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Chadmartigan t1_iyekfl1 wrote

idk how what you've described isn't a commentary on American society/values/etc. given the incredibly specific context we're given.

I think you're right that it's not about the money or women for Gatsby exactly, but about his freedom to dream and pursue those dreams in order to achieve (or at least attempt to achieve) his ultimate self.

But this isn't Gatsby's story exactly. It's Nick's story. And Nick's story is one of a man deeply in the closet, who looks at Gatsby as an aspirational proxy for himself. He is fixated in particular on Gatsby's romance with Daisy because it represents (to him) Gatsby's romantic devotion to a woman--something which Nick himself is incapable of possessing. Nick's infatuation with Gatsby is an infatuation with the man Nick desperately wants to be--which all the social pressures of his time tell him he wants to be--but which he cannot achieve.

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Suspiciously_Flawed OP t1_iyeli0h wrote

I think that the context is sort of irrelevant in this case, that the context and story just exists to convey the message. Fitzgerald happened to live during that certain time with those values and issues in society and therefore they were present in the story, but that doesn't mean that the book was about them.

>But this isn't Gatsby's story exactly. It's Nick's story. And Nick's story is one of a man deeply in the closet, who looks at Gatsby as an aspirational proxy for himself. He is fixated in particular on Gatsby's romance with Daisy because it represents (to him) Gatsby's romantic devotion to a woman--something which Nick himself is incapable of possessing. Nick's infatuation with Gatsby is an infatuation with the man Nick desperately wants to be--which all the social pressures of his time tell him he wants to be--but which he cannot achieve.

This is a really interesting caveat, not discussed enough, and you put it very well. Thank you!

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