[Industrialblog,
September 16, 2004]
OK, whoever searched for 'Gatsby is a Christ figure'
Jay Gatsby is NOT a Christ figure. He is corrupt. He dies. He is not resurrected. QED. Not like Christ.
Does Gatsby suffer for the sins of others? No, it's pretty much his own sins. But doesn't he die for Tom Buchanan's affair? Yes, but it's not like Gatsby took on that suffering willingly.
No. Gatsby is not a Christ figure. Your teacher is crazy if he or she thinks that.
Gatsby represents longing. He longs for Daisy, for wealth, to reinvent himself, to be important, but in the end he ends up with false friends and staring at a light at the end of a dock owned by a guy who never worked a day in his life for his money, but ended up with the mansion, the girl and the American Dream by inheriting it.
Christ, on the other hand, represents the union of God and man in order to save men from their sins, and lead them to a resurrected life in Him. Christ represents fulfillment, not longing. Christ is the opposite of Gatsby.
There's your term paper theme. Enjoy.
PS: If your teacher disagrees and you haven't plagiarized this, then send him or her my way.
UPDATE ON SEPT. 22: Another hit for "Jay Gatsby as a Christ figure." Is there a class really assigned this nonsensical topic?
Does Gatsby suffer for the sins of others? No, it's pretty much his own sins. But doesn't he die for Tom Buchanan's affair? Yes, but it's not like Gatsby took on that suffering willingly.
No. Gatsby is not a Christ figure. Your teacher is crazy if he or she thinks that.
Gatsby represents longing. He longs for Daisy, for wealth, to reinvent himself, to be important, but in the end he ends up with false friends and staring at a light at the end of a dock owned by a guy who never worked a day in his life for his money, but ended up with the mansion, the girl and the American Dream by inheriting it.
Christ, on the other hand, represents the union of God and man in order to save men from their sins, and lead them to a resurrected life in Him. Christ represents fulfillment, not longing. Christ is the opposite of Gatsby.
There's your term paper theme. Enjoy.
PS: If your teacher disagrees and you haven't plagiarized this, then send him or her my way.
UPDATE ON SEPT. 22: Another hit for "Jay Gatsby as a Christ figure." Is there a class really assigned this nonsensical topic?
Cheers,
JMF
Dude, you're really over-thinking this. Gatsby died. Christ died. Therefore Gatsby is a Christ figure.
Also, moby dick means that nature will win over man's attempts to strip-mine it. Or, as Dave Barry once put it, "Don't mess around with large whales because they symbolize nature and will kill you."
So go recycle today.
And, incidentally, Hamlet's tragic flaw was indecisiveness.
Oh, and when Mark Twain said, "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. By Order of the Author" that meant that we should do exactly the opposite and analyze the plot, say what it "means", and most of all find what Twain was trying to "say" and why he might have wanted to say it, and what authors wrote before him that might have caused him to want to say this.
Guys, get witht he program!
However, there are some similiarities and hints in the books.
1. "He was a son of God- a phrase which, if it means anything, mean just that-" ect. ect.
2. At the party, Gatsby is standing on top of the stairs looking down on everyone "approvingly"
3. Like Christ, Gatsby has alot of rumors about his past, and no one knows for sure.
4. Like Christ, he died to save another, in a way. Christ died for our sins, Gatsby died for Daisy's sin.