitzgerald not only as a

modernist but as an existentialist.

To Great Gatsby’s readers, this research study can help them better

understand the contents of the novel. This can also serve as a guide for them in

analyzing certain circumstances in the Great Gatsby and how existentialism

concerns the novel.

To other literature researchers, this research study can help them for their

future researches about F. Scott Fitzgerald and his works.

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Scope and Limitation

This research focuses on the novel itself written by Francis Scott

Fitzgerald. This focuses on the importance of existence of life which is

existentialism, and how the author described the characters, their beliefs,

attitudes and personalities.

Furthermore, this study centers on the existential-philosophical issues that

the characters faced in the story and how these issues affected the readers. This

includes references about Existentialism.

Theoretical Framework

Despite the emphasis on individuality, twentieth century existentialist

rejected the notion of an individualized self-existing independently of others.

They understood the individual as inescapably linked with others. A human being

does not exist statically among others without affecting them or being affected by

them. Moreover, when one undertakes practical tasks, one understands the

meaning of situations, objects and events in ways that draw one into a world

peopled by others and shaped by them. The individual’s activities and

understanding do not occur in a self-enclosed space; rather they open into the

world – a world shared by others.

Sartre’s (as quoted by Patrick, 2001) existential theory “Being-with-others”

presents the people’s active engagement with the world, which is permeated by

their relations with others. When man enter into the concrete relations with others

in friendship, love, kinship or mere acquaintance, his self-awareness is reflected

in the awareness other have of him. Others can watch him, interpret his behavior,

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judge him, love him or hate him; He exists for them. Their feedback of what he

does and who he is deprives him of full control over his own self-definition.

In this research study, another theory connected to Sartre’s existential

theory of being-with-others is Gould’s (1963) Diotima Platonic Love Theory which

consists of the following parts: First, Diotima defines Love as the desire to

possess the good or the beautiful forever. Second, this desire is not only the

openly sexual kind, but also the desire of riches, the artist's desire of beautiful

works, or the philosopher's love of wisdom. Third, all lovers desire to create

either children, or such more intellectual things as art works and political

systems. By being creative lovers achieve some sort of immortality. Lastly, the

beauty and offspring of the mind are more honorable than those of the body. The

most admirable lovers are those who move from the love of the physical and

individual to the love of the intellectual and general.

To exist as a human being is not simply to be with others in a way that he

exists with nature, but to exist for others. Sartre’s existential theory of being-with-

others is the basis of this research study dealing with existentialism on Francis

Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby since this book tackles about Jay Gatsby

searching for a meaningful existence through having his beloved one. According

to this theory, most of the emotions and decisions register how aware man is that

he exists for others. He chooses many of his actions in view of how others will be

affected by them or how others will judge him. Diotima’s theory of Platonic Love

is connected to Sartre’s existential theory “Being-with-others” in which it embarks

upon the relationship with Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan who greatly affect

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other characters and the story as a whole. These two theories serve as the basis

or framework which will guide the researcher.

Definition of Terms

The following terms were defined lexically and operationally for a better

understanding of the study:

American Dream. This term refers to home ownership as status symbols

separating the middle classes and the poor. (Wikipedia, 2010) This term refers to

the national ethos of the United States of America in which democratic ideals are

perceived as a promise of prosperity for its people.

Angst. This term refers to a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity.

(Merriam-Webster, 2010) This term refers to be the experience of humans'

freedom and responsibility.

Defence mechanism. This term refers to an unconscious psychological

strategy brought into play by various entities to cope with reality and to maintain

self-image. (Wikipedia, 2010) This term refers to aids used to help humans

compromise solutions to conflicts that it is unable to resolve.

Existence. This term refers to the state or fact of having being especially

independently of human consciousness and as contrasted with nonexistence.

(Merriam-Webster, 2010) This term refers to the fact or state of continued being

or life.

Existentialism. This refers to a philosophical movement that views human

existence as having a set of underlying themes and characteristics, such as

anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death, and consciousness of existing.

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(Psychology Wiki, 2010) This term refers to the literary ism with emphasis on

meaningful existence.

Facticity. This term refers to the quality or state of being a fact.

(Wiktionary, 2010) This term refers to the concept of Existentialism, "in-itself" of

which humans are in the mode of not being.

Introspection. This term refers to contemplation of one's own thoughts,

feelings, and sensations. (Merriam-Webster, 2010) This term refers to the

existential element of understanding how existence feels by being aware of inner

workings.

Novel. This refers to the genre encompasses a wide range of types and

styles, including picaresque, epistolary, gothic, romantic, realist, and historical

novels. (Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2010) This refers to a fictional prose narrative

of considerable length, typically having a plot that is unfolded by the actions,

speech, and thoughts of the characters.

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Chapter 2REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents and discusses the related literature and studies

regarding this research study.

Related Literature

"Fiction is not a dream. Nor is it guesswork. It is imagining based on facts,

and the facts must be accurate or the work of imagining will not stand up." --

Margaret Banning

What a novel is. A novel is a fictional piece of prose usually written in a

narrative style. Novels tell stories, which are typically defined as a series of

events described in a sequence. The novel has been a part of human culture for

over a thousand years, although its origins are somewhat debated. Regardless of

how it began, the novel has risen to prominence and remained one of the most

popular and treasured examples of human culture and writing.

(http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-novel.htm)

There have been stories and tales for thousands of years, but novels must

combine a few unique characteristics in order to be defined as such. First, a

novel is written down rather than told through an oral account. Secondly, novels

are meant to be fictional in form, differentiating them from myths, which are said

to have their basis in reality or theology. (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-

novel.htm)

Prior to the rise of the novel very little work written in prose was taken

seriously as artistic literature. People used prose for science, law, history, and

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philosophy, but the general attitude was that work written without poetry could

hardly count as aesthetically interesting on its own. The novel is thus historically

linked with realism in style and content, but this can no longer be considered

generally true. The discovery of the wealth of aesthetic value that inheres in

prose not constrained by poetic structures can be considered a major

development in world literature. (http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclop

edia/Novel/)

Elements of a novel. There are many things to consider when writing

novel. It is not written down just as simple as a poem or short story. A novel is

composed of different elements that comprise its entire structure. Theme,

characterization, plot, point of view, and setting are the essential elements in a

novel. (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/novel_writing/111)

Theme is simply the moral of the story. It is the message the novel wishes

to convey or the lesson it wants the reader to learn. Theme is revealed through

the values of characters when confronting obstacles and resolving conflict in

pursuit of their goal. It can be considered the foundation and purpose of a novel.

Without purpose, the story becomes trivial. (http://www.suite101.com/a

rticle.cfm/novel_writing/111)

The single most important aspect of a good novel is characterization. The

reader must care about the characters in order to care about what happens to

them. To achieve this, the characters must be three-dimensional. Like real

people, characters have hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses, and one or

more objectives. (http://www.suite101.com/ article.cfm/novel_writing/111)

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Plot is the movement in a story toward the resolution. Every scene should

further the plot. Plot is shown through the actions and agendas of the characters.

Throughout the story, they overcome obstacles until they finally reach their

goal(s). If the novel is well plotted, the stakes will get higher and higher thereby

creating tension. (http://www.suite101.com/ article.cfm/novel_writing/111)

An essential ingredient of the plot is conflict. Two types of conflict are

possible. External conflict could be man against nature or man against man.

While internal conflict, man vs. himself, might not seem as exciting as external,

remember that real life has far more internal than external conflict.

(http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/novel_writing/111)

Point of view is who is telling the story. This can be done several ways. In

first person, one character is speaking in the "I" voice. Second person, which

uses "you," is the least common point of view. Third person is the most often

used method. In third person limited, the narrator can only go inside the head of

the character telling the story. Third person omniscient gives the author the most

freedom. Using this, the author can have different point of view characters for

different scenes. (http://www. suite101.com/article.cfm/novel_writing/111)

Setting must serve the style and story. When using a real place, make

sure that it is right. A setting, it needs to be believable. The setting comes alive

with details. The setting of a novel encompasses a number of different, but

linked, elements. The time (day or night; summer or winter; the historical period),

place (inside or outside; country or city) and mood and atmosphere (dangerous;

menacing; tense; threatening; relaxing). (http://www.write101.com/novel.htm)

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Existentialism and its history. Existentialism is a philosophical approach to

understanding human existence and experiences. It is based on the assumption

that individuals are free and responsible for their own choices and actions.

Hence, we are not victims of circumstance because we are what we have chosen

to be. (http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/ glossaryah/g/Existentialism.htm)

Existentialism is more a trend or tendency that can be found throughout

the history of philosophy. It is hostile towards abstract theories or systems that

propose to describe all of the intricacies and difficulties of human life through

more-or-less simplistic formulas. Existentialists focus primarily on matters such

as choice, individuality, subjectivity, freedom, and the nature of existence itself.

(http://atheism.about.com/od/philosophyschoolssystems/p/existentialism.htm)

The transition form Phenomenology to Existentialism is readily made. In

fact, many Phenomenologists have become adherents of Existentialism, and

because of the close ideological relationships between the two philosophical

systems, an understanding of one facilitates the understanding of other.

