American Modernism and the Edenic Themes
Langston Hughes and Jay Gatsby: Different Strokes for Different Folks in the Search for an Edenic World
The search for Eden has always had an eternal quality since the development of primordial man. At times, this search has manifested itself as a quest for a promised land full of natural resources, while at others, it has taken the form of a journey seeking social acceptance and harmony. Either which way, man's search for Eden has always been motivated by a desire to secure material and emotional well-being. Though this search is not unique to the people of America, the promise held out by a vast, virgin continent and new beginnings led to the belief that a life in the pursuit of wealth and happiness was possible here. This great 'American Dream,' however, soon proved as susceptible to human greed, bigotry, and the struggle for power as any other settled society, destroying the innocence and hopes of many 'New Adams' in the process. It is this story that forms a repetitive theme in American literature with different variations. For instance, there is Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, in whom the New Adam takes the avatar of an innocent who believes that securing material wealth will lead to achieving his dream. As compared to this, Langston Hughes's version of the New Adam in The Big Sea is an African-American who hopes that America would, one day, truly accept his people. Fitzgerald and Hughes's New Adam, thus, take the shape of two entirely different folks, separated by ancestral heritage and color, employing vastly different strokes in their search for an Edenic world. Jay Gatsby chooses to use material wealth as a stepping-stone to securing his emotional happiness, whereas Langston Hughes approaches his quest for Eden by seeking social acceptance and harmony to secure the emotional well-being of his people.
The innocence in Jay Gatsby and Langston Hughes in The Great Gatsby and The Big Sea manifests itself right through the narrative of both books, clearly revealing a quintessential New Adam quality in both of them. In fact, The Great Gatsby is nothing but the story of a dreamer in pursuit of an ideal though his choice of the means to that end is morally debatable. Born James Gatz, a poor boy from the Midwest, Jay Gatsby wholeheartedly embraces his own interpretation of the American Dream, which is to become wealthy beyond imagination. He sets out to attain that dream as early as the age of seventeen and begins by first reinventing himself as Jay Gatsby.
His journey takes him to a military training camp near Louisville, Kentucky, where he meets Daisy. In his innocence and naivety, Daisy soon comes to represent beauty and purity, and becomes his ideal: "...his vision was that she should be his Eve and together they should live in timeless harmony in the American garden." (Baldwin, et.al., 158) In spite of Daisy breaking their engagement to marry Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby's innocence and idealism never wavers. He simply resolves to devote his life to winning back his "golden girl." (Fitzgerald, 127)
Though Gatsby ultimately becomes a bootlegger, stock-sharper, and criminal, it is evident that his fall from grace is caused by a society that values material wealth and possessions above all. This is established at his funeral when his father shares with Nick Gatsby's plans for self-improvement, scribbled on the back cover of Hopalong Cassidy. The list reveals the young Gatsby's determination to succeed in work, sports, and in improving himself through reading. That innocence is soon, however, tempered by a healthy dose of realism as indicated by Gatsby's opportunistic streak, which is finely honed by a series of disillusionments: "The whim of a Daisy, who will marry any Tom for the price of a pearl necklace.... The Great Gatsby world is built on a foundation of bootleg gin, penny stocks...riotous debauchery...the truest images of its reality." (Pelzer,...
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