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Essay on The Great Gatsby-2
The Great Gatsby there are a number of curious, sometimes startling, references to an innocent pastoral existence which appear incongruous in a novel apparently absorbed in the fashionable, contemporary life of New York City during the "Jazz Age." Most eccentric of these perhaps is that sequence which has suggested the title for this paper. Nick is being driven into the city by Tom Buchanan, who on the way has picked up his mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Directly juxtaposed to the cheap and sordid sensuality of their escapade is Nick's statement: "We drove over to Fifth Avenue, so warm and soft, almost pastoral, on the summer Sunday afternoon that I wouldn't have been surprised to see a great flock of white sheep turn the corner" (The Great Gatsby, 28).
This image, with its Sunday’s school echoes, is one in a series of analogies which momentarily bring the rural and urban experiences together. Long Island Sound, for instance, with its two "eggs" is designated "the great wet barnyard" (The Great Gatsby, 5); the industrial strip is compared to a "fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat ..." (The Great Gatsby, 23). But more idyllic than these explicitly rural references are those sudden, irrational glimpses, amid the excitement and intrigue, of an innocent, childish view of the world. When Daisy and Gatsby are reunited for the first time, Daisy turns to Nick from watching a sunset and says: "I'd like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around" (The Great Gatsby, 95 ). This image with its suggestion of a playful child is anticipated by an image earlier in the novel where Nick describes the evening sunlight leaving Daisy's face with regret, "like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk" (The Great Gatsby, 14). Later in the novel.........