(Sahakian, 1968, p.342)

Existentialism, as a movement grew out of the Phenomenological

movement but its basic philosophy can be traced back to the ideas the Danish

philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) and acknowledged father of

Existential philosophy. For over a century, Kierkegaard’s philosophy was largely

unknown to English-speaking people owing to their lack of familiarity with the

Danish language. (Sahakian, 1968, p.342)

On the existential view, to understand what a human being is it is not

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enough to know all the truths that natural science including the science of

psychology could tell us. The dualist who holds that human beings are composed

of independent substances, the mind and body, is no better off in this regard than

is the physicalist, who holds that human existence can be adequately explained

in terms of the fundamental physical constituents of the universe. (Shrauger,

1979, p. 25 - 26)

The term "existentialism" seems to have been coined by the French

philosopher Gabriel Marcel in the mid-1940s and adopted by Jean-Paul Sartre

who, on October 29, 1945, discussed his own existentialist position in a lecture to

the Club Maintenant in Paris. (Cooper, 1990, p. 1)

Concepts of Existentialism. Existentialist thinkers focus on the question of

concrete human existence and the conditions of this existence rather than

hypothesizing a human essence, stressing that the human essence is

determined through life choices. Even though the concrete individual existence

must have priority in existentialism, certain conditions are commonly held to be

endemic to human existence. (Wikipedia, 2009)

The central proposition of existentialism is that existence precedes

essence, which means that the actual life of the individual is what constitutes his

essence. Human being, through his consciousness, creates his own values and

determines a meaning to his life. As Sartre puts it in his Existentialism is

Humanism: "man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world –

and defines himself afterwards." (Wikipedia, 2009)

Angst, also called dread, anxiety or even anguish is a term that is common

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to many existentialist thinkers. It is generally held to be the experience of

humans' freedom and responsibility. One senses the lack of anything that

predetermines one to either throw oneself off or to stand still, and one

experiences one's own freedom. (Wikipedia, 2009)

The existentialist concept of freedom is related to the insistence on the

absurdity of the world and the assumption that there exist no relevant or

absolutely good or bad values. However, that there are no values to be found in

the world in-itself does not mean that there are no values. (Wikipedia, 2009)

Facticity is both a limitation and a condition of freedom. It is a limitation in

that a large part of one's facticity consists of things one couldn't have chosen but

a condition in the sense that one's values most likely will depend on it.

(Wikipedia, 2009)

Authenticity states that one should act as oneself, not as one acts or as

one's genes or any other essence require. The authentic act is one that is in

accordance with one's freedom. (Wikipedia, 2009)

Despair in existentialism is more specifically related to the reaction to a

breakdown in one or more of the "pillars" of one's self or identity. If one is

invested in being a particular thing, man finds oneself in a situation in which one

has done something or had something happen to oneself that compromises this

being-thing; one would normally find oneself in a state of despair, a hopeless

state. (Wikipedia, 2009)

The Other is a concept more properly belonging to phenomenology and its

account of inter-subjectivity. The experience of the Other is the experience of

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another free subject who inhabits the same world as a person does. In its most

basic form, it is this experience of the Other that constitutes inter-subjectivity and

objectivity. (Wikipedia, 2009)

The Look is an important dynamic force in the relationships of characters.

It is the initial source of judgements they make about one another, and it

becomes an instrument of torture that the three characters inflict on one another.

(Patrick, 2001, p. 86)

Existentialism asserts that people actually make decisions based on the

meaning to them rather than rationally. The rejection of reason as the source of

meaning is a common theme of existentialist thought, as is the focus on the

feelings of anxiety and dread that we feel in the face of our own radical freedom

and our awareness of death. (Wikipedia, 2009)

The notion of the Absurd contains the idea that there is no meaning to be

found in the world beyond what meaning we give to it. This meaninglessness

also encompasses the amorality or "unfairness" of the world. (Wikipedia, 2009)

Proponents. The great revival of Kierkegaard’s Existentialism maybe

attributed primarily to Martin Heidegger (1889), who transmitted much of it to his

student, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905). Jean Wahl (1888), who coined the term

Existentialism, is credited with having founded the French school of Existentialist

philosophy. Among important contemporary adherents are the German atheist

Karl Jaspers (1883), the French-Algerian atheist Albert Camus (1913-1960), and

the French Roman Catholic theist Gabriel Marcel (1889). (Sahakian, 1968,

p.342)

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Influential adherents of Existentialism have also included Nicolas

Alexandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948), the Russian Neo-Romanticist; Leo

Isakovich Shestov (1866-1938), a Russian exponent of the philosophy of

irrationalism; and Jose Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) and Miguel de Unamuno

(1864-1936), the two best-known of recent Spanish philosophers. (Sahakian,

1968, p.342)

The essence of Kierkegaard’s philosophy can be seen in his doctrine that

there are three stages of life experience: (1) aesthetic, (2) ethical, and (3)

religious. These represent three attitudes toward life, three philosophies of life. All

of them reflects man’s attempt to win salvation, to gain satisfaction or life’s

greatest good, while it is still within reach. Kierkegaardian philosophy is

fundamentally in direct antithesis to Hegelianism. Whereas Hegel placed the

emphasis on speculative thought, Kierkegaardian placed it on existence

(Sahakian, 1968, p.342)

The German philosopher Martin Heidegger relinquished his role as a

leader of the Phenomenological movement to become the chief promoter of

contemporary Existentialism of the Kierkegaardian type. His most distinguished

student, Jean-Paul Sartre, became the leader of the French Existentialists.

Heidegger’s influence has been widespread. Heidegger utilized the

Phenomenological method in approaching the fundamental problems of the

nature of Being, but since the problem of Being is an ontological consideration,

he viewed philosophy as Phenomenological ontology based on the hermeneutics

(the science which interprets) of human existence. (Sahakian, 1968, p.342)

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Heidegger and Sartre have been the most influential, and both have owed

a great deal in their thinking to Kierkegaard. Jean-Paul Sartre’s works dealt with

the fundamental problem of Dualism between the subject and object. Man

creates his values as well as determining what he himself is to be as a result of

freedom and choices. The universe is a human universe, and man is his own

lawmaker. The fate of the world rests on man’s decisions. This optimistic tone is

found in Sartre’s Existentialism is Humanism, but his Being and Nothingness

offers fundamentally a philosophy of humanism. (Sahakian, 1968, p.342)

Notwithstanding the pessimistic views of Sartre’s writings, his

Existentialism ends in a note of optimism, for his Existentialism is Humanism

concludes with the declaration that Existentialism does not plunge man into

despair but is an optimistic doctrine of action, that man is his own lawmaker, a

creator of values, living in a human universe of human subjectivity, and capable

of self-fulfilment. (Sahakian, 1968, p.342)

Plot of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby.” Nick Carraway moved to the

East renting a house in Long Island's West Egg section. Jay Gatsby is a wealthy

neighbor living next door holding many extravagant weekend parties. They met

when Nick visited Daisy who is living with Tom Buchanan. As it turns out, Jay

Gatsby and Daisy had an affair before but separated due to Gatsby’s lack of

wealth. Meanwhile, Gatsby spent all of his effort after the war to buy his mansion

through shady business dealings in order to be nearer to Daisy in the hope that

she would leave Tom for him. Nick is chosen to be the matchmaker and arranges

a reunion for the two at his home. Daisy is impressed by Gatsby's wealth and the

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two begin spending much time together, raising the suspicions of Tom who had

also upset Daisy by carrying on an affair with a gas station owner's wife, Myrtle

Wilson. (Bookrags, 2000)

There was a massive confrontation during which Tom exposes Gatsby's

corrupt business dealings. Jay and Daisy leave to drive back to Long Island

together with her driving Gatsby's car until she accidentally hits and kills Tom's

mistress. While Nick goes off to work in New York City the next day, the dead

woman's vengeful husband, assuming Gatsby to have been driving his car that

night and told that it had been Gatsby's car by a vengeful Tom Buchanan, shoots

Gatsby to death in his own swimming pool and then kills himself. Gatsby's funeral

has few in attendance aside from Carraway and Jay's father who has come all

the way from the Midwest where Jay grew up. (Bookrags, 2000)

Historical Context of “Great Gatsby.” Published in 1925, The “Great

Gatsby” is known as the Great American Novel and is considered the defining

work of the 1920's, the decade often referred to as the Jazz Age. America had

just come out of World War I, one of the bloodiest and most violent episodes in

this nation's history. The entire society was submerged in disillusionment,

scepticism, cultural experimentation, and hedonism. (Cline, 1927, p. 17)

After suffering through this tragic war, the 1920's were an era of optimism

and aspiration, a time when individuals felt that they could leave behind their

pasts completely and could become anyone they wanted to be. (Cline, 1927, p.

17)

One of the most important themes in The “Great Gatsby” is its focus on

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money as the foundation of American society. At the turn of the twentieth century,

immigrants were coming to the United States by the millions because they

believed in the American Dream of abandoning a past of poverty and embracing

the possibility of rolling in money in the land of freedom and liberty. (Canterbury,

2006, 189)

According to Donaldson (1984), America experienced an unprecedented

economic boom in the 1920s that allowed the values of materialism and ambition

to take over the American mindset. With social mobility apparently possible for

everyone during the 1920's, many Americans did try to involve themselves in

"get-rich-quick" schemes that sometimes included illegal activities such as

gambling and bootlegging. (p. 106 – 107)

Organized crime became a means of rebelling against Prohibition. The

1920's was known as the Jazz Age for a reason - the country fell in love with

music and flapper girls, both of which became intimately associated with

hedonistic good times and illegal activities. It is appropriate that Fitzgerald

included a Wolfshiem character in his book, for the fixing of the World Series

reflected the idea that money could buy any American absolutely anything, even

love and happiness. (Donaldson, 1984 p. 106 - 107)

The Roaring Twenties exited to make way for a decade of tragedy and

unfulfilled want. After the nation spent an entire decade celebrating the great

economic boom that it had enjoyed in the 1920's, the stock market crash in 1929

sent the economy into a tragic tailspin that began the terrible Great Depression of

the 1930's. Americans struggled to survive and learned to cherish the values of

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frugality and self-discipline. (Donaldson, 1984, p. 105)

Biography of the Author. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American

writer of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a

term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's

great writers. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation".

