THE SEDUCER'S STRATAGEMS: THEGREAT GATSBY AND THE EARLY

TWENTIES

T H E NARRATOR OF Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) isNick Carraway, a young man from the American Middle West who, in thesummer of 1922, moves to New York to learn the bond business. Duringthat "crowded summer"1 he becomes increasingly fascinated with his next-door neighbour, die mysterious Gatsby, eventually becoming spellboundby him. However, Gatsby also appears to represent everything for whichNick has "an affective scorn" {GG, 6).2

Gatsby resides in Long Island in order to be close to Daisy Buchanan.As a self-made millionaire, he struggles to make Daisy fall in love with himagain, thereby to recapture the dreams of his penniless youtii. In thisenterprise, he is "searching for a transfiguring vision, a world beyond diehistorical time".3 The final failure of his enterprise is the necessary con-sequence of his attempt to recapture sometiiing unattainable: the past. ButGatsby is not totally enveloped in his dreams. On the contrary, I suggestdiat when Nick describes Gatsby as a "gorgeous" (GG, 6) character whoexpresses in his actions "some heightened sensitivity to die promises oflife" (GG, 6), he singles out his friend as a paradigm of Twenties society.

In this article I wish to study die relationship between Gatsby's personal-ity and his times, and to highlight how well adapted he is to his urbanenvironment. I will pay special attention to die way in which his perceptionof die new realities of his era manifests itself in die conscious constructionof his personae. If he is a dreamer, his dreams are firmly anchored in dieconventions and artefacts of his reality.

Gatsby's "heightened sensitivity" is demonstrated by die way in whichhe makes his presence on Long Island known. His superior imaginationmanifests itself in die stratagem he employs to advertise his presence,organising a series of parties. Implicidy, he realises diat if he is to supplantDaisy's husband, he needs to display qualities which will show Buchananin a poor light. Firsdy, Gatsby displays more affluence and more refinedtastes dian Buchanan, whose behaviour and demeanour are eidier aggress-ive or violent. He also offers incentives which cannot be obtained witiiindie conservative opulence of East Egg. He creates an extravagant atmo-sphere, captivating Daisy's imagination and conveying to her die "romanticpossibilities absent from her world" (GG, 115). This new world is foundedupon a sense of prodigality and disproportion: motor boats, a tower on hisraft, an aquaplane, a Rolls-Royce which also functions as an omnibus.Gatsby even employs eight servants to repair die damage caused by oneof his parties, and his mansion contains a high Godiic library, panelled

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with carved English oak, Marie Antoinette's music rooms, and Restorationsalons. Gatsby's affluence has secured the very best material possessionsnot only of his own time, but also from most periods of Western history.

Gatsby's dazzling world is based upon a number of areas in Long Island.Fitzgerald moved to the area of Great Neck in Long Island in the autumnof 1922, and his new surroundings provided much of the inspiration forthe novel. The environment which he observed was created by die nou-veaux riches, and represents a monument to their extravagant tastes. InAmerican Wonderland Shane Leslie depicts the decadence common on LongIsland: "Millionaires arrived, importing their own soil and gardens, andeven their ancestral trees."4

Buchanan's Georgian mansion, built by die oil tycoon Demaine, is partof a manufactured landscape that seeks to create the illusion of historicalcontinuity. Unlike Gatsby's prodigal edifice, Buchanan's mansion repres-ents harmony and an economical use of resources. Fittingly, Buchananinvites few people to dinner, and there is no mention as to whedier he hasever dirown a party in his mansion.5 He defends this, remarking: "I knowI'm not very popular. I don't give big parties. I suppose you've got to makeyour house into a pigsty in order to have any friends — in die modernworld" (GG, 137). Buchanan's obsessive frugality is shown in diedescriptions of his mistress's appartment: "a small living room, a smalldining room, a small bedroom, and a badi" (GG, 33). The repetition ofdie adjective "small" gives us a hint as to how assiduously Buchananrefrains from spending money, never allowing his extra-marital romanceto become cosdy.

