Willa Cather`s Influence on F. Scott Fitzgerald`s `The Great Gatsby` through comparison to `A Lost Lady`

The Elusive American Dream in Cather and Fitzgerald

The influence of Willa Cather 's work , A Lost Lady , on Fitzgerald 's masterpiece , The Great Gatsby , has been both declared by the author himself and recognized by the critics . The two novels are , first of all bound by one common theme : the dissolution of the American Dream . The history of America itself is the main inspiration for both authors Since the discovery of the continent , America struggled between two polar tendencies : unalloyed idealism and absolute pragmatism . These opposites are not merely ideologies reflected

in the American culture but actual realities blended in the destiny of the nation . Thus , on the one hand , the roots of the American culture are well fixed in Puritanism , the doctrine according to which the American virgin land offered the possibility for a new Garden of Eden , the city upon the hill , in John Winthrop 's phrase , that would set an example of virtue and beauty for the entire world . The first settlers abided by this idealism , and ventured upon realizing the utopian American Dream . Soon though , the beginning of the industrialization era and then the advent of capitalism brought the contrary tendency towards materialism and consumerism . The Roaring Twenties , as the historical period to which the two belong is usually referred to , was a time of excess and extravagance , when the chase for money and material value flourished more than ever . The historical configuration of these two opposite tendencies is obvious in the two novels , which investigate precisely the moment when the world seems to have broken in two , or cracked-up as Fitzgerald put it . The depletion of the West is suggested by the titles of the two novels : Gatsby 's greatness alludes to the incommensurable American dream that slowly falls to pieces , whereas the lost lady ' in Willa Cather 's novel represents the corruption and loss of the dream through moral decadence . The novels do not hint simply at the political and social transformations during the Roaring Twenties , but emphasize also the loss of aesthetic and moral values which are a symbol of humanity . Even if the texts are different in many respects , the influence of Cather upon Fitzgerald 's fictional world is tangible at a few points : the main theme , the construction of the characters , and the style of writing are similar . The novels share primarily in their nostalgic tone , which describes the fall of the Western world and which underlines the major theme

Thus , first of all , as it has been noted , the two authors describe the decline of the West , and the shift form idealism to a marked materialism . The same design is traceable in both texts : as it shall be seen , both novels are centered on the symbols of the American Dream . The ironical , dejected tone is identifiable in both texts . In Willa Cather 's A Lost Lady , this symbol is repeated in two characters : on the one hand Marian Forrester is taken by Niel Herbert as the representation of...