“I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream.” -Bruce Springsteen.
F. Scott Fitzgerald even brilliantly combines the golden age and bible teachings to portray this message that, the American Dream of getting rich is far from the reality of how people actually get rich, in his novel The Great Gatsby. But Unfortunately as the story goes on, we begin to see that F. Scott Fitzgerald commits blasphemy and compares one of his deceitful characters to Jesus Christ, a man who never sinned.
The American Dream changed Gatsby because Gatsby thought he could “buy” Daisy’s love. The only reason he wanted Daisy was that she symbolized wealth and took on the characteristics of money. When Gatsby was describing what he liked about Daisy he tells us “Her voice is full of money” (page 127). Gatsby felt as though because Daisy was a woman corrupted by the American dream he himself needed to be wealthy and thought he needed to have an enormous mansion filled with parties to impress Daisy enough to earn her love. “‘That huge place THERE?’ she cried pointing. ‘Do you like it?’ ‘I love it, but I don’t see how you live there all alone.’ ‘I keep it always full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things. Celebrated people.’” (page 97). When Gatsby and Nick are talking about Meyer Wolfsheim that “He’s[Meyer Wolfsheim] the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919” (page 79). This is essentially where we begin to see that people were willing to do very distasteful things such as cheating to accomplish the American Dream.
Gatsby is compared to Jesus countless times in The Great Gatsby, as a matter of fact it’s even blatantly stated ‘The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God- a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that- and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.’ (Page 105). Our initial outline of Jay Gatsby gives us reason to believe that Fitzgerald intentionally made Gatsby to be comparable with Jesus. Nick tells us that Gatsby has “a heightened sensitivity to the promises of life” and “an extraordinary gift for hope” (Page 4). Just like Gatsby, Jesus “came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John. 10:10). In his writings in Corinthians, Paul identifies hope as the second of the three godly righteousness “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (Corinthians 13:13). Furthermore, Nick describes Gatsby’s handwriting as “majestic,” alluding to the majestic father Jesus Christ “signed Jay Gatsby in a majestic hand.” (Page 46). Gatsby’s kingdom, like Jesus’ is “not of this world” (John. 18:36). When Gatsby stands in his yard, looking up at the stars, Nick portrayes him as “laying claim to a section of the heavens” (Page 24). We can even see that Jay Gatsby’s parties resembles bible parables and verses. Nick is informed that “People were not invited—they went there.’ (Page 45). This recalls the parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14), in which, lacking invited guests, the king sends his soldiers out to the highways to gather revelers. This allusion is resumed when Nick states that “I [Nick] had been actually invited” (Page 45). The parable concludes with the reflection that “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). At the party, one of the girls states that Gatsby “‘He doesn’t want any trouble with ANYbody.’” (Page 48). Jesus described himself as “gentle and lowly in heart” and wanted for his disciples to “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 11:29, 5:29). As Nick is leaving he states that he wanted “explain that I’d [Nick] hunted for him early in the evening and to apologize for not having known him in the garden.” (Page 58). This statement reflects two important bible stories. We see a little bit of when Adam hides from God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8), but what we mostly see is when Mary Magdelane has returned to Jesus’ tomb and found it empty. She does not know that Jesus has returned and they begin conversing without her realizing his identity.(John 20:15) Gatsby’s mysterious origins allude to the confusion about Jesus’ authority. Tom asks “where is he from, I mean? And what does he do?” (Page 53) When Jesus preaches in the synagogue at Nazareth, the people ask “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?” (Matthew 13:34) On at least two occasions, Gatsby tells Nick that they are “going up”: first in the hydroplane and later when they “ride up” to New York for lunch (Pages 57-68). This rising definition shows that, like Jesus, Gatsby “had come from God and was going to God” (John 13:3). The author even has Gatsby say the exact same words as Jesus, when Gatsby and Nick are driving Gatsby specifically asks Nick “‘Look here, old sport,’ he broke out surprisingly. ‘What’s your opinion of me, anyhow?’” (Page 70) Just as Jesus asks his disciples “who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29) These points prove to us that Fitzgerald used the teachings of the bible in The Great Gatsby.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” -Mark 3:29
As we just read there are many similarities between Jesus and Gatsby, but F. Scott Fitzgerald committed blasphemy when he compared the two because Gatsby is a sinner.
“No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.”-Psalms 101:7
The Lord teaches us in this verse that one should not be deceitful or lie. Gatsby is a liar, for instance Gatsby says that he graduated from Oxford “‘I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition.’”(Page 70) But later we find out that Gatsby lied about receiving an Oxford education “‘It was an opportunity they gave to some of the o cers a er the Armistice,’ he continued. “‘We could go to any of the universities in England or France.’” (Page 138)
Additionally, Gatsby is a bootlegger meaning he creates beer illegally to sell. Since Gatsby is such a mysterious man, no one really knows what he does to get so rich. Even though it is never actually mentioned, in this quote we can tell a few things are “shady”, Gatsby said this when he asked Nick if he wanted to make a little money on the side; “… You see, I carry on a little business on the side, a sort of side line, you understand. And I thought that if you don’t make very much—You’re selling bonds, aren’t you, old sport?” “Well, this would interest you. It wouldn’t take up much of your time and you might pick up a nice bit of money. It happens to be rather confidential sort of thing.”(Pages 82-83). What we see is Gatsby refers to his business as “confidential” which, in turn, we can tell means it is illegal. James 4:17 says “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” Jesus never sinned