Tiffany Shearer
The Great Gatsby and Oxymorons within
“Oxymoron in the C Great Gatsby<<UNDERLINE BOOK TITLE (ETC.) ”, by Peter L.
Hays really demonstrates how oxymorons play such a huge role in the Great Gatsby. The people
in the Great Gatsby tend to throw around money like it is nothing just to look better to their
peers. In this article, Hays establishes the motives of all the characters, how they represent
society through their actions, and the constant struggling of right and wrong. Through paradoxes,
Fitzgerald demonstrates how people from the book represent real life people. Everyone tries
desperately to push forward, but get pushed back into their past and must deal with the
consequences. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”
(Fitzgerald 180).
Hays asks the question, “Why pepper the novel with paradoxes and oxymorons?” People
who have analyzed his writing say that it is his C WHOSE? own style and that it was the best
way for him to describe the 20s because it was a time of so much change, good and bad. Hays
points out that Fitzgerald wanted to show the importance of promotion by meritocracy in the
time of the 1920s, even though no one wanted to admit it. He shows this through multiple
characters, but most prominently in Jay Gatsby. Gatsby believes since he has money, it erases the
social gap from which he was born into. To Gatsby C Daisy is perfect. Hays points out another
paradox, “The unreality of reality”. Gatsby thinks Daisy is perfect, which shows how unreal
reality can truly seem. He also wanted to point out that appearances can be deceiving and he says
that even the prettiest and richest can be capable of horrible actions. He points this out by giving
Daisy as an example. She is such a lovely character in the book, but is the one who hit a
bystander. Hays said
that America through the eyes of Fitzgerald is “riddled with corruption.” Hays and many
others credit Fitzgerald with perfectly portraying the American Dream, with its
paradoxes, oxymorons, and the ideals that many strive for that are so far off from the
course of reality.
I agree with Hays for the most part. When he says that oxymorons and paradoxes are
used in the Great Gatsby and help get the tone across to the audience, I completely agree. So
much in the book is a contradiction. For example, Gatsby says he is from the Midwest but then
says he is from San Francisco. In Gatsby’s library he has tons of books, but none of them have
been opened. Also, Tom says that he loves Daisy, but then cheats on her with Myrtle. Jordan
even says that the reason she likes Nick is because he is not like her, but at the end of the book
she says, “Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a
wrong guess. I thought you were a rather honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your
secret pride” (Fitzgerald 177). I think she is wrong because Nick doesn’t help people just to get
what he wants out of it. For example, he was the only one that cared about Gatsby in the end and
he helped Gatsby with Daisy to be a good friend. There was nothing in it for him.
What I don’t agree with is how Hays portrays Nick. Hays says “Nick, too, has his
doublenesses... and a belief that qualifies Nick very much as a snob” (Hays 320). He thinks Nick
is just as stuck up and money obsessed as the others, but I don’t think that is the case. Nick lives
in a normal house, with a normal job. He is involved with all this madness because Daisy is his
cousin. Nick seems to talk negatively about how Tom treats Daisy and how money obsessed they
all are. Hays said that this is just another one of the contradictions in the book. He says that Nick
talks badly about the other characters, but is just as bad himself, but I do not think that is the
case. Nick was the one who was trying to do everything he could to be a good friend to Gatsby.
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He invited Daisy over so that Gatsby could get close with her again. Just because Nick was born
into riches doesn’t necessarily mean that he is stuck up. Nick tried to make Daisy’s visit perfect
for Gatsby, but the food he had in his house wasn’t right, and the grass wasn’t cut precisely the
way Gatsby wanted. Nick is a people pleaser. For example, he goes to Gatsby’s party just to be
polite. Nick is just trying to live up to the expectations of others around him while still trying to
live the life that he wants to live. He goes out to become a stock broker because it is what is
socially acceptable to his parents. If he would have wanted to be an artist, he would have never
gained his parents support. He is running into many conflicts with this though because it is not
easy to balance what he wants with what everyone else wants.
I believe he changes throughout the book as a person. At the beginning of the book, Nick
shows that maybe he isn’t as appreciative as he is at the end. Nick’s Dad says, “All the people in
this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 5). Nick takes this differently than
his Dad means. Nick believes his Dad means that he was just born into a higher social status so
that is why he is lucky. As the book goes on, Nick grows as a character. Nick starts to show a lot
of maturity when he says, “I’m five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor” (Fitzgerald
177). He starts to see that these people may have all they can buy, but aren’t happy. I think he
really noticed this when no one showed up to Gatsby’s funeral. Nick was furious when not even
Mr. Wolfsheim would attend the funeral. Wolfsheim said, “I can’t do it- I can’t get mixed up in
it” (Fitzgerald 171). Mr Wolfsheim was treating his so called friend like some sort of legal
matter and Nick did not like that at all. Nick seemed upset when Daisy didn’t seem to care about
what happened to Gatsby at all either. She didn’t even send him a message or flowers. Nick
realized Gatsby’s whole life was an act just to feel better about himself and it never truly worked.
In the end, none of the characters end up getting what they wanted. This just more
prominently shows how just because you are rich don’t necessarily mean you always get what
you want. In fact, being caught up in a world of wealth can be your demise as it was for Gatsby.
He gained all his money to win over the woman he loved and it backfired on him. Tom also
ended up sharing a similar fate. Myrtle was killed and he was left with no one. Daisy came back,
but nothing will ever be the same. They will go on living like nothing happened, but that is not
the case. “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” (Fitzgerald 179). This quote
shows that these characters really are the type of characters that would contradict themselves to
manipulate others. EXPLAIN HOW THE QUOTE SHOWS THIS IN ORDER TO TIE PAR.
MAIN IDEA INTO YOUR THESIS.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott, and Lionel Trilling. The Great Gatsby. New York: C. Scribner's Sons,
1925. Print.
HAYS, PETER L. Papers on Language & Literature, Summer2011, Vol. 47 Issue 3, p318-325,
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TIFFANY: Strong analysis and extension of Hays’ ideas. Especially strong in par. 3 and 4
where you clearly show which ideas are yours, which ideas are Hays’ and how the two connect
(or don’t connect) check your following par.s to make sure they are as strong. See if you can
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keep fine tuning your summary to make sure you have all the main ideas of the source (and only
the main ideas). Nice work here.
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