Gatsby's exuberance in acquiring and displaying possessions mirrors diepossibilities for die consumer in an era characterised by overproduction.He spends his money on a multitude of commodities: aquaplanes, tele-phones, machines which extract "die juice of two hundred oranges in halfan hour" (GG, 43-4). In Gatsby's era, "variety was die watchword whetherapplied to automobiles, vegetables [or] clodies".6 However, Gatsby's excess-ive consumerism is only a means to seduce Daisy: as soon as he has wonher, his display of affluence ceases. The strategies tiiat Gatsby uses toattract Daisy highlight both his understanding of, and his ability to manip-ulate, the new American social environment. Gatsby is partially successfulin adapting to tiiis new reality in tiiree ways: firsdy, he advertises his ownpersonality exceedingly efficiently; secondly, he is interested in technologicalinnovations; thirdly, he possesses excellent entrepreneurial skills.

Nick describes the atmosphere of Gatsby's parties as tiiat of an "amuse-ment park": an orchestra plays cocktail music and there is a bar witii areal brass rail. By using novelty to attract crowds of people to his parties,Gatsby shows his awareness of die preconceptions of his culture, specificallyof die assumption diat everytiiing new must be desirable. This notion liesat die heart of modernity, as J. H. Plumb emphasises.7

THE GREAT GATSBY 305

Gatsby also creates his own personality, often resorting to methods whichare derived from contemporary advertising techniques. He appears torealise mat in an era of increasingly impersonal bureaucracy and thedepersonalisation which is associated with modern capitalism, there is aneed for emotional satisfaction and a desire for the intimate. The searchfor these qualities played an essential part in shaping the American con-sumer's demands in the early Twenties. Roland Marchant remarks that,"mobility, greater generational separation, and modern complexities ofliving had created a vacuum of personal advice. [Accordingly,] advertisersexploited new ways to personalize their relationship with the consumer."8

Many advertising companies of the period created a simultaneously author-itative and approachable persona in their attempts to^cater for contempor-ary urban longings. The Fleischmann company used an English surgeon,Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane, both as a paradigm of the professional pharmaceut-ical adviser and as a distinct (because personalised) mouthpiece.9 Thecompanies used personae as an attempt to foster the consumer's confidencein the efficacy of an impersonal commodity. Gatsby's exotic aura allowshis guests to project their own dreams onto his nebulous personality. Thisis demonstrated by the way in which Nick describes his first encounterwith Gatsby:

He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly. [The smile] faced- or seemed to face - the whole external world for an instant, and then concentratedon you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you so far as youwanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourselfand assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, youhoped to convey. (GG, 52-3)

Witfi his "understanding smile", Gatsby allows his audience to project theirinner fantasies outwards. When they talk to him, his guests confront facetsof themselves.

Gatsby's ultimate success lies in his ability to create the distinctive auraof a unique individual. "Gatsby" began life as James Gatz, a man fromNorth Dakota who changed his name at seventeen to become the GreatGatsby, a mythological dandy (GG, 104). His guests reconstruct his pastdirough rumours: he is variously a murderer, a German spy, and anAmerican soldier. Gatsby himself provides snippets of information abouthis life, as when he mentions that he has inherited his fortune which allowshim to live "like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe - Paris, Venice,Rome — collecting jewels, [...] painting a little, [...] and trying to forgetsomething very sad that had happened to [him] long ago" (GG, 70). Theconjunction of cliches creates an atmosphere of "romantic speculation"(GG, 48), and thereby serves both to arouse the curiosity of some of hisguests, and to rekindle Daisy's interest. He is aware that within the new

306 ALBERTO LENA

culture of the advertisement, the connotations of a name are fundamentalto its success.10

