Life On the Other Side

Imagine living in a world where wealth is the defining measurement of the worth of a person. If you don’t have money, then you’re nothing and no one. There’s this uncrossable divide between those with money and those without. You stand on the edge, staring across the gaping chasm. The only way to cross is to get a lifeline thrown from someone else. In “The Great Gatsby,” we see Gatsby growing up on the ‘wrong’ side of the chasm and desperately wishing to be able to cross it. He writes in his journal things to do that make him seem higher class than he is. He constantly corrected his father’s crude mannerisms. At seventeen, he is thrown a short lifeline by Dan Cody, and he gets closer to swinging over to the other side of the chasm. He joins the military and that’s enough to get him close to Daisy, who has always lived on the other side. He gets a glimpse of what his life could be like with her. But he has to go off to war and he swings away from the other side’s edge, unable to let go and jump to that side, until he gets swept under Wolfsheim’s tutelage. This lifeline is thrown from a place on the other side far away from where Gatsby was always looking at, but it gets him across. He now has the money and one foot in the world that he’s always dreamed of being in. Yet, he didn’t grow up on that side of the chasm. He doesn’t know the customs or how he’s supposed to dress and act. So Gatsby overcompensates with his lavish parties and gaudy suits and way too many cars. “The Great Gatsby” shows that even once you cross the divide, that’s not enough for you to be accepted into that world on the other side.