(Prigozy, 2002, p. 140)

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota to an Irish upper-middle class Roman Catholic

family, Fitzgerald was named after his famous second cousin, twice removed,

Francis Scott Key. (Bruccoli & Smith, 2002, p. 13)

He was the only son of Edward Fitzgerald and Mary Mollie McQuilla, but

had one sister, Annabel, born in 1901. He was married to Zelda Sayre. (Bruccoli

& Smith, 2002, p. 12)

Fitzgerald complained that he spent too much time on his short stories

simply for the sake of earning money to afford the lifestyle he and Zelda

established in the 1920s, yet some of his best work were found in his short

stories. (Curnutt, 2004, p. 34 - 36)

When Fitzgerald settled on Riviera, he worked intensively on his novels

such as “Tender is the Night”, “Save me the Waltz” and “Life in letters.” During

this time, Zelda met and became infatuated with a young French aviator,

Edouard Jozan. (Curnutt, 2004, p. 33)

Fitzgerald's contribution to literature is his imaginative penetration to the

American world. He points out the central moral dilemma of American life - the

possibilities of life which are made available by wealth but the lack of a

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heightened sensitivity among the rich. Fitzgerald's work and legend has inspired

writers ever since he was first published. The publication of The “Great Gatsby”

prompted T. S. Eliot to write, in a letter to Fitzgerald. (Wilson, 1993, p. 310)

Fitzgerald is a 2009 inductee of the New Jersey Hall of Fame. (Yahoo

News, 2009)

Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age. The Jazz Age describes the period after the

end of World War I, through the Roaring Twenties, ending with the onset of the

Great Depression. Traditional values of the previous period declined while the

American stock market soared. There were many great things introduced to

American during the jazz age. (Allen, 1931, p. 17)

Most young American veterans of the First World War came home

changed by two revelations. One was the horror of trench warfare; the other was

their exposure to life in London and Paris, where artists and writers celebrated

sheer survival with decadent verve. (Allen, 1931, p. 10)

Raised by Puritan-minded parents to succeed first at Ivy League

universities and then in business, masses of young men and their wives-to-be

returned at least mildly shell-shocked by their conflicting experiences. (Best,

2003, p. 124 - 125)

Despite serving stateside during the war, F. Scott Fitzgerald nevertheless

wrote of this disenchantment and its consequences in his greatest works. The

nihilism of this Lost Generation is evident from This Side of Paradise's concluding

page, when Fitzgerald said they had "grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars

fought all faiths in man shaken." (Best, 2003, p. 124 - 125)

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Americans had two strong and opposite reactions to this state of affairs:

The older generation pushed for new laws to control social outbursts, and the

new generation rejected those laws, especially the 1920 Prohibition Act, which

forbade the sale and consumption of alcohol. Many Americans turned to

bootleggers, who illegally either served alcohol smuggled from abroad or distilled

their own. In the “Great Gatsby”, the title character's party guests often attribute

his extraordinary wealth to bootlegging and other illicit activities. (Parrish, 1992,

p. 166)

Not only was he the most famous writer of the 1920s, Fitzgerald also

coined the term Jazz Age, which denoted an era of ragtime, jazz, stylish

automobiles, and uninhibited young women with bobbed hair and short skirts.

(http://reading.cornell.edu/reading_project_06/gatsby/jazz_age.htm)

Often called the Roaring Twenties, the post-war decade sometimes

appears as one long flamboyant party, where the urban rich danced the

Charleston and the foxtrot until 2 am. In fact, one might just as convincingly

describe it as a period of individual possibility and lofty aspirations to serve the

greater good. In his 1931 essay "Echoes of the Jazz Age," Fitzgerald wrote, "It

was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was

an age of satire." (http://www.academicinfo.net/usmodjazz.html)

One of the most representative literary works of the Jazz age is American

writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925), which highlighted what

some describe as the corruption of the post-World War I age as well as the

growth of individualism. (Mezener, 2000, p. 14)

22

Related Studies

Early reviews of Gatsby were mixed, and relatively few copies actually had

sold before Fitzgerald's death in 1940. It was not until a revival of Fitzgerald's

works in the 1950s that the novel began to attract serious criticism. For the five

ensuing decades, Gatsby has continued to attract critical attention and

reappraisal. Critics have praised Fitzgerald's tightly woven narrative, and many

have focused on the position of the narrator, Nick Carraway, and the subjective

limitations of his observations of Gatsby's saga.

According to Hermanson (1997), a doctoral candidate at the University of

Toronto, the novel is narrated in retrospect that it introduced a critical distance

and perspective. Fate could have played an important role if tragedy in the novel

is to be considered. It is obvious that God does not exist from the skies of East

and West Egg because of the lack of religious system.

“Great Gatsby expresses one phase of the great grotesque spectacle of

our American scene. It is humor, irony, ribaldry, pathos and loveliness. A curious

book, a mystical, glamorous story of today. It takes a deeper cut at life than

hitherto has been essayed by Mr. Fitzgerald. He writes well -- he always has --

for he writes naturally, and his sense of form is becoming perfected”. (Clark,

1925)

Stratton (2006) states that “Great Gatsby” is a story of the Lost

Generation. Some of the best works of this generation deal with the general

unfairness in the world. The character, Jay Gatsby, was born poor and builds up

an immense fortune but class does not shift so easily as his neighbors. Disdain is

23

another part of the story because Gatsby’s desires are not the same as his

neighbors. The upper class remains another hidden world.

According to Morris (2000), The Great Gatsby is not a book about a man

who goes to East Egg, but rather a book who comes from and brings with him

the values of West Egg. There are pages so artfully contrived that one can no

more imagine improvising them than one can imagine improvising a fugue.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald was at his first-rate quantum best, when he used

everything he knew of society--as critic, as victim--to compose at least one work,

'The Great Gatsby’ that in a few pages arcs the American continent and gives us

a perfect structural allegory of our deadly class-ridden longings." (Doctorow ,

1996)

Yust (1925) states that The Great Gatsby is one that refuses to be

ignored. It is not a book which might fall into the category of those destined to

investigation by a vice mission, and yet it is a shocking book--one that reveals

incredible grossness, thoughtlessness, polite corruption.

It is interesting, in retrospect, that narrator Nick Carraway is a Wall Street

trader. Since Fitzgerald published this in 1925, he was not aware of the stock

market crash a few years in the future, but we, of course, are. This knowledge

adds an interesting twist to all of Carraway’s decisions. (Stratton, 2006)

T. S. Eliot (1925) sent Fitzgerald a letter which says “it has interested and

excited me more than any new novel I have seen. Either English or American for

a number of years... in fact it has seems to me such a remarkable book, first step

that American fiction has taken place since Henry James.”

24

It is the view that Fitzgerald was writing about the superannuation of

traditional American belief, the obsolescence of accepted folklore. The Great

Gatsby is about many things, but it is inescapably a general critique of the

"American dream" and also of the "agrarian myth"—a powerful demonstration of

their invalidity for Americans. (Trask, 1960)

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Chapter 3RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES

This chapter presents the methods used, material criticized, procedures

followed and the treatment of the analysis of the novel.

Research Design

The research study employed the descriptive method of research with

emphasis on content analysis. According to Best (2003), descriptive method is a

logical manner of inductive-deductive reasoning to arrive at generalizations.

Thus, this research study involves a deep analysis and critical examination of the

novel’s content. Prior to this, the novel, Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby”

was thoroughly analyzed and studied, keeping in mind the writer’s thoughts and

attitude toward his work and the elements of existentialism involved in the novel.

In analyzing Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby,” the researcher used the

sociological and formalistic approach in literary criticism. Sociological criticism

focuses on the relationship between literature and society. According to Stryker

(1980), a sociological approach to self and identity begins with the assumption

that there is a reciprocal relationship between the self and society. In the process

of analysis, the researchers analyzed the characters in the social context in

which they exist and how the characters deal with the conditions of existentialism

in the novel.

Noah (2002) stated that a formalistic approach to literature, once called

New Criticism, involves a close reading of the text, without considering the author

and time period into effect. It refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret,

25

26

or evaluate the inherent features of a text. These features include not only

grammar and syntax but also literary devices such as meter and tropes. The

formalist approach reduces the importance of a text’s historical, biographical, and

cultural context. This is used in analyzing Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby.”

Materials Used

The primary material used in the study is Penguin Classics paperback of

Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby. It was chosen for the reason that F.

Scott Fitzgerald can be considered as a devout existentialist and that his novel

must contain the elements of existentialism. Other materials used were books

about the author and existentialism.

Research Procedure

The researchers studied Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby.” The

researchers read a number of books about novel, considering the definition and

elements of a novel. Furthermore, the researchers considered reading the

historical account of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” and his life. They also

researched on how Existentialism came into being and the different elements of

the given Ism.

The study used the descriptive method of research with emphasis on

content and character analysis. The personality, attitude, thoughts and actions-

reactions of the characters in various situations were carefully analyzed to have

meaningful understanding of the novel, to come on what elements of

existentialism are present in the novel.

27

Chapter IVPRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This chapter presents the data, analysis and interpretation data related to

the present study.

Characters and the condition of existence. This presents the major charac-

ters from Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” and how they deal with the condition of ex-

istence.

One of the central beliefs of the Great Gatsby is that the absurdity and in-

humanity of the godless modern world must be combated by brave, noncon-

formist individuals. Jay Gatsby is the "brave, nonconformist individual" that

Fitzgerald uses in his novel. Gatsby was focused solely on obtaining the admira-

tion and affection of Daisy, and he did not allow anybody else to influence him

otherwise. His love for Daisy is described in the dialogue below which tells how

Gatsby feels when he kissed Daisy and that is the start of Gatsby’s never ending

love for that woman. Gatsby never stopped loving Daisy and he still continued to

get her even though she is already married.

“He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a mo-ment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete”. (Chapter 6, p. 119)

Jay Gatsby waited for Daisy for a long time even during his war. When

Daisy married Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby failed to reach his ultimate dream of

love for Daisy in that he chose to pursue it by engaging in a lifestyle of high class

27

28

where Daisy belongs to. Gatsby realized that life of the high class demands

wealth to become priority; wealth became his superficial goal overshadowing his

quest for love. He established his necessity to acquire wealth, which allowed him

to be with Daisy. He created a second life for himself and for Daisy. This

presents another existential concept which is “existence precedes essence”, that

is, man is born with no God-given soul or human essence, so it’s his job to create

it for himself as he goes about existing.

