| , Research Paper
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby outward appearances are
essential. They provide a glimpse at the artificial world inhabited by Jay Gatsby, a
product of his own imagination(Lehan,”the road to West Egg” 29) and Daisy Fay
Buchanan, the embodiment of glamour and wealth (Brewley 44), two characters whose
action thoroughly develops the plot, and two who have become so consumed by the
image they have created that they do not truly know their own identities. This
deceptiveness created by outward appearances is seen no more clearly than in the pictures
painted by Fitzgerald of Gatsby’s “bewildering parties” (E.K. 7), and in his business
dealings which are connected with the “underworld bond and brokerage business”
(Lehan). The valley of ashes, “where all hopes must be left behind”(long 123), and the
grand mansions of Gatsby and the Buchanans also offer the reader a look at the massive
illusions created by Fitzgerald’s characters. As the Great Gatsby progresses, the outward
appearances of events, places and people can prove to be very deceptive.
What more can explify the importance of outward appearances than the parties of
the roaring twenties and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The first three chapters of the
novel are devoted to party scenes; 1) the “proper dinner party” at the Buchanan’s in East
Egg; 2) the wild drunken party at Tom and Myrtle’s apartment in New York; and, 3)
Gatsby’s extravagant party in West Egg. These scenes introduce all of the important
characters and places in the novel, as to give the impression of artificially (Miller 107).
Each of these parties emphasizes the impression or outward appearance each character
hopes to convey to others. This is seen most vividly, long after he is sickened by the
familiarity of Gatsby’s uninvited guests (Ornstein 54). Jay Gatsby “dispenses hospitality
with lavish and dazzling extravagance – a modern Solomon erecting a bizarre temple to
the wayward popularity” (E.K. 7). Gatsby is compared to Solomon because, like
Solomon, Gatsby is king of his domain, the Son of God. It seems odd that Gatsby would
invite strangers to his house, but he has a need for his guests, and though it seemed the
guests came only for the free party, the private beach, and the endless flow of cocktails,
they also needed Gatsby. He provided them with an escape from reality, yet in the end
illusions and reality must go their separate ways (Brewley 43). One of the most moving
scenes in the novel is when Gatsby bids farewell to his guests. Nick describes “a sudden
emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors, endowing with
complete isolation the figure of the host who stood on the porch, his hand up in a formal
gesture of farewell” (Fitzgerald 60). This scene evokes the image that the guests were
not human, but illusions created by Gatsby to support his vision. As Marius Brewley
stated, “The names of guests could have been recorded nowhere more appropriately as in
the margins of a faded timetable. They were the embodiments of illusions – as ephemeral
as time itself” (42). Brewley is referring, of course, to the list of names Nick recorded of
those who attended Gatsby’s parties that summer (Fitzgerald 65). The list itself evokes a
series of fabulous parties, attended by an endless number of eccentric, fashionable,
ambitious, and bored people (Miller 100). In the end the guests were nothing more than
the orange pulps and lemon rinds, what were left of Gatsby’s dream (Lehan, “The Road
to West Egg” 33). The mystirous and decieving outward appearances of the party’s
guest is by far out-shadowed by Gatsby’s past and business.
Gatsby’s business operations seem to provide the most interesting cover. Gatsby
got his start from his relationship with Dan Cody, but it is Meyer Wofsheim who gets
Gatsby into illegal business operations. Wolfsheim, who finds out, is the man who fixed
the 1919 World Series (Fitzgerald 78). He encounters Gatsby when he is discharges form
the War and covered with medals.. Wolfsheim becomes a sort of second father figure for
Gatsby, this “lord of the underworld” (Lehan “The Road to West Egg” 30). Wolfsheim
declares, I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter” (Fitzgerald 179). It is
true that, in a sense, Wolfsheim raised Gatsby, but he raised him into the world of
artificial glamour that ultimately led to his destruction. The source of money holds no
significance for Gatsby; however, his goal is simply to earn enough money to win
Daisy’s love, and “it is with this money that comes from bootlegging, gambling and
bucket shops that Gatsby makes the fortune that allows him to buy his mansion in West
Egg” Lehan, “His Father’s Business” 57). In the beginning Daisy quips, “He owed some
drugstores, a lot of drugstore. He built them up himself” (Fitzgerald 114). It’s true,
Gatsby did own drugstores, but as Tom reveals in the denouncement scene at the Plaza
Hotel, “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side street drugstores and in Chicago
and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (Fitzgerald 141). This scene concretizes Tom’s
earlier claim that Gatsby was a bootlegger. Daisy becomes terrified at this revitalization,
and the entire novel turns on what Daisy considers to be legitimate and illegitimate
wealth (Lehan, “Inventing Gatsby” 65). Tom destroys the entire facade that Gatsby has
built around himself, but as E.K. so truthfully stated:
Gatsby, for all… the uncertain haziness in which his vague business connections
and presumably ill-gotten wealth envelop him, he is far more real than the men
and women who stoop from the security of their well-ordered business and social
worlds to play with him and spend his money. (7)
This bit of information clearly re-emphasizes the point that outward appearances can be
deceptive.Gatsby’s vague past proves through deceptive appearances one can brought
from nothing to an quite artifical hero.