Through his attempts to create both his personality and his destiny,Gatsby stands out from the mediocrity of his guests, who often seem unableto find any meaningful identity. Their behaviour is clumsy and purposeless,and it is through diem mat die narrative depicts the outbursts of uncon-trolled yet passive mass behaviour associated with die Twenties: funda-mental to diese scenes is die need to relinquish die responsibility of makingdecisions. This last point is made most tellingly when die character whomeets Nick and Jordan in Gatsby's library asks: "Who brought you?" andthen adds: "I was brought. Most people were brought" (GG, 50). Heimplicidy assumes that Nick and Jordan could not have taken die decisionto go to the party by themselves. His questions are symptomatic of an erain which automation, disorientation, indecisiveness and lack of individualityare pronounced, and in which urban individuality appears to be especiallyscarce. When Fitzgerald describes his first experiences of die city heexhibits die same signs of disorientation as tiiose of many of the charactersm The Great Gatsby: "Within a few mondis after our embarkation on theMetropolitan venture we scarcely knew any more who we were and wehadn't a notion what we were."11 Nick describes tins feeling of chaos anddisorientation when he expresses the effect mat music has on Gatsby'sguests:

Laughter is easier, minute by minute, spilled with prodigality. [...] The groupschange more swifdy, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath— already there are wanderers, confident girls who weave here and there amongthe stouter and more stable, become for a sharp, joyous moment the center of agroup and then excited with triumph glide on through the sea-change of faces andvoices and color under the constandy changing light (GG, 44-5)

As he describes the way that the guests form groups and emit stereotypedlaughter, Nick conveys tiieir lack of individuality. All the dancers seem tobe enveloped in a mesh of repetitive faces and voices which do not permitany differentiation.12 However, when he describes Gatsby, Nick emphasisesthe isolation of his physical position, and stresses tiiat his distance from thecrowd increases his aura of romantic detachment and glamorous sophistica-tion. When the party is over, Nick describes Gatsby's final gesture, whichre-emphasises this aura: "A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now fromdie windows and die great doors, endowing with complete isolation thefigure of the host who stood on the porch, his hand up in a formal gestureof farewell" {GG, 60). By showing the emptiness of die house as die guestsmelt away, Nick aggrandises Gatsby's profile and highlights his isolation.His final posture underscores his romantic aura, just as his ironic salute tohis guests reinforces his sophistication. The party's frenzy notwithstanding,

THE GREAT GATSBT 307

Gatsby remains master of all he surveys, exuding composure and self-control.

Gatsby's detached pose epitomises the concerns shown in die advertise-ments which attempted to persuade dieir audience of the merits of theirproducts by stressing their connections with die individualistic man.Implicidy, they portray mass movements as a direat, and often equatecrowds widi mobs. It is by diis implicit, negative comparison diat dievirtues of men who stand out are established. Marchand claims diat"advertisers frequendy [promoted] products on die strengdi of dieir capa-city to lift the individual out of die crowd."13 Gatsby's personality isparadigmatic of just such transcendence: indeed, Nick stresses diat Gatsby'ssudden rise to social prominence is partly due to his ability to transformhis own identity There is nodiing purposeless about his performance:behind die mask of die dandy lies a determined actor widi preciseobjectives:

The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonicconception of himself. He was a son of God - [...] So he invented just the sort ofJay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to thisconception he was faithful to the end. (GG, 104)

Gatsby's creativity is a testimony to his dynamism. Equally, hisdetermination shows his capacity to follow his dream. A paradoxicallystereotypical non-conformist, he is ready — even driven - to step away fromdie herd and to construct his own personality. He is reminiscent of dieadvertisements for International Correspondence Schools in 1924, diemotto of which read: "Out of the Crowd — the Man".1* He employs asimilar set of strategies to impress his guests and attract Daisy, but dienovel stresses that beneath his mask he knows how to differentiate himselffrom his means; paradoxically, his usage and manipulation of diese dreamsand ideals partially unites him widi the mass he appears so separated from.This was a time in which many intellectuals expressed anxiety regardingdie masses, as can be seen in the works of T. S. Eliot, Ortega y Gasset,H. G. Wells and Ezra Pound, among otiiers. Gatsby, however, feels comfort-able amongst crowds.15 Rather, he becomes their leader (and manipulator)by creating his own environment and history. While his guests only makeerratic movements, he is utterly self-possessed and self-obsessed. This self-control is reinforced in Nick's narrative when he suggests that Gatsby alsoexerts a considerable influence over the technological and economic realms.

