The Great Gatsby and The Great Indulgence

I have been struggling with forgiveness lately.  The struggle isn’t so much to doing it, though actually forgiving someone is a natural growth from my struggle.  Nor is my struggle knowing forgiveness’ value, though demonstrating its value is nearly impossible with my struggle.  The struggle isn’t even to want to forgive, though I know wanting to do something is not enough. 

My struggle is knowing what forgiveness is.

What does it mean to forgive someone?  I have resolved, at least today, that forgiveness is to not allow an evil event or an evil action in a person’s life (or even a series of events and actions) to allow me to judge the value of that person as a creature of God.  I’m going to use this resolution as a frame to consider The Great Gatsby. 

Nick Carraway does not forgive Jay Gatsby.  

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.

Carraway, who narrates the novel, makes an interesting statement near the beginning.  He explains that his father told him not to criticise people because it is impossible to know whether others have the same values and opportunities as yourself.  Carraway first claims to follow this exhortation and that he “reserves all judgements” but then acknowledges that he is only able to actually do so when dealing with Gatsby.  However, Carraway’s relationship with Gatsby is something different than forgiveness. 

The difference between forgiveness and what Carraway does is at its clearest when we compare his feelings toward Jay Gatsby and his feelings toward Tom Buchanan.  Buchanan is the clear antagonist in the novel.  He is an adulterer without enough shame even to hide his dates at dinner parties, while assuming everyone will be happy with the arrangement.  He is an unabashed racist who believes his opinions are proven by science.  He is violent and breaks the nose of a woman who mentions his wife’s name.  He is a hypocrite who is a proponent of marriage vows when he discovers his wife Daisy is having an affair.  F. Scott Fitzgerald does a good job painting a despicable character and it is easy for the reader (or at least this reader) to have a similar reaction to Buchanan that Carraway has.

Gatsby is not sharply different than Buchanan, though.  Like his nemesis, Gatsby is an adulterer and is having an affair with Daisy.  He is similarly unapologetic about this relationship and fires employees who may spread rumours about this relationship.  He is arrogant and drips of false humility.  His decadent parties are purely to attract Daisy’s attention in an attempt to rekindle the relationship they had before she met her husband.  While he is not physically violent he does share Buchanan’s instinct of ownership over Daisy when he demands that she claim to have never loved her husband.  While there is very little heroic – or even admirable – about Gatsby he stands as the sympathetic protagonist against Buchanan. 

Despite his admiration for Gatsby, Carraway does not present Gatsby as particularly likable in the story he tells.  As a reader, I do feel sympathy for Gatsby and it is hard to know why.  It is partly due to his name being in the book’s title so I am predisposed to liking him but this cannot be all of it.  Perhaps it is because we meet Buchanan first and he is so unlikable.  Anyone would be more attractive than him.  I suspect, though, that that Gatsby is likable (?) to the reader for the same reason that he is likable to Carraway.  It is simply that I want to like Gatsby. 

Look at Nick’s reaction to Gatsby being caught in the affair with Daisy.  As Buchanan begins to confront Gatsby, Gatsby acknowledges that he does not have a degree from Oxford because he dropped out shortly after beginning his studies.  It is a small truth, especially in light of what is coming a few sentences later.  Carraway writes his reaction to the revelation:

I wanted to get up and slap him on the back.  I had one of those renewals of complete faith in him I’d experienced before.

Carraway tells his story two years after the events occurred.  By this time he is not surprised by what is coming next.  He expresses his faith in Gatsby immediately before recounting a confrontation regarding Gatsby’s affair.  All it takes to have Carraway look past adultery is for Gatsby to say he is not an “Oxford man.”  Carraway also takes the opportunity to put in a dig on Buchanan’s new advocacy for fidelity.  The best we can say about Carraway’s reaction to Gatsby’s infidelity is that he is indifferent.

Indifference is a deathblow to forgiveness. 

Please recall Jesus’ reaction to the woman who anoints him and the Pharisee’s home in Luke 7.  Luke does not want readers to miss the point here.  He notes that she has a reputation as being immoral, he quotes the Pharisee who calls her a sinner, and he quotes Jesus who says her sins are many.  Because of her sin, her humanity is squashed by the Pharisee –

If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner! (7:39).  

In spite of her sin, her humanity is exalted by Jesus –

I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love. (Luke 7:47).

Here is the difference from what Carraway offers Gatsby.  Carraway indulges Gatsby rather than forgiving him.  Carraway most certainly does not allow Gatsby’s sin to negatively affect how he values Gatsby as a human but he does so without seeing the sin.  He takes his father’s advice not to judge a person but takes it further.  He also refuses to see some actions – adultery, violence, arrogance – as inherently harmful.  His only standard of right and wrong is affection for the actorr.  Carraway does not forgive Buchanan because Buchanan’s sin is so horrible; Carraway does not forgive Gatsby because Gatsby’s sin is non-existent. 

Forgiveness does not allow sin to define a person’s value; however, forgiveness is only possible if this same sin is recognized and named.