The Valley of Ashes; where George and Myrtle Wilson reside, is another place
where exteriors can be rather deceptive. On first glance, the valley of ashes appears to be
just that, a heap of ashes in a garage, but they actually represent the gray, dismal
environment of the Wilson’s – the life and class to which they belong (Miller 106). This
“wasteland” becomes the primary backdrop against which tragedy is played out, and
which causes it to take on a greater significance. Fitzgerald returns here again and again,
bringing his characters by its “spasms of black dust”(Miller 106). Myrtle tries to escape
this world of bleakness in her city apartment, where she resides as Tom Buchanan’s
mistress. It is here that she tries to maintain a facade of “wealth and respectability.” The
valley of Ashes soon shatters this facade, along with her gaudy expectations of entering
Tom’s world (Lehan, “Sugar Lumps and Ash Heaps; George and Myrtle Wilson”
93). Fleeing to escape her husband, Myrtle rushes hoping to be saved from her hell by
someone who she believes to be Tom, only to be crushed by the machine, “her life
violently extinguished as she knelt in the road, the blood mingling with the dust” (Lehan,
“A Son of God” 39). Ironically, it was Daisy who extinguished the life of Myrtle, but her
husband is deceived of this fact due to Tom.
As the valley of ashes represented the environment of the Wilsons, the grand
homes of Gatsby and the Buchanans represent the conflicting social status and
importance of outward appearances. Nick describes each house in a different way,
When referring to the Buchanan mansion, he says, “Their house was even more elaborate
than I expected, a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the
bay” (Fitzgerald 11). This house embodies the taste that establishes money knows how
to buy. On the other hand, when he describes Gatsby’s house he cited, “…was a colossal
affair by any standard – it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Normandy…”
(Fitzgerald 9). This description reflects, ironically, upon Gatsby’s impractical dream
(Long 90). Coincidentally, the two houses are positioned as if they were confronting one
another. The distance between them also suggests that Gatsby, with his strange estate at
West Egg, is as close as he will ever come to the established society of the Buchanans
(Long 91). Both houses obviously contain substantial amounts of mystery, but on the
night before Gatsby’s reunion with Daisy, his house lights up from top to bottom – with
streaks of light, creating an impressionistic effect of grand illusion. Gatsby’s house
remains rather unreal, even after his death, when his father brings a crumpled photo of
Gatsby’s house – a mirage of success (Long 90). Nick tells the reader, “he had shown it
so often that I think that it was more real to him now that the house itself (Fitzgerald
180). This further emphasizes the illusionary quality the mansion possessed and the
importance of out ward appearances in Gatsby’s time.
The characters in The Great Gatsby provide the much evidence of the importance
of outward appearances and each shows deception throught the novel both to their
innerselves and peers. Daisy Fay Buchanan is the hardest character to define in The
Great Gatsby (Eble 94). Perhaps that “she bears the burden of compelling such romantic
intensity explains why Daisy is presented so vaguely as a character” (Lehan, “Careless
People; Daisy Fay” 73). “Gatsby sees Daisy as the embodiment of wealth and
glamour”(Brewley 41). She is the object of romantic obsession (Lehan, “Careless
People: Daisy Fay” 67). When she tells Gatsby that she loves him, his hopes for a life
with her lead to a confrontation with her husband, Tom. During this confrontation, Daisy
tells Tom that she never loved him, then recants her statement and says that she loved
him once but loved Gatsby also (Fitzgerald 139). Daisy’s indecisiveness
exemplifies “Daisy’s Lack of maturity, intrinsic worth, and solidarity of character”
(Lehan, “The Road to West Egg” 31). Gatsby chooses to ignore Daisy’s undesirable
traits, and will at all costs do anything to protect her. When their affair resumes after five
years, Gatsby fires all of his servants because he wants “somebody who wouldn’t gossip”
(Fitzgerald 120). He wanted to preserve Daisy’s reputation. It is quite ironic the lengths
which Gatsby will go to protect Daisy, whereas “Daisy, who will at last resort protect
herself no matter who or what she has to abandon” (Lehan “The Road to West Egg” 31).
She remains “spotless” and immaculately dressed in white, while at the same time she is
selfish, destructive, and capable of anything except human sympathy (Ornstein 59).
Gatsby tells Nick after their affair resumes “Her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald 127).
