The Great Gatsby, The number Three, and Cyclic Symbolism
An essay by Josh Alves

“He who makes a beast of himself relives the pain of being a man.”
- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

The universe has strong cyclic tendencies.  Once a thing has been set in motion it will eventually have to revisit the ether from which it was spawned.  Birth, Death, and Rebirth are the key transitory stages in this process of cosmic recycling, please notice there are three stages in this particular cycle.  These three stages are the tools the Creator has set in place to maintain a balance in the all-consuming chaos of human existence.  In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby we are given insight into this phenomenon through the enigmatic yet fascinating Mr. Jay Gatsby and his conceptualized dreams of an idyllic existence.

Jay Gatsby stands as the ultimate manifestation of the American Dream.  He represents all that modern man desires and strives to become.  His house is absolutely massive and wonderfully elegant, his library authentic and extensive, his clothes colorful and florid, and his car a marvel of modern engineering.  He is the poster child for entrepreneurial success, and yet his entire identity has been built upon the shaky foundation of an elaborate and highly imaginative lie. And his identity did indeed crumble to ashes because of this.  But before Gatsby lost himself in the illusion he created for himself, before he was Reborn as a “young roughneck” in West Egg with “an elaborate formality of speech”, there was James Gatz.  

Gatz was an average child from North Dakota who grew up to become the “incoherent failure” of Gatsby.  Gatz could have chosen to lead a simple life, but he felt like he could become more then just a man, and so he created the persona of Jay Gatsby as a way of escaping from himself and the world around him.  He began to run his life according to a strict schedule of platonic refinement and conditioned himself with a wealth of knowledge.  He was determined to mutate himself into his dream of perfection, and once the transformation was complete, Jay Gatsby fell in love. It wasn’t until later that he realized what a fool he really was.  He had given up discovering the true nature of the mystery for a woman.   “He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never again romp like the mind of God.”

Gatsby’s tragic true love for Daisy is ultimately what drives him to the realization that all he ever wanted was to be with Daisy forever, for richer or for poorer.  All Gatsby really wanted is what everyone else wants, eternal happiness.  Daisy is what made him realize how much of an illusion he himself had become.  It is because of this fact that I personally maintain that Jay Gatsby is only as real as we allow him to be.  It is very similar to the concept of God in a way, who, according to Nietzsche, is dead. Gatsby himself was dead long before the Reaper emerged from the ruin of the ashen valley to claim his soul in a “holocaust” of blood, water, and gunfire.  Gatsby has always been dead.  That’s all Gatsby ever was, a ghost.

I’m going to end this with some things I noticed about Gatsby’s funeral.  First of all, his father, Henry C. Gatz, is the only person there who truly loves and forgives him.  And second, his father truly loved James Gatz, not Gatsby.  Now call me crazy, but swimming amidst all these 3’s I think I’ve noticed something…

THE TRINITY
HENRY C. GATZ…THE FATHER
JAMES GATZ…THE SON
GATSBY…THE HOLY GHOST

…and since God supposedly created the entire universe, I guess this puts us right back where we started.