Gatsby's Murder

Yet again, another piece of sad news to share with you - Jay Gatsby has been murdered! Wealthy party host Jay Gatsby was found dead in his pool in the afternoon at his home in West Egg. He was shot by George Wilson, the owner of a garage in the valley of ashes whose wife was just recently killed in a hit and run incident. Wilson’s body was found at the scene of the crime; he killed himself shortly after murdering Gatsby - what a sick man!

Poor Gatsby, he ultimately died a lonely man; he had no real friends that I knew of and I heard that his love Daisy moved away with her husband. What a sick world we live in! Everyone who attended Gatsby’s parties and took advantage of the kind hospitality he offered them will probably mutter some sort expression of fake sadness about his death at their dining tables and then they’ll go back to living their sad lives. When it comes to Gatsby’s funeral, I’ll be damned if anyone actually shows up. You see, no one actually cared about Gatsby; they enjoyed his cocktails, his music, and his home but they couldn’t care less about who the host was.

Right before Gatsby’s passing, I learned about some of his background and who he was. Gatsby was an American dreamer as we all are. He came from a hardworking but poor family and fell in love with Daisy when he was stationed in her home town during the war. After he had returned from the war, Gatsby continued to dream of a reality where he and Daisy were together. In Gatsby’s dream however, he had to be rich to be suitable for Daisy so he spent years trying to become wealthy and to become someone of higher class. I think that he was successful in switching classes although I am not sure how he obtained his wealth. Gatsby achieved the American dream, to be rich, extravagant, and popular. But Gatsby’s experience has showed us what the American dream really has to offer, and its nothing.

So is it possible to force your way into another social class? Yes, I believe it is possible with a lot of hard work. In Gatsby’s case, he was able to switch from lower Class to Upper Class and quite convincingly, I might add. I’m not too sure that Myrtle Wilson was able to switch classes because as hard as she tried, I could see that it wasn’t natural. Perhaps, in order to switch classes you must already have the virtues of the class.