"He wanted to recover something, some idea of himself per-haps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was." (Chapter 6, p. 118)

Gatsby obsessively desired to make Daisy fall for him again. Thus, Gatsby

engaged in criminal activity as his only path to being rich. His need for money

had become so great that he was in the drug business. Furthermore, he lied to

Nick about his past and claimed to others that he has inherited his wealth in or-

der to cover up his criminal activity. Gatsby entered a world where money takes

precedence over moral integrity. Materialism has already overshadowed a por-

tion of his spiritual side.

“I thought you inherited your money.”“I did, old sport,” he said automaticall“but I lost most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war.” I

think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what business he was in he answered, “That’s my affair,” before he realized that it wasn’t the appropriate reply. “Oh, I’ve been in sev-eral things,” he corrected himself. “I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I’m not in either one now.” He looked at me with more attention. “Do you mean you’ve been think-ing over what I proposed the other night?” (Chapter 5, p. 97)

29

When Gatsby first met Daisy and when they are reunited, he is profoundly

dishonest and manipulative. In asking Daisy to leave Tom, he is being scheming

to get her to be with him. Gatsby lied to Daisy without the slightest bit of remorse

because she is the idealized object of his dreams and, therefore, is not real.

Daisy is considered a possession and Gatsby has to fight Tom for this posses-

sion. When Tom and Gatsby were fighting over Daisy, Daisy is the prized pos-

session to be fought over on the basis of social and economic conventions. Daisy

is a possession of material to Tom, while Daisy is an ideal possession for

Gatsby. Either way, both are being manipulative and dishonest to Daisy. This

shows that neither one of them truly care for or about Daisy's feelings. This

presents the common concept of existentialism which is absurdity. Daisy, Tom

and Gatsby must strive to face all the hostilities and indifference of other people

toward them.

‘You don’t understand,’ said Gatsby, with a touch of panic. ‘You’re not going to take care of her anymore.’ ‘I’m not?’ Tom opened his eyes wide and laughed. He could afford to control him-self now. ‘Why’s that?’ ‘Daisy’s leaving you.’ ‘Nonsense.’‘I am, though,’ she said with a visible effort. (Chapter 7, p. 142)

Jay Gatsby earned all of his money and lived his whole life, in hopes to

win Daisy's affection. Gatsby's checkered past of bootlegging, shows that he

would stop at nothing to have Daisy. He separated to his family and traveled

away to educate himself and to enter illegal business. Gatsby became indepen-

dent throughout the story. He stayed away from his only father and tried to lie in

order to hide his real identity. Even during parties, Gatsby can’t be seen with oth-

ers mingling, instead, Gatsby is alone in one room or in corner. This presents the

30

concept of preserving separateness as an emblem of independence.

‘Jimmy always liked it better down East. He rose up to his position in the East. Were you a friend of my boy’s, Mr.—?’‘We were close friends. ‘He had a big future before him, you know. He was only a young man but he had a lot of brain power here. ‘He touched his head impressively and I nodded. ‘If he’d of lived he’d of been a great man, a man like James J. Hill. He’d of helped build up the country.’ (Chapter 9, p.179)

Daisy's rare elegance offers Gatsby a difficult time of separating money

and love. Jay's attempt to pursue Daisy fails due to her inability to leave her past

and his inability to lead a life without all the false glamour. The experience of love

deeply moves and changes Gatsby, but so pervasive is the culture of material

success that his new reverence and tenderness toward her are inseparable from

money and possessions. As long as Gatsby cannot be himself and Daisy cannot

love him for it, their affair is hopeless. The two are both fooling themselves. They

are dealing with the concept of authenticity which states that one should act as

oneself and one has to "find oneself" and then live in accordance with this self.

Tom Buchanan deals with the conditions of existentialism particularly the

arrogance, inauthenticity and angst. Tom's arrogance is evident through his so-

cial attitudes. These attitudes are underlined with racial remarks and feelings.

This is particularly apparent in his dissertation on the topic of white supremacy. In

a casual conversation with Nick, Daisy and Jordan, Toms restates facts from a

book he read attempting to appear knowledgeable on theories regarding racial

dominance. He asserts:

"If we don't look out the white race will be-will be utterly sub-merged...It's up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have control of things” (Chapter 1, p. 16)

31

These racial remarks reinforce stereotypes prevalent during the writing of

this novel. Toms has not considered that other cultures may have just as much

merit in their own right: Tom's arrogance regarding white supremacy is bordering

on ignorance. This shows the existential concept of inauthenticity in which he

tries to assure himself with the supremacy of the white race disregarding other

races.

Tom's arrogance is also perceptible when we learn he has been unfaithful

to his wife Daisy. This is discovered through a conversation between Jordan and

Nick while Tom and Daisy are arguing inside. It is inferred that his affairs have

been longstanding and frequent. This becomes apparent when Daisy is dis-

cussing her daughter's birth with Nick. Daisy states:

‘It’ll show you how I’ve gotten to feel about—things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’ (Chapter 1, p. 20)

Tom's arrogance is transparent; his wife was giving birth while he was with

his mistress. He is so self-absorbed that he failed to recognize the immense ef-

fect his actions have on the people around him. Daisy has some indication that

Tom has been cheating on her which exhibits further proof of his callousness and

arrogance. During this time, Daisy is dealing with the existential concept of de-

spair knowing that her husband has left her in the midst of her pregnancy and

that her husband has been cheating to her for a long time. Tom on the other

hand, is experiencing bad faith wherein he chooses to live inauthentically, cheat-

32

ing on her wife and even to his own self. His absurdity is represented by his ar-

rogance to his wife and family.

Angst is also represented when Tom Buchanan tries to control Nick with

his commanding character. Fitzgerald describes Tom as having:

"Two shinning, arrogant eyes had established a dominance over his face and gave him the appearance leaning aggressively forward."(Chapter 1, p. 9)

This essentially allows Tom to be controlling in a sense that he has the

physical ability to do so. The second indication of Tom's commanding character

takes place when Nick first enters the house.

"Wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine and com-pelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square." (Chapter 1, p. 14)

This action therefore provides an example of Tom's dominant nature evi-

dent through the manner he attempted to control Nick. These examples of dicta-

torial behavior display Tom's apparent controlling attributes.

Myrtle Wilson is married to George Wilson unaware that George is just a

poor lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop at the edge of the valley

of ashes. Myrtle herself possesses a fierce vitality and desperately looks for a

way to improve her situation. Thus, she accepts to be the mistress of Tom who

just looks to her as an object of desire.

"He borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in, and never told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out... I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried... all after-noon." (Chapter 2, p. 39)

But, Myrtle never really loved Tom, she just loved the life Tom led, and

would be willing to do anything to have that life herself. She loved what Tom

33

would buy her and the parties he would bring her to. Myrtle could have used any-

one with Tom's social class to give her that feeling that Tom gave her -the feeling

that she was better than she actually was. In this sense Tom symbolizes a portal,

which gives Myrtle brief periods of what she thinks is the best and most enjoy-

able way to live. This shows how Myrtle deal with bad faith in which she needs to

risk her life and commit to someone she doesn’t really love. Moreover, she is

also dealing with facticity which states that man has freedom yet there are limita-

tions. It is very difficult in the part of Myrtle since she is cheating on her husband.

Her commitment to Tom Buchanan is beyond her limitations.

But immediately Myrtle turned sharply from the window and, leaning forward, tapped on the front glass.“I want to get one of those dogs,” she said earnestly. “I want to get one for the apart-ment. They’re nice to have—a dog.”(Chapter 2, p. 30)

George Wilson, finding out about Myrtle’s relationship with Tom

Buchanan, experiences the existential element of despair which is the break-

down in one or more of the "pillars" of one's self or identity. George loved and

idealized Myrtle, and was devastated by her affair with Tom. He loved her a lot

and he did not want to let her go so he locked her in the closet and said;

'I've got my wife locked in up there,' explained Wilson calmly. 'She's going to stay there till the day after to-morrow, and then we're going to move away. “ (Chapter 7, p. 146)

He is consumed more with grief when Myrtle is killed. George is compara-

ble to Gatsby in that both are dreamers and both are ruined by their unrequited

love for women who love Tom. However, Wilson who can no longer endure de-

spair kills himself.

34

“God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me but you can’t fool God!’ (Chapter 8, p. 170)

Daisy Buchanan was born into family with money. She had already con-

fessed her love to Jay Gatsby before the young man went to the war but Daisy

married Tom Buchanan and with this, she married into more wealth. She is far

removed from the reality of knowing what it is like to work and struggle to get by

in life. She has been able to enjoy the lavish lifestyle of the upper class without

having had to work for it. Still, she found herself unsatisfied with what life has to

offer. It seems that her unhappiness stems from Tom’s infidelity, and her inability

to control him. She probably felt that she has been a fool and seems to imply that

being a sensible girl has led to her current disillusionment. She is facing the ab-

surdity of his husband. Moreover, she is dealing with the element of “existence

precedes essence” that Daisy can only find essence or meaning in her existence

if the discontentment in her heart will be satisfied or fulfilled.

That’s true." [Daisy] hesitated. "Well, I’ve had a very bad ... with a thrilling scorn. "Sophisticated – God, I’m sophisticated!"(Chapter 1, p. 20)

When the time came that Jay Gatsby asked her to choose between him

and Tom, she chose Gatsby knowing that the man had more wealth and power

than her husband, Tom. She is a lady who wanted a man who has much money

in hand. With this, Daisy deals with the element of reason wherein her action,

freedom and decision is fundamental. She needs to make a choice between Tom

and Gatsby with a rational reason. Yet, when she was asked to make a choice,

she inconsistently answers, choosing Gatsby but eventually leaving him at the

35

end. Daisy at the end chooses Tom Buchanan after she accidentally killed Myrtle

Wilson.

