Entry No. 5

 

Entry No. 5: Notes on Resilience 

When I think of resilience in The Great Gatsby, the first character that comes to mind is Gatsby himself since he struggled his way to the top to become among the wealthiest in Long Island. When Gatsby finally tells Nick what he life was like five years ago, Nick recounts his story saying that “However glorious might be his future as Jay Gatsby, he was at present a penniless young man without a past” (Fitzgerald 156) Five years ago James Gatz quite literally only had the clothes on his back. However, he remained determined to prosper after he returned from the war, willing to do anything to get Daisy back, thus demonstrating resilience. 

Another character who demonstrated resilience in The Great Gatsby was Nick Carraway who was set on giving Gatsby the funeral he felt he deserved and who persevered even though many did not want to attend. We can see Nick’s resilience when he makes several phone calls trying to contact Meyer Wolfshiem, a long-time friend of Gatsby’s in an attempt to get him to come to the funeral. Nick describes his attitude towards the situation saying, “I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all.” This clearly demonstrates Nick resilience and determination to honour his friend as best as he could.

The Great Gatsby is all about living and chasing the American Dream, a dream that Gatsby himself seemed to chase after his whole life but never got a firm hold of despite all his wealth and riches. In order to reach that American Dream, resilience is needed because if you are not born into an Elite family it is 10 times harder to reach just half of their status and wealth. However, The Great Gatsby also shows resilience in a negative light when it is associated with money and privilege.

In a way, Daisy and Tom Buchanan can be considered reliant since their whole lives should have been altered by Gatsby who had an affair with Daisy and could easily have called Daisy out for killing Myrtle, Tom’s mistress. But despite Gatsby’s death and all these secrets lurking in the shadows, it does not inconvenience the couple in any way as they simply move away and continue with their lives as if nothing happened. Interestingly enough, if someone defined resilience as continuing with life despite problems and opposition, then Daisy and Tom could justifiably be called resilient.

In my opinion, Fitzgerald used The Great Gatsby to demonstrate that the amount of options and opportunities we are exposed affects our resilience and how easily we demonstrate it. For example, for Daisy and Tom, resiliency came naturally to them and they almost didn’t give it a second thought. As was mentioned in the previous paragraph, when things got hard, Daisy and Tom simply moved to another city not even taking the time to say goodbye. 

Meanwhile, George Wilson a poor man who lived in the Valley of Ashes, descended into madness when his wife Myrtle was killed in a car accident. This is because George had very few opportunities and very little hope of a better life. There was nothing he could do to bring Myrle back and he had tried for so long to do better financially with no results. As a result, it was extremely hard for George to be resilient which is why he caved in on himself and took his own life right after killing Gatsby.