I spent a year of my life playing Nick Carraway, the narrator of O Grande Gatsby (Penguim-Cia das Letras, 2011). This was after responding to a simple advertisement in a newspaper: “1 bedroom chalet, facing the sea. $215 a month. Ref. Req ?.
The owner was an expatriate Polish aristocrat, whose character evoked royalty. The small cottage was a marvel, located on a peninsula in a wide harbor of Chesapeake Bay. The main house was sumptuous, the grounds were spotless and the view of the pier from the pier was spectacular. Majestic and old mansions lined up in the harbor. I spent a year immersed in elite culture almost like a hypnotist.
- It was the Virginian version of East and West Egg.
- Near Williamsburg.
- Where he spent nights sitting on the porch listening to the sound of drifting parties along the river.
- During the week.
- I heard stories of local scandals kept secret.
- Relationships and clandestine lives.
- Dedicated to filling the void and boredom of days that no longer required real work.
Baz Lurhmann’s film adaptation of Gatsby was previously considered a visual triumph that revealed the world of american aristocracy. Many critics explore what Fitzgerald himself considered the ostentatious accusation of history, but I think it describes a much broader and very humane narrative.
If you haven’t read the novel, you may want to wait to read the following, because I can’t go on without revealing much of the plot.
Jay Gatsby, the witty rich man in history, is both mysterious and charismatic. His glamorous nights of bacchanal, his wealth is impressive and his quest for his lost love (Daisy Buchanan) is stubborn. He spent his energies trying to rewrite the story of his own life. , trying to be born again. The story becomes a tragedy, unraveling Gatsby’s story and revealing its ultimate loneliness and pathetic essence. The gray conclusion gives us a sense of insecurity, because if modern people like Gatsby have no hope, what should we do?
The gospels of Gatsby are easily recognizable because they are the basic gospels of our culture.
What about my life? I lost my soul mate, how can I fix this?Was it rewarding? Just for a moment.
What about my life? I don’t have enough money, how can I fix this?Was it rewarding? There’s never enough money.
What about my life? I’m bored How can I fix this?Looking for any form of entertainment, is it rewarding? Only until morning (or bills) arrives.
These gospels share the same resolve: everything that has its roots in this world never fully satisfies.
Augustine personally knew these feelings, living like a tortured soul in a falsely materialistic world. He knew that the mantra of material culture is always like this: “our hearts are not comfortable. “Similarly, we constantly fill our empty hearts with things and constantly conclude that they are not satisfactory.
Fitzgerald’s Gastby includes a metaphor for God in Dr. TJ’s abominable eyes. Ecklerburg, the faded sign of the optician who looks indifferently at the Valley of Ashes that condenses the world of romance. The eyes seem to symbolize the divine emptiness, which has gone from trustworthy to mythical but helpless; perhaps he saw in it the severity of the intensely barren faith in which he had been raised; my feeling is that I saw God as an ephemeral and atrophied artifact and, therefore, Christians as desperate people On the other hand, I am convinced that Fitzgerald considered everyone desperate.
Augustine, as we know, extended his famous observation: “Our hearts have no peace until they rest in you. “The Gatsby Gospels are only an unsatisfactory part of the human narrative; anticipate Christ’s satisfying significance, but they do not have the final and definitive resolve. Hope is only found in you.
Look at Gatsby or, better yet, read the novel. So look at your neighbors and realize that, rich or not, they are Gatsby, who fight against emptiness and loneliness, and remember that the Christian gospel forces you to reach them with the good news that God Himself can rewrite the history of our lives. through his love.
1 Augustine, Aveux, Christian World, 2013, Kindle Edition, loc. 92-93, translation by Almiro Pisetta.