When the Ideal Becomes the Real (The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald)

The man had it all. Yet it wasn't enough. The house, the car, the clothes, the parties, staff, status, stories, and, of course, "business gonnegtions" (p. 70). What's worse, he had the future—his future—all planned out, right across the way, almost within reach. The green light was the light at the end of his tunnel. The only thing missing? Daisy. 

So Gatsby schemes and schmoozes until he can finally be reunited with her—under the appearance of fate—just like he planned. Just like he had planned everything: his business dealings, parties, everything. He made the Ideal into the Real. He forced it to happen—all by accident. 

But when the Ideal becomes the Real, it ceases to be the Ideal. And the Real is less than Ideal. 

What ensured? 

Reality destroyed the Ideal. Actuality shattered the Fantasy. 

Who's fantasy? 

Gatsby's, of course, but also Daisy's. Gatsby's fantasy was Daisy. Daisy's fantasy was money, status, entertainment, self—things of this world.

Gatsby lived out his fantasy until Tom adjudged Daisy's fantasy could not be fulfilled by Gatsby: he was just a man, a "Mr. Nobody from Nowhere" (p. 130) and a "bootlegger"(p. 133) to boot. 

Daisy's fantasy could never be fulfilled, even with Tom's money, status or Gatsby's entertainment and promises. Even Daisy's baby wasn't enough to distract Daisy from herself. What was left for her? Accepting Reality, knowing Ideality would never exist. She could not have Tom and Gatsby; she could not have the things she wanted from each of them at the same time; she had to choose between Reality and Ideality. 

What do we make of Nick in all of this? How does he fit into this ironic romance? 

He was the man who saw through each character and caught glimpses of himself. He understood it was better to have a vision, a plan, a mission and see to it ("Gatsby believed in the green light..." (p. 180)), than wasting away, day after day, hoping for the next thing to catch and divert our attention. Selling bonds wasn't going to do that for Nick, certainly not after meeting Gatsby. And after Gatsby's death, Nick realized that he didn't have a plan or a future (certainly not with Jordan) and the feelings of home were beckoning him forward. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (p. 180)

Men must build Reality, help shape and create it. Men must not get lost in the Ideal or spiral into lust or fantasy. Men must plan, execute, and follow through. Men must not drift with the culture milieu, bouncing from parties and affairs. Men must seek Truth, Wisdom, and Beauty and pursue her accordingly. 

Final note on the book motif throughout: the man in the library, who admired Gatsby's "absolutely real" books--"pages and everything...bona fide piece of printed matter" (p. 45)--was the only other person at Gatsby's funeral except for Gatsby's father, Nick, and the hired help. What should that tell us about this man and the legacy of the Great Gatsby? What should this tell us about Books and Reality? 

Despite all of Gatsby's allure, charm, and deceit, the books he read had a "real" impact on himself and others. Gatsby was a self-made man: "Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he's got about improving his mind? He was always great for that." (p. 173).

Likewise, Nick was captured by books and the contents therein. His "high intention of reading many other books" perhaps in an attempt to return to he former "rather literary" self and finally become the Ideal—the "well-rounded man." (p. 4). Perhaps "life is much more successfully looked at from a single window" than viewed by a green light from afar. (p. 4).