Jay Gatsby Wasn't Real

"Well, duh," you might say--and I thank you kindly for your eloquent words. Clearly Jay Gatsby is a fictional character. But after seeing Great Gatsby this afternoon, I'd like to argue that in this fictional world, Jay Gatsby (or James Gats) is not real.

It generally takes quite a bit of convincing for us to believe that someone is worthy enough to speak the truth. I mean, we're not just gonna elect some random guy off the street to become president. He's got to show that he's worth that trust. It's the same with the reliability of a narrator. And I'll tell ya', the little that we do know about our friend Nick Carraway indicates that he is not the most reliable of sorts. A depressed alcoholic with a failed writing career, Nick might just be looking for some sort of escape. He's telling this story in a therapist's office! In what world does that suggest that he's a stable guy, just looking to set his audience straight?

This story is told during one of the most chaotic, mind-altering times. Writing is one of the most chaotic, mind-altering professions. If we trusted drunk people and writers to tell the truth we would 1) get back together with our exes every other weekend and 2) would have a very long cry at age eleven when we didn't get our letters from Hogwarts (okay, I was slightly disappointed when I wasn't greeted by an owl, but shhhh).

Humans tend to reach for this "American Dream," yes, but look deeper and you'll see that what we desire just as much (if not more) is others' sympathy. Nick Carraway is a nobody who has no concrete goal that will make him feel like a somebody. He can't even think "well, if I just get this girl I've been yearning for the past five years, then life will be all fine and dandy." He doesn't have the luxurious parties to distract him from the emptiness. He doesn't have the fact that his alter-ego is Leonardo freaking DiCaprio to make him feel just a little more whole.

Either having this or being this would make life just a little more awesome

So, Nick creates a world where he can strive for a concrete goal. This certainly answers the question as to why Gatsby is the only person who says his catch phrase of choice at the end of every. single. sentence. He invents a man whose moral of the story is so blatantly obvious, that it helps Nick figure out the chaos of his own mind. It perhaps relieves the pressure Nick feels to become a somebody in the working world, as that can still make you a nobody in the personal world.

Perhaps this is just another literary conspiracy theory, but just as Leonardo taught us about dreams within a dream, he could be sending us a message about books within a book. What say you, old sport? Could Nick Carraway simply be a "nobody" with a vivid imagination?

Oh, and Dorian Gray was a vampire, too.

Happy Sunday!

Namaste.