Fantasy vs Reality in Fitzgerald and Salinger

The works we have read throughout the semester show how characters have difficulty differentiating fantasy from reality, The individual takes on the struggles of life, which leads them to develop a routine, or their idea of a reality. They live in an illusory world were everything is safe and they can deal with the struggles of their life in their own terms, An illusion’s sole purpose is to add liveliness to the droning way of life we live in. Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby and Holden Caulfield In The Catcher in the Rye both live in a fantasy world which comes to show man will often resort to illusions—to things he knows are false iand turn them into incredible realities.

Jay Gatsby is presented as living the charmed life as an honest man, with lots of friends, and no problems. Jay Gatsby’s real name is James Gatz— he changes his name so he can become a different person, one that Daisy would want to be with.

He lives according to his dreams, not realizing his dreams are not worthy of him.

During one of Gatshy‘s infamous parties, one of his attendees says something that lends to the idea that he is an enigma: “It’s more that he was a German spy during the war”. Lucille, the woman behind this assumption, is describing her opinion of Gatsby who throws these flashy parties. Gatsby remains to be alienated during his parties, which help to support his attendees‘ statements Another example Gatsby’s alienation is when Nick says to a “guest” how “this man Gatsby sent over his chauffeur with an invitation”.

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This guest reveals he is Gatsby, which creates the illusion because he destroys his presence by not being recognized Nick believes that the rumors of Gatsby being a German spy are unthinkably predicted. Therefore, the more his myths are becoming a reality. Fitzgerald shows Jay Gatsby as a man stuck in the past. Gatsby does not realize that he will never get Daisy because he is constantly piling lie on top of lie to justify himself.

This next quote describes Gatsby telling Nick he believes he will have Daisy and everything he ever wanted, “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!”. Gatsby also has created a fantasy world when it comes to Daisy Buchanan. He tells Nick about his “wealth” which shows he has told this lie so many times that he finally believes it. “I’ll tell you God’s truth… I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west [San Francisco]” (48). He also tells Daisy that he is from a wealthy family, thinking he can buy her love with wealth. Gatsby thought he could better himself if he would “practice elocution, poise and how to attain it; read one improving book or magazine per week; and be better to parents”. For five years, ever since he left for World War I, Gatsby strongly believed he would marry Daisy. He returned to America, built himself up as a millionaire, and believed that Daisy and he would reunite. “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before”.

Gatsby tries to assure Nick that Daisy and he will unite. Gatsby is a romantic and with his desire to attain Daisy’s love, went from rags to riches It becomes clear that Gatsby is deluded because he plans to fix the love he and Daisy shared five years prior. Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband has realized the type of man Gatsby is and sets off to prove he is correct. Gatsby tries to show to Tom that he did live the life he tried so hard to prove: “I told you I went there [Oxford],” said Gatsbyt “I heard you, but I would like to know when.” “It was in nineteen-nineteen. I only stayed for five months” Tom glanced around to see if we mirrored his unbelief. Gatsby is cool and confident which shows that he has bought into the illusion that he has made. The love triangle between Torn, Gatsby and Daisy helps illustrate the balance of fantasy and reality. We have Gatsby on one side, who is the ultimate dreamer, and then we have the brutish Tom, who is aggressive and straightforward and just acts on his instincts.

One man worked his way up from the bottom, and the other simply inherited it. Perhaps we can assume Tom represents reality, and his powerful facade diminishes any sense of hope that Gatsby and Daisy might end up together. in Salinger provides a peek into the teenage mind with Holden as a narrator in The Catcher in The Rye. Not only judgmental and conflicted, but the lost and confused Holden is overcome with his fantasies. Holden is caught lying countless Limes, which brings us to the assumption that we cannot trust the protagonist. The narrator even admits to it, due to the next revelation: “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful. If I’m on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I’m going, I’m liable to say I’m going to the opera, lt’s terrible”.

He admits to this fault, which can make us doubt everything he says from this point on He believes he is invisible and that people are superficial when he admits: “People never notice anything”. Holden at many times seems depressed, and he admits it frequently. The reader gets a sense of the root of his depression, by discovering his younger brother Allie died from leukemia, The grief and sudden loss can tear anyone apart, and it only makes Holden love and respect his younger siblings more. Even though Allie is no longer physically alive, his memory forever lives with Holden, He speaks so highly of his younger brother in the following quote: “He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You‘d have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent.

His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having Allie in their class. And they weren‘t just shooting the crap. They really meant it But it wasn‘t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody”. Losing Allie has been devastating for Holden and the only way for him to cope is to create this alternate reality where he doesn‘t need to feel or speak to anyone. Holden being disconnected from society causes problems with his peers; it is shown in his interaction with Sally Hayes. His loneliness pushes him into a date with Sally Hayes, and his need to be alienated drives him to insult her. This next quote is distressing, because Holden does not realize he is berating Sally: “”Don‘t shout, please,” old Sally said. Which was very funny, because I wasn’t even shouting.” “Why not? Why the hell not?” “Stop screaming at me, please,” she said Which was crap, because I wasn’t even screaming at her”.