This statement gives the tour of Gatsby’s house more substance, illustrating to the reader
Gatsby’s need to prove that he has earned enough to deserve her love (Lehan,
“Careless People: Daisy Fay” 75). This scene implies that Daisy is more concerned with
Gatsby’s outward appearance than which is he is as a person. Nick warns Gatsby,
“Don’t ask to much of her. You can’t repeat the past” (Fitzgerald 116), to which Gatsby
replies, “Why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 116). It is obvious that “Gatsby endows
her with a meaning that she could in no way embody” (Lehan, “The Road to West Egg”
31). “In spite of the bright gleam of wealth and bored sophistication of her careless life –
Daisy is seen as what she is, ‘foul dust that floated in the wake of Gatsby’s dream’”
(Miller 103). “She vanished into her rich house, into her rich full like, leaving Gatsby –
nothing” (Fitzgerald 157). The careless attitude and false identity that consumes Daisy,
also embodies Jay Gatsby himself.
No outward appearances can be quite as deceptive as that of Jay Gatsby himself,
For “Gatsby is some what vague, his outlines are dim, the reader can’t focus upon him”
(Perkins 5). This can be said due to the many misconceptions one discovers about
Gatsby. James E. Miller, Jr. also confirms of Kaiser Wilheim, that he killed a man once,
that he is a German spy…” (98). “The suspense created by these wild stories eventually
gives way to Gatsby’s enormously vital illusion” (Miller 98); the illusion of obtaining
Daisy Buchanan’s love. This love for Daisy played an essential role in Gatsby’s
inventing himself. The narrator of the novel cites:
The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic
conception of himself. He was the Son of God – - a phrase that, if it means
anything, means just that – - and he must be about His Father’s Business, the
service of vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty(Fitzgerald 104).
The novel’s narrator, Nick Carraway, gives the reader this description on Gatsby shortly
after Gatsby reveals the truth behind all the myths associated with himself. Nick also
notes that Jay Gatsby’s name was legally James Batz (Fitzgerald 104). This name change
occurs at age seventeen when, “ Jay is taken under the tutelage of Dan Cody, a
millionaire yachtsman and miner” (Gallo 37). Gatsby spends five years with Dan Cody,
and upon Cody’s death was deprived of his $25,000 legacy, forcing him into the army
(Gallo 37). Gatsby, in a sense, was “modeling himself after Dan Cody” (Lehan,
“Inventing Gatsby” 58). Just as Cody had built an empire, Gatsby was building an
illusion, a dream. The illusion began with Cody, but continues as he invents a fictitious
background: his aristocratic background and ancestors, and his Oxford education (Kuehl
15). “The more Gatsby talks the more absurd his story becomes” (Lehan, “Inventing
Gatsby” 60). Nick declares, “He hurried the phrase “educated at Oxford, “ … And with
this doubt his whole statement fell to pieces and I wondered if there wasn’t something a
little sinister about him” Fitzgerald 69). Despite the contradictions in his story, Gatsby
never emerges clearly and forcefully enough “to be considered sinister; he is created
more as a mythical person than as a real one (Eble 95). It is this “blurring of Gatsby” that
makes his “fantastic illusion more believable” (Lehan, “Inventing Gatsby” 60). He is the
“embodiment of every man’s unfulfilled aspirations” (Gallo 38). Gatsby’s personality is
composed of “gestures” as Nick calls them. They include the pink suits, the silver
shirts, the “old sports”, and many other mannerisms (Lehan “Inventing Gatsby” 58). As
Nick tell the reader, “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then
there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of
life…” (Fitzgerald 6). It is this lack of intelligence and judgement of reality
that leads him to his tragic death (Brewley 53). Gatsby’s long lost father attends his
son’s funeral with great pride, commenting that “Jimmy always likes it better down East.
He rose up to his position in the East” (Fitzgerald 176). This statement is viewed with
great sadness due to the fact that, although Gatsby had collected a vast amount of wealth,
in the end, he was left with nothing. It becomes evident, at the novel’s close, that
“beneath the elaborate, albeit gaudy, elegance of Gatsby looms James Gatz, the original
“roughneck” that Gatsby spends so much time trying to conceal” (Lehan, “Inventing
Gatsby” 59). However, Gatsby is not the only character who tries to conceal his true
identity. Daisy, the object of his desire, is also quite obscure.
Throught out Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby the importance of outward
appearances is ever present and continuosly deceptive. One can witness through the
parties of “dazzling extravagance”(E.K. 7), the decieving underworld business of Gatsby,
the “wasteland” Valley of Ashes (Miller 106), the unreal ,cold palaces of the East and
West Egg, and most of all in the imaginary self-invented souls of Jay Gatsby and Daisy
Buchanan the truth to the idea of outward appearances. Not only did these deceptive
masks prove to be important but they were essential to the plot of the novel. The Great
Gatsby ‘s success can be attributed to the twists and turns provided by the human need to
judge one another and develop onesself through the use of outward appearances.
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