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (Chapter 9, p. 191)

Nick Carraway is the narrator representing the quiet, reflective Midwest-

erner adrift in the lurid East. Nick traveled independently to New York in 1922 to

learn the bond business. He lives in the West Egg district of Long Island, next

door to Gatsby. Nick is also Daisy’s cousin, which enabled him to observe and

assist the resurgent love affair between Daisy and Gatsby. As a result of his rela-

tionship to these two characters, Nick is the perfect choice to narrate the novel,

which functions as a personal memoir of his experiences with Gatsby in the sum-

mer of 1922. When Nick goes to West Egg, this shows how he becomes inde-

pendent from his family as he entered the bond business. His isolation to his

family shows the existential element of separateness as his emblem of indepen-

dence. His choice to enter the bond business also deals with the element of con-

crete existence where his human essence is determined through life choices.

Instead of being the warm center of the world the middle-west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I de-cided to go east and learn the bond business. (Chapter 1, p. 5)

Nick is fundamentally an honest guy. He’s skilled in the art of getting along

with everyone in public and rather sassily analyzing them in private. Nick may be

polite and easy to get along with on the outside, but he’s not afraid to tell it like it

36

is. Nick knows and accepts himself well. Throughout the novel, he deals with the

condition of authenticity. During the course of the novel, Nick gradually gets

sucked into the world he’s observing, both through his friendships with Tom,

Daisy, and Gatsby, and through his romantic relationship with Jordan. The

deeper he is drawn into these relationships, the less honest he becomes – until

at the end, Jordan rebukes him for being just as dishonest and careless as the

rest of them.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. (Chapter 3, p. 65)

At the end, Nick ultimately realized that he has no place in West Egg or in

New York, in the callous, judgmental, and fast-moving East egg. This lets him

deal with the condition of absurdity as he is involved in the life of Daisy, Tom and

Gatsby.

Elements of Existentialism in the Novel

a. Settings. The setting in “The Great Gatsby” is very important because in

Fitzgerald's world setting reveals characters and elements of Existentialism.

Fitzgerald divides the world of the novel into four major settings: East Egg, West

Egg, the valley of ashes and New York City. Within these major settings are two

or more sub-settings. East Egg is limited to Daisy's house, but West Egg

incorporates both Gatsby's house and Nick's. The valley of ashes includes the

Wilson's garage, Michaelis' restaurant, and the famous sign with the eyes of Dr.

T. J. Eckleburg. New York City includes the offices where people work, the

apartment Tom Buchanan has rented for Myrtle Wilson, and the Plaza Hotel,

37

where the final showdown between Gatsby and Tom Buchanan takes place.

“It was a that I should have rented a house in one of the strangest communities in North America. It was on that slender riotous island which extends itself due east of New York… two unusual formations of land. Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound. They are not perfect ovals like the egg in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead.” (Chapter 1, p. 7)

Each of these settings both reflects and determines the values of the

people who live or work there and the elements of existentialism present in there.

East Egg, where Tom and Daisy live, is the home of the Ivy League set who have

had wealth for a long time and are comfortable with it. Since they are secure with

their money, they have no need to show it off. East Egg is the home of wealthy

people who are discontented and continuing to search for meaning in their life by

having other social relations with others through partying and having unjustly

commitments.

“And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay.” (Chapter 1, p. 9)

Nick lives in new-rich West Egg because he is too poor to afford a home in

East Egg; Gatsby lives there because his money is "new" and he lacks the social

credentials to be accepted in East Egg. His house, like the rest of his

possessions like his pink suit is tasteless and vulgar and would be completely out

38

of place in the more refined and understated world of East Egg. No wonder that

Gatsby is ruined in the end by the East, and that Nick decides to leave. In West

Egg, it is where people search importance through making themselves rich and

in the end, ruining themselves.

“I lived at West Egg, the well, the less fashionable of the two… squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. the one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard. It was Gatsby’s mansion. Or, rather, as I didn’t know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name. My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires all for eighty dollars a month.” (Chapter 1, p. 7)

The valley of ashes in contrast to both eggs is where the poor people live,

those who are the victims of the rich. It is characterized literally by dust, for it is

here that the city's ashes are dumped in. The valley of ashes, with its brooding

eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, also stands as a symbol of the spiritual dryness, the

emptiness of the world of the novel. This is where the existential element of

absurd comes in, since this is the place where people had their breakdown in

one or more of the "pillars" of one's self or identity

“This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses. But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. There is always a halt there of at least a minute, and it was because of this that I first met Tom Buchanan’s mistress.” (Chapter 2, p. 26)

The Great Gatsby covers a course of approximately half a year from

39

spring to autumn. Nick first arrives at West Egg in the spring. Later, as the

dog-days of summer become unbearably hot, so does the tension between Tom

and Gatsby. In fact, the climax occurs the day when Tom confronts Gatsby in

the Plaza

Hotel and when Daisy hits Myrtle with Gatsby's car which is during the

most scorching, most irritable day of the year. In the end, the descending leaves

and the changing of seasons from summer to autumn signify the termination of

Gatsby's dream of marrying Daisy and inevitably the fall of Gatsby's life.

“The night had made a sharp difference in the weather and there was an autumn flavor in the air.” (Chapter 8, p. 163)

The idea of setting as existential geography is reinforced by the overriding

symbolism of the American East and the American Midwest. This larger contrast

between East and Midwest frames the novel as a whole. Nick comes East to

enter the bond business, and finds himself instead in the dizzying world of The

Jazz Age in the summer of 1922. He is fascinated and disgusted with this world

inhabited by people who finds meaning in their life through their social

relationships and he eventually returns home to the Midwest, to the values and

traditions of his youth where he will exist with dignity and true meaning. At this

point, Midwest involves the element of freedom wherein Nick Carraway realizes

that everything is not free and reachable. Being free means knowing that there

are certain limitations and relating this limitation to his responsibility for himself.

That is why he decided to go to his homeland where he will find his true self.

“After Gatsby's death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes' power of correction. So when the blue

40

smoke of brittle leaves was in the air and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line I decided to come back home.” (Chapter 9, p. 188)

b. Theme. The American Dream as it arose in the Colonial period and

developed in the nineteenth century was based on the assumption that each

person, no matter what his origins, could succeed in life on the sole basis of his

or her own skill and effort. The dream was embodied in the ideal of the self-made

man.

The Great Gatsby is a novel about what happened to the American dream

in the 1920s, a period when the old values that gave substance to the dream had

been corrupted by the vulgar pursuit of wealth. Gatsby commits his life to

becoming a man of the sort of wealth and stature he imagines could win Daisy’s

love.

“Her voice is full of money.” (Chapter 7, p. 128)

After the war, he made a fortune in bootlegging thanks to his association

with gangsters like Meyer Wolfsheim and set himself up in a mansion in West

Egg across from East Egg, where Daisy and Tom Buchanan live. Every

weekend, Gatsby hosts parties open to all comers, in the hopes that Daisy will

attend and he can win her heart.

“I was immediately struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about; all well dressed, all looking a little hungry, and all talking in low, earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans. I was sure that they were selling something: bonds or insurance or automobiles. They were at least agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key.” (Chapter 3, p. 46)

Fitzgerald's critique of the dream of success is developed primarily

41

through the emphasizing the individuality of the characters and through certain

dominant images and symbols: Nick, the observer and commentator, who sees

what has gone wrong; Gatsby, who lives the dream purely; and Tom, Daisy, and

Jordan, the "foul dust" who are the prime examples of the corruption of the

dream. During the Jazz age, Americans are taught that they are individuals who

are taught to think for their selves and to live out their own beliefs. In which, no

one has the right to dictate what others what and what not to do; find what they

love and turn it into something they can make a living out of. That is the

existential thought.

“Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.” (Chapter 1, p.4)

Fitzgerald seems to be criticizing not the American Dream itself but the

corruption of the American Dream. The energy that might have gone into the

pursuit of noble goals has been channeled into the pursuit of power and

pleasure, and a very showy, but fundamentally empty form of success.

The central paradox of the American Dream is that, while it claims to open

history to everyone, to allow each individual the opportunity to become a part of

the American history, in reality it closes off history; it allows each individual the

opportunity to escape from the history into a commodity which can provide an

escape from the existential interiority that can make it seem as if good things are

happening. Gatsby, at the end, with his desire to have Daisy meets his death.

“The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and

42

he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.” (Chapter 6, p. 105)

The American Dream is what drives the characters in Fitzgerald's The

Great Gatsby. The ideal American Dream is not so realistic. The characters of

The Great Gatsby cannot grasp the concept that The American Dream is an

illusion because not everyone can get what they want if they work hard. Gatsby

best embodies The American Dream because he has humble beginnings and

works in order to raise his station. He has a dream, a desire, to find the girl he

loves; and that is what motivates Gatsby. But Gatsby also represents the fallen

American Dream because he does not succeed in acquiring everything he wants

even though he works very diligently at his goal. This is an irony for the

existential reality prevails that there is no escape; to learn, to accept it and to

create meaningful purpose.

c. Characters Motives/Actions. In existentialism, one principle states, "The

absurdity and inhumanity of the godless modern world must be combated by

brave, nonconformist individuals."

Jay Gatsby is the "brave, nonconformist individual" that Fitzgerald uses in

his novel. Gatsby was focused solely on obtaining the admiration and affection of

Daisy, and he did not allow anybody else to influence him otherwise. His devotion

to Daisy is apparent in chapter seven, where he covers for Daisy after she kills

her husband's mistress, Myrtle.

"I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can't repeat the past." "Can't repeat the past?' he cried incredulously. Why of course you can!'" (Chapter 6, p. 118)

The protagonist Jay Gatsby was a man fell victim to the false illusions of

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the American Dream, setting out to New York to strike it rich. Once inside the

rich society, Gatsby found himself in a hostile place where people were indifferent

to his existence. Gatsby’s party guests are portrayed as hollow and are not truly

friends with Gatsby. The reader, at this point, reasons that Gatsby has at least

some friends. Unable to accept this harsh reality, Gatsby soon died. However,

his funeral shows that while Gatsby does have some friends, it is considerably

less than the reader would have guessed. Daisy’s personality is also a symbol of

Existentialism. She does not even bother to attend Gatsby’s funeral, despite the

fact that Gatsby and she were very close.

