The Greater Source of Conflict Is Not Social but Internal - Essay Example

The Greater Source of Conflict is not social but internal In The Great Gatsby, the moral condition in West eggs isdepicted as largely eroded and the character’s lives engender immorality in terms of extravagance, hypocrisy, and infidelity other vices. Many characters such as Tom and Gatsby do not seem to care if the outside world found about or disagreed with their indiscretion, thus the most significant conflict had less to do with social expectations but within the self. The plot revolves around the life of the stories protagonist, Jay Gatsby through the eyes of his neighbor and friend Nick Carraway; whose perspective the writer uses to render the story to the reader. The characters in the book are embroiled in conflict both internal and external as they wrestle with their feelings, desires and the expectations of society as well as their past lives which the likes of Gatsby and Daisy would rather keep hidden. Internal conflict is ubiquitous in Gatsby who endeavors to elevate himself from poverty and to great riches and high class; from outside, he appears the perfect man who initially just happens to have acquired a fabulous amount of wealth mysteriously. However, within him he bears a blinding desire to be reunited with his past love Daisy. Diasy had promised herself to Gatsby but married Tom when the former went to war, also presents an interesting case or internal conflict as she tries to maintain a facade of a smooth marriage while she lives with an immoral abusive and hypocritical man. Nick Carraway also undergoes a great deal of internal conflict since he is placed in positions where he is used to observe and at times abet immoral acts by his neighbors and friends. At the end of the book he end up escaping from New York since he discovers there moral corruption therein would only destroy him. This paper, will examine the nature of internal conflict in the “Great Gatsby” and the role it played in determining and influencing events in the story as well as the impact on the lives of characters in a quest to understand them and achieve success love and happiness. In order to understand the nature of conflict, it is important, first to understand the narrator Nick Carraway who also casts himself as the writer of the book in the first chapter. Nick justifies his suitability to as the narrator by espousing the lessons he learnt from his father about not judging people by his own standards and trying to be objective. To a great extent, he lives up to these expectations and proves to be not only tolerant but open minded and a good listener, nevertheless, despite his nonjudgmental presumptions, he evidently views himself as more morally privileged and in possession of a better sense of decency than the West “eggers”. His conflict is compounded by his mixed reaction to the life on the east egg; inspire of his reservations, Nick is strongly attracted to the fast paced and liberal lifestyle lead in New York. Despite the fact that Gatsby presents what he despises about New York, he still admires the man, and is forced to radically change his thinking to accommodate and justify his friendship with him. When Tom forces Nick out of the train to go to Taunt Wilson, the wife of Toms Mistress, Nick is clearly not interested but he goes along because of the formers insistence. This is evident when he states that, “We’re getting off!’ he insisted, ‘I want you to meet my girl’, I think he’d tanked up a good deal at luncheon and his determination to have my company bordered on violence” (Fitzgerald 27). They go back with Myrtle on the train and later attend a party at an apartment in New York, the ostentatious behavior and lewd talk goes against his moral conditioning he is disgusted, at some point tries to leave. However in spite of himself, he is strongly attracted to it all, he is clearly ambivalent and the contradiction between his beliefs and actions serves to enhance the inner conflict which is unresolved until the end of the book. His inner conflict is further evidence in his love for Jordan, her sophistication and high-spiritedness are attributes he finds very attractive, as well as the fact that she fits neatly into the lifestyle he had come to admire and loath. His feelings towards her like many he experience in the book are fraught with contradiction, in the same way he admires her , he is repelled by her dishonesty and lack of concern for other people and their feelings. She is also very self-centered and apparently cheated to win her first golf tournament, “She was incurably dishonest, She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage” (Fitzgerald 64). However Nick tries to rationalize her dishonesty as something that one needed not to worry so much in a woman. Evidently, until when their relationship terminated its existence presented a great deal of inner struggle against the straightforward man he believed himself to be and the dishonest character he knew she possessed. Ultimately, Nick resolve is inner moral conflict after observing the disintegration of the moral core in the west coast and the collapse of Gatsby’s American