"Absolution": "Gatsby's" Forgotten Front Door

Author(s): Ryan LaHurd

Source: College Literature, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Spring, 1976), pp. 113-123
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25111125
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 113
"ABSOLUTION": GATSBY'S FORGOTTEN
FRONT DOOR
Ryan LaHurd

The cinematic adaptation of a classic novel can virtually destroy the

work's usefulness in the classroom. There is, of course, the problem that
students who have seen the film version feel less pressure to read the
novel since, after all, they "know the story" now. More significant, be
cause it is more lethal, is the problem that a film solidifies the director's
or screenwriter's interpretation of the novel as the only valid perspective.
For many of my students that is exactly what happened to F. Scott Fitz
gerald's The Great Gatsby. It became a romantic adventure into the
tragedy of unattainable love. No amount of cajoling on my part could
interest these students in the background, character, or motivation of
Jay Gatsby or move them to consider the fact that the novel indeed had
an author and was an aesthetic work. Everything kept coming.up Robert
Redford and Mia Farrow.

In my frantic, perhaps desperate, efforts to rejuvenate one of my favor

ite and most pedagogically successful "stand-bys," I began to research the
novel anew. I re-discovered a fact once known but tucked away after
"prelims" and forgotten, that Fitzgerald had written a prologue to Gatsby
which he ultimately published as a separate short story called "Absolu
tion" in All the Sad Young Men.

The story concerns a young boy named Rudolph Miller, undoubtedly

the pre-adolescent James Gatz, and his problems. The problems osten
sibly stem from a "bad confession" but emanate, on a deeper level, from
his fantastic and romantic stance toward life. Rudolph's desire to make
his life shine like a perfect fiction of knights and ladies leads him to lie
twice in the confessional and find refuge in a private corner of his soul
which remains "hidden from God." After committing the worse-Qvil of
receiving communion while in mortal sin, the boy's Promethean verve
gives way to a desperate fear that God will stop his sinful heart. When
Rudolph requests the aid of his parish priest, he encounters a man who
has a well-developed romantic fantasy life but has never lived. Struck by
the familiarity of Rudolph's approach to life, Father Schwartz's facade
crumbles, and he collapses into incoherence. Rudolph runs off without
"official" absolution but with a clear picture of what becomes of an un
lived dream.

As masterful and interesting a story as "Absolution" is in its own right,

as a "discarded" prologue to Gatsby it provides both an invaluable tool
in explicating the novel and a successful pedagogical device. In fact, in
a letter to John Jamieson, Fitzgerald commented, "A story of mine called

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 114 COLLEGE LITERATURE
'Absolution'. . .was intended to be a picture of [ Gatsby's] early life,
but. . .1 cut it because I preferred the sense of mystery."1 In my effort to
introduce students to Gatsby in a way that would minimize the effects of
the film, and also would present a fresh approach, I introduced them first
to "Absolution." Without any reference to its connections with Gatsby,
we studied the story emphasizing character and motivation. Our final dis
cussion of the story concerned the class's conjecturing about what
Rudolph might be and do as an adult.

When the class moved into reading the novel with the knowledge that
Rudolph was really the young James Gatz, they became intent upon see
ing how he developed, why he developed as he did, and why Fitzgerald
saw Gatsby responding as he did. Redford and Farrow might as well have
been on the cutting room floor! While the class discussions were interest
ing and revelatory, I will refrain from reporting them here since each
discussion follows its own route despite a common starting point. In
stead, I will spend the remainder of this essay discussing what I believe
"Absolution" adds to the explication of The Great Gatsby.

If "Absolution" is reconstituted as a part of Gatsby, it enlarges the pic

ture of Gatsby's personality by presenting his most formative years under
the name of Rudolph Miller. The roots of the Rudolph-Gatsby stance
toward life can be found, as James E. Miller points out, "in the depriva
tions of his But the reader is never quite aware, using the facts
past."3
in Gatsby alone, that these deprivations are more emotional than fi
nancial. Rudolph is depicted as a romantic personality in an environment
that is colorless and sterile. His personality bent is diametrically opposite
that of his father, who lacks "the sense of things, the feel of things, the
hint of wind and rain on the cheek."4 It is that same quality that Nick
will find so appealing in Gatsby, "some heightened sensitivity to the prom
ises of life. . .a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other
person" (G, 2). The free-flowing and sensitive nature of Rudolph finds
itself circumscribed by the constricting rules of Roman Catholicism, the
limits of small town society, and a pair of ineffectual parents. Perhaps
unwilling to believe himself native to such an alien environment, Rudolph
finds himself guilty "of not believing Iwas the son of my parents" (A,163).

