Doesn't Know He Is Alive

“Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald

Beginning Paragraph The Great Gatsby is often called the great American novel. It portrays the lives of the rich in the 1920s through Nick Carraway’s narration of his friendship with Jay Gatsby. Superficially, this book analyzes the lives of the American rich and famous, but The Great Gatsby arguably says as much about the lives of the poor, specifically through the character of George Wilson. His life is ruined by the rich people around him, and as a result, he tragically murders Gatsby. Thesis Statement This down-and-out man struggles against his wife Myrtle, Gatsby, and God, thereby allowing Fitzgerald to explore themes of secrets, class, and the American Dream.

Topic Sentence Nothing in George Wilson’s life belongs to him. He begins the novel feeling as if he has a wife, Myrtle, but she is secretly having an affair with Tom Buchanan. Wilson is blissfully ignorant. As the novel goes on, he progressively must confront the reality of the affair. Wilson discovers the silver dog collar that Tom Buchanan bought Myrtle, and as a result, he becomes abusive toward her. Source Quotation “‘I’ve got my wife locked up in there,’ explained Wilson calmly. ‘She’s going to stay there till the day after to-morrow, and then we’re going to move away’” (136). Wilson’s marriage symbolizes how secrets are destructive. It also illustrates how marriage can be destroyed in America. Wilson’s abuse ultimately leads to Myrtle’s death when she tries to run away from him and is hit by Gatsby’s car. The car of a wealthy man—a potent image of the American Dream—ends his marriage and the chance to have children and to raise them in the all-American home. Wilson’s American Dream is casually destroyed by the rich.

Middle Paragraphs After Myrtle is killed, Wilson loses everything else in his life. He has control over nothing. He has no time for anything except work. The only real decision he makes is to kill Gatsby in revenge and ultimately, to kill himself. As Nick notes, “So Wilson was reduced to a man ‘deranged by grief’ in order that the case might remain in its simplest form” (164). Fitzgerald’s depiction of the aftermath puts the killing in perspective. Both the murderer Wilson and the murdered Gatsby are largely forgotten after their deaths. The newspapers barely report their passing, and few people come to their funerals. Death is the great equalizer. The wealth that separated these two men means nothing when they are gone.

Gatsby dies as a result of layers upon layers of lies, the very flesh of his existence. Transition In addition to his lies about wealth and position, Gatsby participates in the lies around Tom and Myrtle’s affair and the fact that Daisy was driving the car that killed Wilson’s wife. This last lie leads to Wilson’s desperate act of revenge. Unwittingly, Wilson exerts the only permanent power in The Great Gatsby, the power over life and death. Wealth and prestige do not matter a whit at Gatsby’s funeral. Half of the attendants at the funeral are his servants, and the other half are Nick and Owl Eyes. All his deceptions in life failed to produce a lasting effect in death. Only Wilson’s act of murdering him gives Gatsby any notoriety.

Wilson struggles not only with Myrtle and Gatsby, but also with his inescapable social position. The all-seeing eye of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s optometry shop watches over the Valley of Ashes where Wilson lives, a symbol of God’s watchful eye making sure that the poor remain poor. Throughout the book, Wilson struggles to escape the Valley of Ashes and achieve the American Dream. He tries to rise in station by buying a car from Tom Buchanan, who actually is using the purchase only to facilitate his affair with Myrtle. Tom has only disdain for his victim: “Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive” (26). Historical Context This observation equates being uneducated and poor with being dead, a profound statement considering that the Great Depression was just about to sink a large swath of Americans into poverty.

Eventually, Wilson blames God himself for his lot in life, including the death of his wife. Mired in the Valley of Ashes both literally and figuratively, Wilson rails at the image of the all-seeing eyes that preside over his fate: “‘You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!’ Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous” (160). God is watching over the destruction of Wilson’s life. Wilson has power to change only one thing in his life—to end it. Even in this horrible act, he has more power than the other characters in the novel: Gatsby can’t change the past; Tom can’t make Daisy love him again; Nick can’t save his friends. Wilson is the only one who determines his destiny in the end. In this way, Wilson wins this power struggle with God, escaping the Valley of Ashes in a single, desperate act. Wilson’s act prefigures the destruction of the American Dream in the Great Depression, when socio-economic mobility collapses. Wilson reveals that American Society is just a façade. He may simply be a madman whose death means nothing, with no one to mourn his passing. But Wilson is the canary in the coal mine, the first casualty of American excess that should warn everyone else to flee from the poisonous fume that engulfs them all.

Ending Paragraph Wilson is a tragic character pushed to the edge by people who have no real regard for others’ lives. He struggles impotently until he decides to take Gatsby’s life and, as a result, his own. He envies what Gatsby and Tom have but, in the end, proves that they have nothing at all. More than the lying, millionaire playboy Gatsby, a poster child of the roaring twenties, George Wilson represents the center of the country about to be swept up in the Great Depression. Considering that Fitzgerald wrote and published this work before the crash of Black Tuesday, 1929, George Wilson is arguably the author’s most prophetic creation in his great American novel.