Command over, or indeed any understanding of, diings technological isnoticeably absent during Gatsby's party, as we see when a new coupe issuddenly "shorn of one wheel" (GG, 58). When the confused driver triesto give an account of die accident, he expresses not only carelessness, buttotal disorientation:

308 ALBERTO LENA

"Wha's matter?" he inquired calmly. "Did we run outa gas?""Look!"

Half a dozen fingers pointed at the amputated wheel - he stared at it for a momentand then looked upward as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky.

"It come off," someone explained.He nodded.

"At first I din' notice we'd stopped."A pause. Then taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders he remarkedin a determined voice:

"Wonder'fftell me where there's a gas'line station?"At least a dozen men, some of them little better off than he was, explained to himthat wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond.

"Back out," he suggested after a moment "Put her in reverse.""But the wheel's off!"

He hesitated."No harm in trying," he said. (GG, 59-60)

This conversation epitomises one of the novel's leitmotifs: the portrayalof urban America as a world of bad drivers. The unknown driver, quotedabove, is just anodier paradigm. When he asks "Did we run outa gas?",he shows not only diat he is a bad driver, but that he is also too disorientatedto realise it: he cannot see die link between his lack of mechanical andnavigational expertise and die functioning of die machine diat he is nomin-ally in charge of. What highlights his catatonic ignorance is die suspicion,however brief, that the amputated wheel fell from the sky rather than fromhis car. When he asks die odier drivers if diey can help him to find a gasstation, his ignorance becomes underscored by impotence. Here, the onlyvictim of hopelessly bad, drunken driving and technical incompetence is"an amputated wheel". Elsewhere in die novel die consequences of baddriving are tragic: Daisy Buchanan's recklessness kills Myrtle Wilson. Theimage of Myrtle Wilson's "left breast [...] swinging loose like a flap" (GG,145) is connected to diat of die "amputated wheel": both episodesemphasise die dangers of technology when it is used incompetently.16

The proliferation of die car in America was one of die main features ofdie Twenties. In 1920 die number of cars registered was approximately9,000,000. The disproportionate growtii of die automobile industry pro-vided one of die most profitable markets for die steel companies, and fordie manufacturers of glass and tyres. The frenzied rush to cater for diemass usage of cars caused many states to run into debt; attempting to meetdie demands of motorists, tiiey embarked on expensive highway construc-tion programmes which bridged die gap between rural and urban life.17

In fact, the suburban estate boom, illustrated in The Great Gatsby by diesudden erection of new mansions on Long Island, could not have beenachieved (and certainly would not have been necessary) widiout die suddenincrease in motor vehicle ownership. New stores and garages were built to

THE GREAT GATSBT 309

attract new customers coming from both urban and rural areas. In fact,die average car owner did not live in the city but in a prominent town,which as Peter J. Ling has pointed out, was the "half-way house [between]the open country and metropolis".18 The majority of motorists (60%) usedtheir cars for business purposes. In die novel, George B. Wilson's garagein the Valley of the Ashes between West Egg and New York exemplifiesthe new market which addressed the needs of motorists living in suburbia.Cars were the core of the new way of life, tokens of a new technologicalreality which transformed the nation. The car answered die call for romanceand adventure, and gave millions of people die opportunity to seek dieillusion of freedom from die routine of industrial society, and to respondto die allure of die mysterious or unexpected destination. Cars were alsothe symbols of individual self-assertion and independence.19 The import-ance tiiat Nick attaches to die way people drive dieir cars is intended tohighlight the gap between the use of a machine and the illusion ofcontrolling it. The novel meditates upon die consequences of large-scaleconsumption of cars and of reckless driving, and by extension, upon diechallenges tiiat machines represent.