dream he realizes that there is nothing but emptiness and destruction. After he witnesses Gatsby’s funeral, he resolves his inner conflict and gives in to his initial morally upright nature leaving decadence behind and retiring to Minnesota where he could hope to have a quitter and more traditionally structure life. Gatsby on the other hand is driven by a desire to acquire wealth and riches; he used to work for millionaire and clearly admired the power of money, and lied to Daisy that he was from a wealthy. He makes money through a criminal means ranging from organized crime to smuggling with the sole intention of winning back Daisy, who his become his primary obsession. Gatsby struggles against his past life and in moving to an opulent part of New York and buying a huge house; he is clearly trying to carve out a niche and identity for himself. His struggle for an identity is driven by the fact that he feels incomplete without Daisy, whom he imagines he cannot court unless he is wealthy, Gatsby is tormented by his feelings and this is evidence by the position Nick finds him in when they first meet. He is standing outside and staring at a distant light, Gatsby is not proud of his past and he tries to repress it by changing his name from James Gatz Gay to Jay Gatsby. In his attempt to reinvent himself, he holds extravagant parties every Saturday and only wears the most expensive and fashionable clothes, he also maintains his mysterious aura about his past. He does not attempt to explain or correct the outrageous speculations that his guests evolve about him such as this one; “One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil,” (Fitzgerald 66); he does not give anyone a straight answer about his past. He uses his wealth to try and become a member of the upper class hobnobbing with them and inviting them for parties, under the impression that if he spends time with them he may become like them despite his humble beginnings. The reader initially sees Gatsby as an innocent and determined young man who is driven by his dreams of love, however as the story progresses it is evident that daisy, on whose love he staked so much was not the angel he believed her to be. Despite his mysterious nature, Gatsby not unlike Tom has no reservations to committing infidelity and he evidently cares very little about what others think of him. During dinner in Toms own house, he stare intently at his wife in a manner that betrays his love, for Gatsby, his love for Daisy was more important than any social standing or impression. Gatsby’s love for her is so strong that he begs her to come to him and admit he never loved Tom as the two men engage in a public argument over her love, Gatby is blinded by his love for her to an extent that he does not care about to deeming himself in public by courting another man’s wife. “ Daisy, that’s all over now,’ he said earnestly, ‘It doesn’t Matter anymore, just tell him the truth—that you never loved him—and it’s all wiped out forever” (Fitzgerald 149). Daisy’s indecision and immaturity contributes to her own inner conflict and confusion, she vows to marry Gatsby but later marries Tom, later when after he goes off to war, then Oxford. She initially presents a smokescreen of a happy and contented wife, however she is disturbed by the fact that her husband is a violent, arrogant and dishonest man, when Gatsby gets back, they almost instantly resume their relationship and she clearly has feelings for him. Her lack of self-understanding is enhance in the fact that despite her apparent love for Gatsby, she sticks with her husband and remain loyal shunning her first love. However; the dialogue before that eventuality portrayed something different, she agreed she had never loved Tom when Gatsby tells her to admit to the fact; Daisy In the beginning, she seems content with her life with Tom. However she later changes that and claims she has loved both of them at some point. Tom accused Gatsby of being a swindler who would have to steal to buy his wife a ring (Fitzgerald 142). It is likely that despite her awareness of his indiscretions, she was bound to him by a social upper class connection of wealth and aristocracy that even Gatsby with his wealth could not penetrate. As such she is torn between her love for her status and her past and at times obsessional love for Gatsby especially in view of the fact that she her husband who expected absolute loyalty gave none in return. It has been argued that Nick and Gatsby have been used to by Fitzgerald to reflect two periods of his life and in them he has embodied his contrasting personalities in hash he existed as he sought to assert and understand himself. He acquired wealth at a young age and spent it a manner not very different from Gatsby trying to live his skewed and extravagant version of the American dream. He was like nick attracted to the debaucheries of the Jazz age which nevertheless went against his upbringing, however he was finally able to see past that and he left his Gatsby side to die as he moved on in search of a more morally fulfilling existence. Works Cited Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925. Print. Read More