Holden does not realize he is yelling at Sally, showing his inconsideration for women and their feelings. He wants her to give into this inLra-psychic fantasy, to run away. After she rejects his offer, he in turn does as well, which degrades her character. Holden has created emotional resilience as a way to cope with his brother’s loss. He is an outsider, alienating himself from the outside world because he believes he is protecting himself. To him, the outside world is full of “phonies.” He even goes as far as calling his own father a phony, who is a lawyer, when Phoebe asks him what he wants to do when he gets older. He describes his idea of his father’s job: “All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. How would you know you weren’t being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t’.

He doesn‘t know how to answer his sister’s question, so he goes on to give his thoughts on that particular profession, By being perceptive, he rarely interacts with anyone on a deeper level except his younger sister Phoebet When he arrives in New York, he realizes the only person he wants to hang around is his sister. “New York’s terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night You can hear it for miles It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed I kept wishing I could go home and shoot the bull for a while with old Phoebe”. Holden’s relationship with Phoebe is the most significant and genuine relationship. He wants to connect and bond with her, which is peculiar because he doesn’t try to connect with anyone else, He projects an imagined youthful innocence onto Phoebe. Holden describes his sister in a very inspirational way: “You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in your whole life.

She’s really smart I mean she had all A’s ever since she started school, But you ought to see Phoebe. Anyway, she was somebody you always felt like talking to on the phone”. Phoebe is the only person Holden thinks this highly of He doesn’t realize she is growing up, and tries to keep her innocence, in the state that he believes she should be. Holden Caulfield is a multifarious character, living in the intra-psychic world. Holden believes he has a chance with older women, possibly reaching out to women who are unavailable and out of reach. In the next scene, Holden attempts to pick up an older woman. “When I finally got down off the radiator and went out to the hat-check room, I was crying and all. I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome, Then, when I went out to the checkroom, the hat-check girl was very nice.

I sort of tried to make a date with her. She said she was old enough to be my mother and all.” When he is vulnerable, he attempts to reach out to women of his mothers‘ age. When he is at school, he also reaches out to Ackley, who is pimply and disgusting to him, because he is lonely. “Then I went over and laid down on Ely’s bed. Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome”. This kind of desperation causes him to reach out to people, even if they may be phony. Holden hates and at the same time wants to connect to the world, which may mirror his battle between an illusory and reality. This does not mean that he isn‘t observant, because in the next quote he observes girls and feels empathetic towards them while he watches in them in New York, “. watched the girls. It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean, In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them.

When they got out of school and college, I mean. You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to the gallon in their goddam cars. He wonders what will happen to these girls, if they will give in to this phony life that everyone ends up living. He doesn’t attempt to learn from them at all, just takes the opportunity to observe as a detached loneri It could be possible that Holden himself is a “phony,” After all, he is a habitual liar; he repeatedly impersonates someone he is not; he criticizes against faults of others in which he himself is guilty of; all while seeking charity from others. It is quite unusual that Holden makes private connections without ever talking to another person. The only person he wants to connect to and tries to is Phoebe as demonstrated in the next quote: “While I was changing my shirt, I damn near gave my kid sister Phoebe a buzz, though.

I certainly felt like talking to her on the phone, Somebody with sense and all. But I couldn’t take a chance on giving her a buzz, because she was only a little kid and she wouldn’t have been up, let alone anywhere near the phone” (102), This also shows how he doesn’t want to converse with anyone else, because he believes they don’t have any sense. Holden’s illusion is that his constant lies become his reality. He critiques and tries to bring people down, while he is slowly becoming bitter and hypocritical. Holden does not need to converse with his taxi driver, but he feels it is necessary to ask him about the ducks in the nearby lagoon, which confuses the driver, ”You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when its gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?”. Something so random and unnecessary can help the reader get inside a dislocated teen‘s mind. He pleads with the driver to let him know.

In the end of the novel, Holden spends time with his sister Phoebe, and observes her ride the carousel. Holden is suddenly enlightened, and slowly starts to realize he cannot shield her from all negativity in the world. First he expresses some concern, but then realizes he must let her go, “Then the carousel started, and I watched her go round and round. All the kids tried to grap for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and l was sort of afraid she‘s fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it is bad to say anything [0 them”. Perhaps he believes that his sister should just be free, to make her own mistakes and learn from them. Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield create illusions that are pure mirages. It made them have a fake sense of fulfillment. This spirals out of control when your illusion is shattered, and you are left with nothing but hes Illusion is the cloak on reality, and ruins the lives and statuses of the people who believe it.