Fitzgerald dealt with many ideas that later would come up in Sartre’s

philosophy. Both men believed that society tried to mask its ugly face with false

promises and material lures. Both men believed that, in the struggle to come to

term with society one must throw away all the illusions and accept society as it

really is: a hostile entity.

“After that I felt a certain shame for Gatsby—one gentleman to whom I telephoned implied that he had got what he deserved... I tried to think about Gatsby then for a moment, but he was already too far away, and I could only remember, without resentment, that Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower.” (Chapter 9, p. 181)

Tom is already powerful, rich, and has a beautiful daughter and wife. Tom

is not satisfied with that. One woman is not enough for Tom, he wants two. He

also feels that he gets more power because of his mistress Myrtle. Because

Myrtle is of a lower class he has complete over her. Tom acknowledges his need

for more when he said: This is an example of existentialism since he is not able to

44

accept what he has and continues to desire more for himself. Tom presents

greediness and angst in his uncontrollable search for more power.

"I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, in my heart I love her all” (Chapter 7, p. 140)

Daisy always craves more attention. She has learned ways to manipulate

others so that they pay more attention to her. Daisy was aware of her charm and

she used it to the best of her ability to secure her lifestyle. Daisy, though married,

still had an affair with Gatsby. She does not allow social values and relations to

control her life. She is in control of the existential element of Bad Faith in which

individuals are always free to make choices and guide their lives towards their

own chosen decision though it is not correct for others.

“I’ve heard it said that Daisy’s murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.” (Chapter 1, p. 11)

Nick might end up "halfway in love" with Jordan Baker, but he consistently

describes her as cynical, having seen too much and heard too much to be fooled

by anybody. And perhaps because of her dishonesty, she is aware more than

anybody else in the book that appearances are deceiving. She is a professional

golfer who cheated in order to win her first tournament. This is an element of

existentialism; Jordan Baker did everything to fulfill her dreams though she needs

to take big risks. Moreover, she finds life meaningful through winning and having

unserious affairs with anyone she like to be with. This is also an example of Bad

Faith.

“Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where

45

any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply.” (Chapter 3, p. 63)

d. plot. Nick Carraway, the narrator, is a young Midwesterner who, having

graduated from Yale in 1915 and fought in World War I has returned home to

begin a career. Like others in his generation, he is restless and has decided to

move east to New York and learn the bond business. In this part, the elements of

existentialism can be classified as “introspection” in which Nick seeks to

understand how his existence feels by being aware of his inner workings. He

wants to be independent away from his family in the Midwestern through staring a

new life in the world of bond business.

“I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless. Instead of being the warm centre of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go East and learn the bond business. Everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man”. (Chapter 1, p. 5)

Myrtle Wilson is the mistress of Tom's from New York. She is the wife of

George Wilson but she is not happy with him because George can not give her

wants. Before they get married, she though George Wilson is everything she

dreams of, from looks to pockets, yet she find out that George is just an average-

earner after they get married. According to Rollo May (1952), Existentialism is

concerned with people’s loss of faith in values. If people lose commitment to a

set of value, life will be meaningless. They need therefore to take responsibility

for themselves and find meaning in their lives. Likewise, Myrtle turns back from

her dignity and become the mistress of Tom Buchanan for her to get all the

materials things George cannot give.

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“I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,” she Myrtle said finally. “I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.” (Chapter 2, p. 38)

The uncertainty of morality that is explored in Gatsby's search for love is

coupled with explorations of other philosophical uncertainties. Another element is

when Gatsby created a second life for himself in order to win Daisy's love.

Gatsby truly looked through life from one window. His window was Daisy, but she

failed him. He tried to establish his own worth by accepting the values of society

and attempting to live up to them all because of Daisy’s love - essentially,

accumulating wealth. However, by buying into society's values he essentially

loses his integrity and individuality, and rather than succeeding in his quest, he is

ultimately betrayed by the upper crust he aspired to become, especially the

woman he loved.

"Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all" (Chapter 1, p. 6)

If we consider existentialism as a philosophy that insists on leaving the

search for meaning with the individual, rather than allowing society to dictate to

them arbitrarily, then this would qualify as an example of existentialism.

After his rejection by Daisy, Gatsby's life is devoid of meaning. The

existential movement has roots in the concept of a meaningless and absurd

existence, one that creates a feeling of 'nausea' and 'existential angst' in human

beings.

“I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn’t believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.” (Chapter 8, p. 172)

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Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” writes like the foreshadowing existential

philosopher Jean Paul Sartre's first novel, Nausea. Nausea explores the altered

perceptions of a young Frenchman who similarly recognizes the meaninglessness

of life. This perception of a meaningless and arbitrary world is frightening to the

observer yet everyone can sympathize with the feeling of listlessness that

accompanies a great loss.

"He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass," (Chapter 8, p. 172)

Existential-philosophical crises in the “Great Gatsby”. One of the crises in

the Great Gatsby is the inequality among the rich and poor. Believing in the

Nordics’ superiority over all other races, Tom Buchanan advocates Nordic

domination over others. This is simply one example of the fact that things don’t

go warmly inside the Buchanan’s home. Moreover, the East Egg, West Egg,

Midwest and Ash valley shows the discrimination and hierarchy in the society.

This presents the existential inequality which restricts the freedom of action of

certain categories of persons.

“It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”(Chapter 1, p. 16)

There is a supercilious libertine issue among Tom Buchanan when the

readers learn that he commits himself to an affair and, because of the affair, is

not present at the birth of his child. Because he didn’t appear when his own child

is born, he makes evident his uncaring and selfish nature. This shows how he

craves more and more to fill his discontentment. Likewise, Myrtle, Daisy and

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Jordan are those kinds of women who are not faithful and fulfill themselves

through having secret affairs with rich men. This shows that there is a crisis

regarding their commitments to their family. Daisy, Jordan and Tom show their

existence precedes essence. They have a freedom to choose what they want

though it is right or wrong until it fulfills their desire. Because individuals are free

to choose their own path, they must accept the risk and responsibility of following

their commitment wherever it leads.

Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling, and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘all right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”(Chapter 1, p. 20)

Alcohol plays a huge role as an existential-philosophical crisis. Even

today, drinking alcohol can destroy several lives of people. Alcohol is an example

of existential depression, escaping away from reality for this gives them meaning.

Drinks are what seem to give people a purpose to be. As people drink in “The

Great Gatsby” their perception of reality is altered. In fact, the narrator, Nick

Carraway, on several occasions is drunk and experiences a change in the

perception of his environment. Another example is when Myrtle becomes more

and more self confident, while she is drunk, and in the presence of Tom, he on

the other hand, seems to become more aggressive, and violent.

“Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” shouted Mrs. Wilson. “I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai——” Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. (Chapter 2, p. 41)

I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene

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had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound. I was on my way to get roaring drunk from sheer embarrassment. (Chapter 3, p. 51)

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. (Chapter 3, p. 44)

Gatsby, the man who supplies everyone with this drug, does not drink, and

in the end, it is his wealth, his possessions, obtained through alcohol that is the

cause of Myrtle’s death, and his downfall. Gatsby let Daisy drive though Daisy is

drunk. This is the reason Myrtle died due to Daisy’s uncontrollable driving in the

road. Fitzgerald proposes a harsh critique of the jazz age society, suggesting

they find meaning in drunkenness and enjoyment in a state of altered

consciousness.

“Open the whiskey, Tom,” she ordered, “and I’ll make you a mint julep. Then you won’t seem so stupid to yourself. . . . Look at the mint!”

“but of course I’ll say I was. You see, when we left New York she was very nervous and she thought it would steady her to drive—and this woman rushed out at us just as we were passing a car coming the other way. It all happened in a minute, but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew.” (Chapter 7, p. 138)

Literary Devices/Techniques in presenting Existentialism. Fitzgerald first

begins using weather as a motif when Nick arrives at the Buchanans’ mansion,

underscoring the situation’s mood. When he arrives, the weather outside is

warm, sunny, and windy. This description gives the readers the idea that Nick’s

visit will be happy and friendly with happy and friendly people. However, the

readers soon learn that this is not the case. This is a sort of weather imagery and

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irony presenting Sartre’s philosophy. Both men believed that society tried to

mask its ugly face with false promises and material lures. Both men believed

that, in the struggle to come to term with society one must throw away all the

illusions and accept society as it really is a hostile entity.

And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. Their house was even more elaborate than I expected a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens… (Chapter 1, p. 9)

Fitzgerald also used Symbolism. East and West Egg acts as a symbol of

this in its physical makeup. Tom and Daisy live on the East which is far more

refined and well bred. Nick and Gatsby are on the West which is for people who

don't have any real standing, even if they have money. The green light shines

from the East Egg enticing Gatsby towards what he has always wanted. And

Daisy, the woman that Gatsby has always wanted but never gets, lives on East

Egg. The barrier that the water creates between these worlds in symbolic of the

barrier that keeps these people apart from one another and from much of what

they want. This presents existentialism to accept the hostility of the society.

Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere, (Chapter 1, p. 7)

The eyes of T.J. Eckleburg are from a billboard that looks over Wilson's

garage. The eyes are always mentioned whenever Nick is there. They look over

the situation, objectively, but offer a kind of judgment on the characters and their

actions. They are placed near Wilson's because that is where some of the most

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selfish acts take place: Myrtle's death, Tom's affair. All of these crimes go

unpunished. So they eyes look on and remind the characters of the guilt that they

forget to have for what they have done.

Over the ash heaps the giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg kept their vigil, but I perceived, after a moment, that other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity from less than twenty feet away. (Chapter 7, p. 132)

The Green light is symbolic of Gatsby's longing for Daisy. Gatsby has

spent his whole life longing for something better: Money, success, acceptance,

and Daisy. And no matter how much he has he never feels complete. Even when

he has his large house full of interesting people and all of their attention, he still

longs for Daisy. So the green light stands for all of Gatsby's longings and wants.