Like other works of the era such as Ernst Junger's Der Arbater (1931),Fitzgerald's novel warns of die potential dangers of misusing die newtechnology.20 In The Great Gatsby, cars suddenly develop autonomy and donot respond to die controls only when dieir drivers cease to be capable ofmaking spatially co-ordinated and informed decisions. Through a series ofimages of bad driving, die novel implies that few individuals can cope widisuch challenges: die appearance of power which some of die novel's driversdisplay is seen to be no more tiian an alarming illusion.

Nick suggests mat Gatsby, the proprietor of a hydroplane and a richcream-coloured car, possesses die technical knowledge necessary to be agood driver: for Gatsby embodies the tradition of die American inventor-entrepreneur, in the manner of Edison, Franklin or Samuel Pratt. WhenNick encounters Gatsby's schedule in one of his boyhood books, we areable to connect the persona of the flamboyant Long Island gangster widitiiat of the traditional American self-made man. like the self-made manof Franklin's Autobiography, Gatsby studied "electricity [and] neededinventions" (GG, 181). Franklin's model citizen must control not only hiseconomic destiny but also his tools and machines, thus obtaining a substan-tial degree of independence.21 Similarly, Gatsby's scientific interests showhis awareness of die real issues of his time. He wishes to control histechnological reality. The Twenties witnessed die rapid rise of die electricityindustry, accompanied by revolutionary technological advances: hydroelec-tric plants, electric cookers and toasters.22 Because of his awareness of this,Gatsby has die qualities of a modern Prospero ratiier than of a Trimalchio:he creates an environment whose secrets are concealed from his guests.23

310 ALBERTO LENA

Gatsby's independence is stressed not only by his technical knowledgebut also by his sensitivity to market developments; he also displays a seriesof qualities which reveal him as a modern entrepreneur. The first of theseis highlighted by die implicit comparison of Buchanan's attitude to dieeconomic world with Gatsby's. During his first visit to East Egg, Nickdiscovers diat Buchanan's financial knowledge is minimal. On hearing thename of Nick's firm, Buchanan "remark[s] decisively", "Never heard ofthem" (GG, 14). He is clearly ignorant of die movements of the marketsoccurring a few miles away from his mansion. Unlike Buchanan, Gatsbyis interested in the markets, and his intimate knowledge of dieir shadieraspects is revealed by the invitation extended to Nick to participate in abusiness venture involving stolen bonds. In die Twenties many amassedfortunes by speculating on the stock market. Peter Fearon stresses that: "Agrowing proportion of die nation's wealtii, during die 1920s, was going tothose who were savers ratiier dian spenders, who used die stock market asthe barometer of their economic fortunes."24 In spite of his careful spendinghabits, Buchanan's position as a millionaire appears vulnerable, especiallyconsidering his ignorance of die undercurrents of economic activity in diestock market. Gatsby, unlike Buchanan, shows some interest in die bondbusiness, albeit that he participates only in a criminal capacity. His sensitiv-ity to die demands of business is shown during his parties. Unlike Buchanan,who only uses die telephone to speak widi his mistress, Gatsby is alwaysquick to answer business calls from Chicago (GG, 53). He behaves like anyexecutive, employing sophisticated technology such as telephones and tele-type to oversee the shipment of goods personally, whatever die geographicaldistance. Whatever die amorality of his business, Gatsby conducts himselflike a legitimate entrepreneur. He remains aware of die demands of hisbusiness even while he uses it to achieve die fulfilment of his hopelesslyromantic dreams. Gatsby is reminiscent of the figure of die executive whoappears in a Goodrich truck-tyre advertisement of 1924. A company man-ager is depicted before his office window, which overlooks his factory. Thisimage conveys die feudal power of die modern executive over his domain,and highlights the warmth of his relationship with his employees. On dieright-hand side of die advertisement there appears a semi-pneumatic tyre,implying diat die executive's technical knowledge is die cause of his socialsuperiority. The image stresses die quality of die product by its associationnot just widi die factory but widi the man who is at once separated fromit, and responsible for it The advertisement embodies die power of practicalimagination just as Gatsby does.25

