Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Over the last fifty years, since the release of On The Road in 1957, it has not been uncommon for critics to draw parallels between Kerouac's semi-autobiographical novel and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, released thirty-two years previously. It is for certain that both the novels share many similar traits, both examine concepts of American ideals and The American Dream, both are heavily influenced by the jazz age of the time, but nothing binds the novels closer to one another than the authors' use of the first person narrative and that narrators relationship with their leading character.It is perhaps the most common reading to see both Jay Gatsby and Dean Moriarty awarded iconic status by their corresponding narrators. The connotations concerning the epithet found in the very centre of Fitzgerald's title alone can bring an image to the reader's mind of one of history's great leaders, putting Gatsby in league with characters such as Alexander the Great, Catherine the Great, Peter the Great and Frederick the Great.

It would seem obvious from the title that Gatsby is one beheld with admiration and respect by the narrator.The relationship between Kerouac's Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty is often viewed in much the same light. The importance of Dean to Sal is visible from his very first paragraph, where he states that, "the coming of Dean Moriarty began the part of my life you could call my life on the road". Within a short time period, Sal allows his life to be turned in a completely different direction by someone who is basically a stranger.

This willingness to uproot and follow somebody else's lifestyle pays a great compliment to Dean.These character judgments are made by the narrators despite the fact that they must both realize that they are idolizing flawed characters. Nick is told of Gatsby's shady underworld connections and unhealthy obsession with a youthful love affair, whilst Sal is aware of Dean's unstable background which saw him in and out of young offender units as well as knowing that he is one driven by his lust for both sex and drugs. It is left to A. E.

Dyson to explain why Nick allows himself to be won over by such a character,[Nick Caraway's] conscious moral instinct is to disapprove [of Gatsby]: but his imagination is fascinated since perhaps here, in this extraordinary man, the romantic promise is at last fulfilled.With this, Dyson is suggesting that Nick is just far too captivated by Gatsby and the world surrounding him, everything that makes him 'great', to disapprove of him.Sal's reaction to Dean is much more straight-forward. It is revealed that Sal has always had an appetite for adventure and he states that it had always been his intention to travel America but has never experienced the guiding force to make him do it, it is easy to see from this why Sal is so mesmerised to his hero, whose enthusiasm not only drives himself but those around him. This is a sentiment picked up on by O. Swartz,Dean is the novel.

Sal could spend his entire life travelling across the country, but without Dean, the travel could not be a transcendence.This is perhaps highlighted by the fact that Dean spends a lot of time driving Sal about the country; the fact that Moriarty is the literal driving force behind Sal's dreams could indicate that he is the metaphorical force also.This may be seen to be similar to the manner in which Nick uses Gatsby to carry his relationship with Jordan. Nick's friendship with Gatsby is the one thing that provides a strong tie in his attempt at romance with the celebrity socialite and this may be one of the major reasons behind his continued association with Gatsby, despite the fact that he "disapproved of him from beginning to end".The decay in Nick and Jordan's relationship is mirrored perfectly in the relationship between Nick and Gatsby.

The moment when Nick and Jordan go their separate ways on the hotel steps can be used to distinguish the turning point in his and Gatsby's relationship, as the very next day sees a marked change in the manner in which Nick views his friend."What are you doing here?" I enquired."Just standing here, old sport."Somehow, that seemed a despicable occupation. For all I knew he was going to rob the house in a moment.The irony in this link between the two men is that Gatsby's attitude towards romance and women is perhaps what Nick detests about the man the most, in particular his obsession with Daisy; emotions displayed as he complains that:He spoke as if Daisy's reaction was all that mattered.

.. I disliked him so much by this time that I didn't find it necessary to tell him he was wrong.The realisation that Gatsby's entire life is a fa�ade put in place to win the affections of one lady, that he is willing to change everything about himself in order to win approval, taints the relationship between him and Nick turning it from one of admiration and respect to one of condemnation and dislike. This is most likely due to Nick realising that he had placed so much hope and appreciation into something that is later revealed to him to be a complete farce.Many would say that the entire opposite is true for Paradise, who delights in the way Dean treats his women, basking in his reflected sexuality as he bravely attempts to match the mark set down by his friend.

Sal aspires to Dean's level of conviction to sex, "for (Dean) sex was the one and only holy and important thing in life." Throughout the novel we see Dean brag about "his innumerable girls and sex-parties and pornographic pictures", answering the front door completely naked and running multiple relationships across the country.In almost everything Dean does there seems to be a suppressed sexual undertone and it is even possible to draw parallels between the way parks cars as he works in a parking lot and the way he treats his women,...he can back a car forty miles an hour into a tight squeeze and stop at the wall, jump out, race among fenders, leap into another car, circle it fifty miles an hour in a narrow space, back swiftly into a tight spot, hump, snap the car with the emergency so that you see it bounce as he flies out; then.

..leap into a newly arrived car before the owner's half out, leap literally under him as he steps out, starts the car with the door flapping, and roar off to the next available spot, arc, pop in, brake, out, run.It would be easy to substitute the car in this instance with a woman to come up with a justifiable description of Dean's attitude towards women. Just in the way Sal admires and enthuses about his car-parking abilities, describing him as, "..

.the most fantastic parking-lot attendant in the world..." Sal admirers and enthuses about his sex life.In 1991, Eagleton published an essay with a Marxist sentiment declaring that, much like Nick, "Sal is suffering from ideology - a false consciousness that is imposed on them by the hegemonic social order".

This adds to the link between the two narrators concerning their feelings towards their leading characters; in particular the manner in which they both admire the achievements made by Gatsby or Dean in their love lives.