Nick connects the green light to all people and to the existentialism view of

people’s continuing desire for meaningful existence.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. (Chapter 9, 193)

Nick returns to the theme of the significance of the past to dreams of the

future, here represented by the green light. He focuses on the struggle of human

beings to achieve their goals by both transcending and re-creating the past. This

shows the existential concept of facticity which can be more easily understood

when considering it in relation to the temporal dimension of past: One's past is

what one is in the sense that it co-constitutes them. Yet humans prove

themselves unable to move beyond the past: in the metaphoric language used

here, the current draws them backward as they row forward toward the green

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light. This past functions as the source of their ideas about the future epitomized

by Gatsby’s desire to re-create 1917 in his affair with Daisy and they cannot

escape it as they continue to struggle to transform their dreams into reality.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (Chapter 9, p. 193)

Fitzgerald uses chromatic references throughout the story in order to bring

meaning and constant attention to the main ideas in The Great Gatsby.

Fitzgerald uses green primarily to symbolize great expectations in the future.

One could also reason that green symbolizes wealth, which is the means by

which Gatsby chases Daisy.

I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away… (Chapter 1, p. 24)

Fitzgerald uses the color gold multiple times throughout The Great Gatsby

fto show how the different elements of existentialism present in the characters

and their motives/actions. He uses it to describe Jordan Baker in sports, out of

sports, and in a number of minor instances. Gold can be interpreted to represent

anything profitable or precious

With Jordan’s slender golden arm resting in mine, we descended the steps and sauntered about the garden. (Chapter 3, p. 47)

White is a color that symbolizes the facade that the rich use to mask what

is inside their hearts. Both white and yellow go well together. Yellow, separate

from gold, is used to show the true heart of wealth—Daisy is the perfect example.

Her very name, as well as her clothing and possessions, symbolize a yellow, evil

heart with white petals.

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Two young women... They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering... (Chapter 1, p. 10)

Gray is the color of the valley of ashes. The Wilsons live there, so it

symbolizes poverty. However, Gray also symbolizes anything that is

uninteresting. While Mr. Wilson remains gray, Tom can spare Myrtle from

grayness.

Wilson’s glazed eyes turned out to the ashheaps, where small gray clouds took on fantastic shape... he muttered, after a long silence. “I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God. (Chapter 8, p. 170)

Even Gatsby’s possessions are symbols of his ultimate downfall. Gatsby’s

Rolls Royce symbolizes his gaudiness, his wealth solely for the purpose of luring

Daisy to himself. It is very flashy and decked out with a number of gleaming

accessories.

On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight. (Chapter 3, p. 43)

Like his possessions, Gatsby’s house is a symbol of outer riches and inner

poverty. The weather and the time of day can alter the gold of his house to a

symbolically evil yellow. Nick leaves his twenties in the story. As Nick ages and

fades, so does the possibility of Gatsby being with Daisy. Gatsby uses even

clothing to show off for Daisy. His wealth and possessions are merely for

ostentation for Daisy. After Gatsby dies, Nick calls many people but most are

unwilling to attend Gatsby’s funeral.

Foreshadowing is literary device which is also used by Fitzgerald to give

hints about things to come in later plot developments. It can be very broad and

54

easily understood, or it may be complex use of symbols, that are then connected

to later turn in the plot. Jordan explains to Nick how she is able to drive badly as

long as everyone else drives carefully. This foreshadows to chapter seven where

Daisy kills Myrtle Wilson because of her reckless driving with some sort of being

drunk. Fitzgerald uses foreshadowing to strengthen the plot of his book.

“Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself.” “I hope I never will,” she answered. “I hate careless people. That’s why I like you.” (Chapter 3, p. 64)

The quote below is the first use of foreshadowing which is in chapter five.

It pertains to all of the trouble Gatsby causes as he tries to win Daisy back. The

past is represented by the clock and how Gatsby wants to repeat it with Daisy.

This quote foreshadows to the end of the novel when Nick is left to tell the story

of the dreamer whose dreams were corrupted. It is proven by:

"They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made." (Chapter 9, p. 191)

"Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in place. ‘I’m sorry about the clock,' he said. 'It's an old clock,' I told him idiotically." (Chapter 5, p. 93)

In chapter six, Fitzgerald focuses on the first moment of disillusionment

which Gatsby has. This is clearly foreshadowing almost the entire book. It

foreshadows Gatsby's attempts to woe Daisy for Tom and tries to make things

the way they were before he left for the army. It also alludes to the fact that he

must be rich and powerful to do that. Overall, it shows that he destroys himself

trying to get Daisy back from Tom Buchanan.

“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of

55

course you can!”(Chapter 6, p. 118)

“Great Gatsby” and Filipino Family’s views on affairs and careers. In F.

Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, love affairs between the characters have

been very perceptible like the affair between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby.

The basis of all of this is Gatsby's obsession with Daisy and with meeting her.

Gatsby engages in criminal activity as his only path to being rich. His need for

money had become so great that he "was in the drug business". Although Daisy

already had a husband, she still had an illicit affair to Gatsby because she was

astonished with the wealth that Gatsby owns. Similar to the illicit affair between

Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson, who is already married to George Wilson,

materialism also preceded. Myrtle did not really loved Tom but because of the

riches of the man, she forced herself to be with Tom Buchanan who could give

her what she wants.

These affairs have influenced the minds of Filipino families in a way that it

showed that wife could be unfaithful to her husband or a husband to her wife.

This is because one of them could have been so materialistic that he/she looked

on the riches and wealth that they can have. Furthermore, married men could

also be disloyal because they are polygamous in nature. They would give

everything for a woman just to win her love and be his mistress without even

thinking of the sake of their families.

Chapter VSUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

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This chapter presents the summary, findings, generalization in the form of

conclusion and recommendation which are the answers to the problems.

Summary

The purpose of this study is to understand existentialism on Francis Scott

Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby.”

Specifically, it attempts to answer the following questions:

1. How do the characters deal with the condition of existence?

What are the elements of Existentialism present in the:

a. Setting

b. Theme

c. characters motive/actions

d. plot?

2. What are the existential-philosophical crises met by the characters in the

“Great Gatsby”?

3. What literary devices or techniques did the author use in depicting existential-

ism in the novel?

4. How does the novel affect the current Filipinos family’s view on affairs and ca-

reers?

The research study employed the descriptive method of research with

emphasis on content analysis. In analyzing Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby,” the

researcher used the sociological and formalistic approach in literary criticism.

Sociological criticism focuses on the relationship between literature and society. 56

57

Formalistic approach refers to critical approaches that analyzes, interprets, or

evaluates the inherent features of a text.

The primary material used in the study is Penguin Classics paperback of

Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby. Other materials used were books about

the author and existentialism.

The researchers studied Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby.” The

researchers read a number of books about novel, considering the definition and

elements of a novel. Furthermore, the researchers considered reading the

historical account of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” and his life. They also

researched on how Existentialism came into being and the different elements of

Existentialism.

Conclusions

On the guide of the findings done by the researchers the following

conclusions are drawn:

1. Jay Gatsby dealt with the condition of absurdity and inhumanity by being a

brave, nonconformist individual on obtaining the admiration and affection of

Daisy, and he did not allow anybody else to influence him otherwise. He dealt

with the element of “existence precedes essence” when he created a second

life for himself and for Daisy. Gatsby presented the concept of preserving

separateness as an emblem of independence when he entered the bootleg-

ging business and stayed away from his party guests. Both Daisy and Gatsby

dealt with the concept of authenticity for they are fooling themselves. Tom

Buchanan dealt with the conditions of existentialism particularly the arro-

58

gance, inauthenticity and angst which is evident through his social attitudes.

Myrtle Wilson dealt with facticity and bad faith in her relationship with Tom

Buchanan. Thus, George Wilson dealt with the condition of despair. Daisy

Buchanan dealt with the element of “reason” and “existence precedes

essence” that Daisy can only find essence or meaning in her existence if the

discontentment in her heart will be satisfied or fulfilled. Nick Carraway’s

choice of being independent dealt with the element of separateness and con-

crete existence where his human essence is determined through life choices.

Throughout the novel, Nick faced the elements of absurdity and authenticity

which are in contrast at some point.

2. The elements of Existentialism present in the following are:

a. Settings. East Egg is the home of wealthy people who are discontented

and continuing to search for meaning in their life by being aware of their

social relations with others through partying and having unjustly commit-

ments. West Egg is where people search importance through making

themselves rich and in the end, ruining themselves. Valley of Ashes is

where the existential element of absurd comes in, since this is the place

where people had their breakdown in one or more of the "pillars" of one's

self or identity. Midwest involves the element of freedom which means

that there are certain limitations in man’s responsibility for himself.

b. Theme. The central absurdity of the American Dream allows each indi-

vidual the opportunity to escape from the history into a commodity which

can provide an escape from the existential interiority that can make it

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seem as if good things are happening. This is an irony for the existential

reality prevails that there is no escape; to learn, to accept it and to create

meaningful purpose.

c. Characters Motives/Actions. The absurdity and inhumanity of the god-

less modern world must be combated by brave, nonconformist individu-

als which is found in Jay Gatsby’s character is who focused solely on ob-

taining the admiration and affection of Daisy. Gatsby who is trying to fit in

the society of riches dealt with Sartre’s philosophy of trying to accept so-

ciety’s reality and throwing away illusions and false promises. Tom

Buchanan presents greediness and angst in his uncontrollable search

for more power. Daisy Fay Buchanan and Jordan Baker are in control of

the existential element of Bad Faith in which individuals are always free

to make choices and guide their lives towards their own chosen decision

though it is not correct for others.

d. Plot. Introspection is seen in Nick seeking to understand how his exis-

tence feels by being aware of his inner workings when he away from his

family in the Midwestern through staring a new life in the world of bond

business. Myrtle Wilson’s affair with Tom Buchanan presents Bad Faith

is concerned with existentialism’s loss of faith in values. Daisy’s rejection

to Gatsby presents the concept of a meaningless and absurd existence,

one that creates a feeling of 'nausea' and 'existential angst' in human be-

ings. The characters in the plot qualify in existentialism which is insisting

60

on leaving the search for meaning with the individual not allowing society

to dictate to them.