However, Gatsby's adaptation is not wholly successful. His social skillsattract guests to his parties and stimulate die attention of Daisy, but tiieydisintegrate when he tries to conform to die requirements of East Egg.When Gatsby joins Daisy, Buchanan, Jordan and Nick in a suite in diePlaza Hotel in Central Park, he argues widi Buchanan. Merely by alluding

THE GREAT GATSBT 311

to Gatsby's obscure past, Buchanan shows die social vulnerability and flawsof die sophisticated host of West Egg: Buchanan claims diat Gatsby is aboodegger, and diat he has set up a chain of side-street drugstores widiconnections to die underworld.26 Gatsby's reaction to diese accusations isspontaneous. His mask suddenly dissolves and, instead of countering slurswidi solid evidence (his involvement in diese affairs is peripheral, and onlyhis associate Walter Chase is actually implicated), he can only manage,"[Chase] came to us dead broke. He was very glad to pick up some money,old sport" (GG, 141). His words sound unconvincing; indeed, diey affirmhis connections widi die drugstore network. Aldiough Gatsby realises hismistake, it is too late to amend it, and Daisy's reaction reveals howunconvincing he has appeared:

He began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his nameagainst accusations that had not been made. But with every word she was drawingfurther and further into herself, so he gave that up and only the dead dream foughton as the afternoon slipped away. (GG, 142)

As soon as Gatsby's source of income is suggested, Daisy's confidence inher hero vanishes and "his presumptuous litde flirtation [was] over"(GG, 142). In spite of his money, Gatsby remains a boodegger. Given hisbackground, his victory over Tom can only be transitory — a fact diat heis not conscious of until it is too late.

Whereas die Buchanans' childish lack of human concern is shown bydieir "vast carelessness" (GG, 188), Gatsby's immaturity is exhibited by hisinability to transcend his adolescent dreams: bom are utterly unaware ofdie social and human contexts which surround dieir illusions. This flaw inGatsby's social conscience is responsible for die ultimate failure of his plansto seduce Daisy and the eventual devaluation of gendemen's manners. Inspite of his power over economic and technical reality, and his ability tomanipulate people dirough his appropriation of advertising techniques,Gatsby never reaches a level of self-awareness which would allow him tobreak free from his adolescence. The hazy romanticism of his objective ismirrored by the amorality of his means. By seeking to accomplish his goaloutside of society's rules, he becomes almost as careless a driver as hisguests. His defeat is a testimony to his heroic imperfections.

In spite of his lack of conscience, his ruthless pursuit of Daisy, and theamorality of his business ventures, Gatsby's most fascinating facet remainshis personality, which represents a partial embodiment of die mytii of dieself-made man. In his struggles to realise his dreams, he displays thequalities of die pragmatic imagination which shaped American capitalistideology from die 18th century onwards. Like Franklin, Rockefeller orMorgan, Gatsby is an individual who regulates his own life widiout refer-ence to normal social codes of conduct, and his skills are used to attain adistinctive individuality. The novel suggests diis by highlighting his will to

312 ALBERTO LENA

achieve individuality through his construction of a new personality. He hasnone of the disorientation of other characters such as Tom Buchanan,whose mental chaos is denned by Nick as the confusion "of a simple mind"(GG, 131). Gatsby's personality is centred upon the figure of the dynamicindividual; his tragedy is due to the fact that this is only a persona. Thenovel can be seen as a product of its times and represents an insight intothe dangers of the modern world: we, like our fictional counterparts, arehappy in the belief that we control our own technical and economic destiny,despite the considerable body of evidence to the contrary.

