The Mystery of Jay Gatsby and the Limits of Social Mobility

Introduction: Gatsby's Mystery and American Social Mobility

In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald released The Great Gatsby to instant and enduring acclaim. The novel, often cited as one of the greatest American novels, is credited as such for capturing with startling emotion the sociocultural vagaries of high society in the early twentieth century. The Great Gatsby is particularly compelling for the mystery that unfolds around its title character. Inexplicably wealthy, seemingly detached from the affairs of his neighbors and yet obsessed with feeding their impressions of him, Jay Gatsby is symbolic of the contradiction of American social mobility. Even as he becomes wealthy beyond the fantasies of most men, his low birth relegates him to the position of an outsider. The mystery that pervades his story is powered by his own need to sublimate this low birth beneath displays of mirthless party-throwing and material excess.

Perhaps more than any other concept in Fitzgerald's novel, that which implies the relative impossibility of social mobility in the United States emerges as most essential. If Jay Gatsby is a reflection of the United States in the early twentieth century — adorned with gaudy excess but still perceived as an upstart younger sibling by many of its global contemporaries — what is perhaps most critical about the character is the limitation on his ability to achieve cultural acceptance. For all of his wealth, pageantry, and material possession, Gatsby remains an outsider, cut off from the kind of knowledge, experience, and personal elevation that characters such as Tom and Daisy Buchanan could not begin to understand.

Old Money vs. New Money: Heritage and Identity

Indeed, we perceive that these characters have no desire to understand or relate to such experiences. As Gatsby's path to his lavish wealth becomes more apparent, so too does his isolation. In many ways, in spite of his love for Daisy, Gatsby must endure this isolation if he is to remain a party to the debutante events and sacrosanct culture into which he has sought entry. It is for this reason that Gatsby remains at a distance, seemingly aloof even as he stays intimately engaged. As Fitzgerald notes, Gatsby would come to reflect the monetary equivalent of immaculate conception — a man who appears suddenly with a vast amount of wealth historically gained only through inheritance. Yet, Fitzgerald writes, "the truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his own Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God — a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that — and he must be about his Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty" (p. 98).

That the acquisition of wealth — as opposed to the experience of having been born into it — is seen as vulgar and akin to prostitution says more about the society of East and West Egg than it does about Gatsby himself. Indeed, this perception forces his personal narrative into hiding. To this end, a counterpoint between Gatsby and Nick, whom we may suggest is Gatsby's only truly genuine friend, underscores the relative mystery of Gatsby's history. The lineage of Nick, of the Carraways, and of such prominent bloodlines in general stands in direct contrast to the seemingly rootless Gatsby. In spite of their comparable affluence, Nick can draw a clear and precise line through the various strands of heredity that assured his attendance at Yale, his association with the Buchanans, and his considerable financial comfort. According to Fitzgerald's narrator: "My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations. The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother, who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today." (Fitzgerald, p. 3)

Ancestry, Identity, and the Invention of Jay Gatsby

This proves an extremely important point of distinction for several reasons that help to underscore the mystery surrounding Gatsby. For those such as Carraway and the Buchanans, who reflect the cultural condition of being "old money," there is an inextricable link between past and present, between heritage and wealth, between ancestry and identity. Gatsby, as a reflection of the emergent notion of "new money," is a man without any such linkage.

Though Gatsby claims to be the product of a supremely wealthy but deceased San Francisco family, we are inclined toward skepticism. The author suggests instead a man whose presence in West Egg appears to have occurred almost spontaneously, without any apparent connection to the wealthy families and socialites who extend backward for so many generations. He also appears to possess wealth without any sense of heritage — claiming ownership of an incredible array of the newest finery while demonstrating very little in the way of inherited treasures. Moreover, in the absence of any apparent ancestry, Gatsby's identity remains hidden away.

Conclusion: Penetration Without Acceptance

In this regard, we find that Gatsby's life and the various details pieced together about it in his death are not inherently mysterious. They are instead obscured for the purposes of his own survival. While the wealthy society into which he inserts himself makes little to no exception for the qualities of ambition, diligence, and ingenuity, Gatsby's acquisition of pure material wealth allows him to penetrate an otherwise impenetrable social world. Still, this penetration comes at the steep prices of his happiness and, ultimately, his life.