3. One of the crises in the Great Gatsby is the inequality among the rich and

poor which is shown by the East Egg, West Egg and Ash Valley which present

the existential inequality which restricts the freedom of action of certain cate-

gories of persons. Daisy’s, Jordan’s and Tom’s different affairs with other

men/women show their existence precedes essence. They have a freedom to

choose what they want though it is right or wrong until it fulfills their desire. Al-

cohol is another crisis which is controlling most of the characters’ altering

mood in the Great Gatsby and the cause of their aggressiveness. Alcohol is

an example of existential depression which seems to give people a purpose

to be.

4. Fitzgerald used weather as a motif in presenting the ups and downs of the

plot and underscoring the situation’s mood. Fitzgerald used Symbolism in pre-

senting the existential inequality between East and West Egg, together with

the Valley of Ashes and the barrier that separates the two divisions. The sym-

bolism of the T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes reminds the characters of the guilt that

they forget to have for what they have done. Fitzgerald uses chromatic refer-

ences throughout the story in order to bring meaning and constant attention to

the main ideas in The Great Gatsby, particularly the color. Foreshadowing is

literary device which is also used by Fitzgerald to give hints about things to

come in later plot developments. Foreshadowing is used by Gatsby in Myr-

tle’s death and Gatsby’s attempts and troubles in trying to woe Daisy.

61

5. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, love affairs between the charac-

ters have been very perceptible like the affair between Daisy Buchanan and

Jay Gatsby. These affairs have influenced the minds of Filipino families in a

way that it showed the unfaithfulness of a wife to her husband or a husband

to her wife. married men could also be disloyal because they are polygamous

in nature. They would give everything for a woman just to win her love and be

his mistress without even thinking of the sake of their families.

Recommendation

The researchers had designed the following recommendations:

1. Future researchers can use other isms in analyzing “Great Gatsby”. They can

consider using Idealism, Humanism and other related ism.

2. In understanding the concepts and elements of existentialism, these can be

studied through different kind of novels. Future researchers can try to analyze

existentialism on Filipino novels too.

3. Foreshadowing and Flashback can be studied thoroughly in this novel for bet-

ter understanding.

4. Researchers can try to compare existentially the “Great Gatsby” to other nov-

els with the same ism.

5. The personality of the Fitzgerald may considered with emphasis in analyzing

the plot and theme of the novel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. BOOKS

62

Allen, Frederick Lewis (1931) Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the

Nineteen-Twenties. Harper and Row Publishers Incorporated New York; p.

10 – 17

Best, Gary Dean (2003) The Dollar Decade: Mammon and the Machine in 1920s,

America Praeger Publishers New York, p. 124 – 125

Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph and Smith, Scottie Fitzgerald (2002) Some Sort of Epic

Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Columbia, SC: University of South

Carolina Press, p. 12; p. 13.

Canterbury, Ray (2006) F. Scott Fitzgerald: Under the Influence, St. Paul:

Paragon House, p. 189

Cline, Sally (1927) Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise, New York: Arcade

Publishing, p. 17

Cooper, David Edward (1990) Existentialism: A Reconstruction Second Edition,

Blackwell Publishers Inc, Malden Massachusetts USA, p. 1

Curnutt, Kirk (2004) A historical guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Oxford University

Press Inc., New York, p. 33 – 36

Donaldson, Scott (1984) Critical Essays on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great

Gatsby, Boston, MA: G.K. Hall, p. 106 – 107; p. 105

Edmund Wilson (1993) The Crack-Up. A New Directions Book, New York, p. 310;

p. 310

Parrish, Michael (1992) Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and

Depression, W. W. Norton, 166

63

Patrick, Linda E. (2001) Existential literature: an introduction, Union College

Wadsworth Thomson Learning, Canada, p. 85 – 86; p. 101 – 102

Prigozy, Ruth (2002) The Cambridge Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald,

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 140

Shrauger, J. S (1979). Symbolic interactionist view of self-concept: Through the

looking glass darkly. Psychological Bulletin, p. 25 – 26

Sahakian William (1968) Outline of History of Philosophy, Suffolk University,

Barres and Noble Inc, New York Book Sellers Publishers, p. 342

B. ENCYCLOPEDIA

Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Mezener, Arthur (2000) St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols. St.

James Press, p. 14

C. REVIEWS/NEWS

Stratton Jerry (2006) The Great Gatsby Review: Mimsy Review

T. S. Eliot. (1925) The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Simon & Schuster Adult

Publishing Group

Trask, David (1967) A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, The University

Review

Yahoo news (2009), New Jersey to Bon Jovi: You Give Us a Good Name Yahoo

News

64

D. ONLINE SOURCES

http://atheism.about.com/od/philosophyschoolssystems/p/existentialism.htm

http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Great-Gatsby-:-Stephen-Matterson-(Paperback,-

1990)_W0QQitemZ341198656203QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090917?

IMSfp=TL090917236006r5016

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/facticity

http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/glossaryah/g/Existentialism.htm

http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Existentialism

http://reading.cornell.edu/reading_project_06/gatsby/jazz_age.htm

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Great-Gatsby/F-Scott

Fitzgerald/e/9780743273565

http://wikipedia.org

http://www.academicinfo.net/usmodjazz.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/the-great-gatsby-novel-7

http://www.articlemyriad.com/summary_great_gatsby.htm

http://www.bookrags.com/notes/gat/SUM.htm

http://www.enotes.com/twentieth-century-criticism/great-gatsby-f-scott-fitzgerald

http://www.fcps.edu/westspringfieldhs/academic/english/1project/99gg/99gg2/

litset.htm

http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/Books/great-gatsby/

65

http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Novel/

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/angst

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/novel_writing/11175

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-novel.htm

http://www.write101.com/novel.htm

APPENDIX

Summary of the Novel. The Great Gatsby is the story of eccentric

millionaire Jay Gatsby as told by Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner who lives on

Long Island but works in Manhattan. Gatsby’s enormous mansion is adjacent to

66

Carraway’s modest home, and Carraway becomes curious about his neighbor

after being invited to one of his famous parties. Nick soon learns that Gatsby is

in love Daisy Buchanan, Nick’s cousin and the wife of one Tom Buchanan, an

acquaintance of Nick’s from Yale. Buchanan takes his old friend for a day in the

city, where Nick learns that Buchanan has a kept woman, Myrtle, the wife of a

long island mechanic.

Gatsby sends a message through he and Nick’s mutual friend,

professional golfer Jordan Baker, insisting that Nick plan a “chance” meeting for

Gatsby and Daisy. Nick learns that Gatsby, Jay Gatz at the time, and Daisy had

once been in love, but Daisy married Tom while Gatsby was in Europe during the

Great War. In the aftermath of this, Jay Gatz abandoned his old identity,

becoming Jay Gatsby and amassing a fortune with the help of notorious criminal

Meyer Wolfsheim. Gatsby chose the site of his house in Long Island because it

was across the bay from Daisy’s house, from which a green light could be seen

at night.

Nick manages to get Gatsby and Daisy together, and while the meeting is

awkward at first, Gatsby soon relaxes and invites Nick and Daisy back to his

mansion. Gatsby and Daisy begin to see each other secretly with some

frequency. Nick and Gatsby also become close, as Nick is one of the only

people who continue to support Gatsby despite the myriad rumors that circulate

around the man. Buchanan eventually confronts Gatsby in Manhattan about the

affair, and the two argue at length about who it is that Daisy genuinely loves.

Daisy claims to love both of them, but she decides to return to Long Island with

67

Gatsby, not her husband. Daisy drives Gatsby’s car, but she accidentally kills a

woman on the side of the road, and then speeds off. It turns out that this woman

is Buchanan’s girlfriend Myrtle—she had only run out to see the car because she

thought it was Buchanan’s.

Myrtle’s husband blames Buchanan for the death, but Buchanan informs

him that it was Gatsby’s car that killed the woman. The mechanic goes to

Gatsby’s house, where he shoots Gatsby and then himself. Daisy refuses to

confess to her crime, and only a few people, including Gatsby’s father Henry,

show up for Gatsby’s funeral. (http://www.articlemyriad.com/summary_great_

gatsby.htm)

CURRICULUM VITAE

Name : Falculan, Delsie F.

Address : 28 M.H Del Street, Batangas City

Contact Number : 0928-312-4639

E-mail Address : delsie_falculan13@yahoo.com

68

Personal Background

Age : 16

Birthday : January 10, 1994

Birthplace : Batangas Regional Hospital

Sex : Female

Civil Status : Single

Nationality : Filipino

Father’s Name : Felsito Falculan

Occupation : Businessman

Mother’s Name : Daisy Falculan

Occupation : Businesswoman

Person to be contacted

in Case of Emergency : Daisy Falculan

722-0136

Educational Attainment

Primary Level : University of Batangas Elementary School

M.H Dels Pilar St., Batangas City

S.Y 1999-2006

Secondary Level : University of Batangas

Hilltop, Batangas City

Fourth Year, High School

S.Y. 2009 – 2010

69

CURRICULUM VITAE

Name : Garcia, Lovely Arra A.

Address : San Mateo, San Pascual, Batangas

Contact Number : 0908-186-6927

E-mail Address : lovelyarra_garcia@yahoo.com

Personal Background

Age : 16

Birthday : September 29, 1993

Birthplace : Batangas Regional Hospital

Sex : Female

Civil Status : Single

Nationality : Filipino

Father’s Name : Angel Garcia

Occupation : OFW

Mother’s Name : Fe Garcia

Occupation : Entrepreneur

Person to be contacted

in Case of Emergency : Fe Garcia

0915-894-3900

Educational Attainment

Primary Level : Bayanan Elementary School

Bayanan, San Pascual, Batangas

S.Y 2005-2006

Secondary Level : University of Batangas

Hilltop, Batangas City

Fourth Year, High School

S.Y. 2009-2010