ALBERTO LENASchool of English and American StudiesUniversity of Exeter

ExeterEX44QH

United Kingdom

NOTES

My thanks to Professor Mick Gidley for his encouragement, and to Joachim Stanley and LynnWilliams for their comments and advice

1 F S Fitzgerald, The Great Gotsby (New York, 1991), p. 55 Further references are given inthe text

2 On the function of Nick as a narrator in the novel, see Scott Donaldson, "The Trouble withNick", Cnhcol Essays on F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tht Great Gatsby", cd. Scott Donaldson (Boston, 1984),pp. 131—9, T A Hanzo, "The Theme and the Narrator of The Great Gatsby", Modern Fiction Studies,2 (1956-57). 183-90

5 This interpretation of the novel has been stressed by Richard Ruland & Malcolm Bradburyin From Puntamsm to Postmodermty A History of American Literature (London, 1992) pp 300—301

4 Shane Leslie, American Wonderland Memories of Four Tours in the Untied States of America ign—ig35 (London, 1936), p 43

5 For a comparative study of both mansions, sec Tony Tanner's penetrating introduction toThe Great Gatsby (London, 1990), pp VII-LVI (XL-XLJ). The meanmg and function of money inthe novel has been studied with acute detail in Richard Godden's Fictions of capital The Americannovel from James to Mailer (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 78-103

6 See Donald R McCoy, Coming of Age. The United States during the igzo's and ig3o's(Harmondsworth, 1973), pp. 116—26. For the importance of the automobile during the era andits social implications, see Peter J. Ling, America and the Automobile, technology, reform and social change,'^93~'923 (Manchester, 1990), pp 13-36

7 J H. Plumb, "The Acceptance of Modernity" in The Birth of a Consumer Society. TheCommercialization of Eighteenth-Century England, ed Neil McKendnck, John Brewer & J H Plumb(London, 1982), pp. 316-34 (316).

8 Roland Marchand, AdoerUsmg the American Dream. Mahng Way For Modernity, igso—igjo(Berkeley, 1985), p 16

9 Ladies' Home Journal (Oct 1928), 11710 Marchand, p 1411 F Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up, ed. Edmund Wilson (New York, 1945), p. 2712 On the meaning of the music performed, see Darrel Mansell, "The Jazz History of the World

in The Great Gatsby", Enghsh Language Motes, 15 (1987), 57-62" Marchand, p. 26914 Saturday Evening Post (1 March 1924), 8015 See John Carey, The Intellectual and the Masses Pnde and Prenuhce among the Literary Intelligentsia,

i88o-ig3g (London, 1992), pp 3-45

THE GREAT GATSBT 313

16 Another novel of this period on careless driving a Booth Tarkington's Tht Magmfkienl Amberstms(New York, 1918)

17 Sec Peter Fearon, War, Prosperity and Depression (Oxford, 1987), pp 5 7 - 918 Peter J. Ling, America and the Automobile technology, reform and social change, / 5 p j - / o * 3

(Manchester, 1990), p 169.19 See, for instance, the advertisement of die R e o Motor Car Company in Saturday Evening Post

(9 June 1928), 6920 See Ernest Jflnger, Wake, 10 vols (Stuttgart, i960—1964), Vol 4, pp. 190—214.11 O n the relationship between Gatsby and Benjamin Franklin, see Brian M. Barbour, "The

Great Gatsby and the American Past", Southern Review 9 (1973), 2 8 8 - 9 9 (PP- 2 9 2 - 8 ) For the mythof the self-made man and industrial America, see J o h n G Caweln, Apostles of the Self-Made Man(Chicago, 111, 1965), pp 126—38.

22 M a l d w y n A J o n e s , The Louis of Liberty American History, i6oy—ig8o ( O x f o r d , 1983) , p 4 4 5" Tnmalchio is die rich and vulgar millionaire in Petromus' Satjmcon. Fitzgerald once conceived

the title "Tnmalchio in West Egg" for his novel See Francis Scott Fitzgerald's letters to MaxwellPerkins dated Nov. 7 1924, Dec 1 1924 and Feb 18 1925 in The Letters of F Scott Fitzgerald,ed Andrew Turnbull (New York, 1963), pp 169, 170, 177

24 Fearon, p 67.23 Saturday Evening Post ( 1 4 J u n e 1924) , 7 9 S e e the c o m m e n t s o n this a d v e r t i s e m e n t in

Marchand, p 240.16 See Thomas H PauK/, "Gatsby as Gangster", Studies in American Fiction.21 (1993), 225-36

(p 226)

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