As an older James Gatz one could "run off from home" (G,174), but for
an eleven-year-old Rudolph Miller the only way to face such an incon
gruous world is to create an alter ego. For the times when he "prepared
the subterfuges with which he often tricked God," and for the moment
when he sat "like a commoner in the king's chair. .
.heroically denying
that he told lies" (A,163), Rudolph created "Blatchford Sarnemington."
The alter ego became Rudolph's way to live as a romantic in a wholly
unromantic world. If the situation of his life became intolerable there was

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GA TSBY'S FRONT DOOR 115
no reason to worry about it, for Rudolph had found a means of escape:
Instead of worrying he took a deep breath of the crisp air and began to say
over and over the words "Blatchford Sarnemington, Blatchford Sarneming
ton."

Blatchford was himself, and these words were in effect a

Sarnemington
lyric. When he became Blatchford a strange nobility flowed from him.
Blatchford lived in great sweeping triumphs. When Rudolph half closed his
eyes it meant that Blatchford had established dominance over him, and as
. .
he went by there were envious mutters in the air. .(A, 163)

Nick Carraway gives a hint of this same dynamism when he speaks

of Gatsby's past and his relationship to his parents whom "his imagin
ation had never really accepted. . .as his parents at all" (G,99). Yet, the
novel never gives a picture of how a full-blown alter ego had been formed
to handle the problem even before Gatsby met Dan Cody. Nick's com
ment that James Gatz had "had the name (Jay Gatsby) ready for a long
time" (G,99), gives the impression that Jay Gatsby was little more than a
name until the opportunity to lead a new life presented itself to James
Gatz. Gatsby's earlier formation as presented in "Absolution," however,
removes the ad hoc character of his mode of acting in this situation, and
Fitzgerald's delineation of his character becomes more consistent. Gatsby
acts as he does, not because it is the most pragmatic way to act, but be
cause it is the way he has always acted. With the addition of the material
from "Absolution" the much more powerful psychological mechanism
can be inferred, and the comment that Gatsby "sprang from his Platonic
conception of himself" (G,99) is elucidated.

The fact that Gatsby sprang from his Platonic conception of himself
throws light on both the novel and the short story. The comment can be
interpreted in two ways. "Platonic conception" can refer to an
exaggerated
essentialism in which the mental conception of the essence of a thing
gives it being. In this case it explains the way in which Gatsby and Blatch
ford came to be. They were created through the careful planning of their
creators, through a clear delineation of what solutions they must offer
to the problems of living in an alien world. The idea of Platonic concep
tion can also refer to the mental formulation of an ideal, in this case an
ideal self in an ideal world.

It is with reference to Gatsby's mode of acting in his ideal world that

"Absolution" gives the most valuable insight. In an attempt to render
himself ritually unable to receive communion, Rudolph plans to tell his
father that he has broken his fast but feels it necessary to support his
story by evidence. Stopped by his father before he can drink a glass of
water, Rudolph "realized. . .he should never have come downstairs; some
vague necessity for verisimilitude had made him want to leave a glass
as evidence by the sink; the honesty of his imagination had betrayed

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 116 COLLEGE LITERATURE
him" (A, 165). This characteristic "honesty of imagination" remains un
mentioned in Gatsby, but it helps to explain the vitality of Gatsby's illu
sion and his dedication to his dream.

In both the novel and the short story there is ample evidence that
Rudolph and Gatsby have constructed what I call their "puzzle of per
fection." It consists of certain necessary elements which each of them
tries to obtain in order to fill in a portion of his ideal picture of reality.
Rudolph's puzzle of perfection is the more "Tom Sawyer-esque," built
on romantic representations like "the picture at home of the German
cuirassiers at Sedan" (A,171). In the last paragraph of the story, with
its "girls with yellow hair. . .calling innocent exciting things to the young
men," Fitzgerald gives an indication that the pubescent Rudolph will be
gin to include sexuality in his puzzle of perfection. Father, Schwartz's
world where "things go glimmering," where there are beautiful parties
and amusement parks, strikes a note of horror with Rudolph because
he has desired such romantic, beautiful things himself and thought them
unlawful. And it is precisely because they are opposed to his narrow,
constricting environment, and "all this talking seemed particularly strange
and awful to Rudolph because this man was a priest," (A, 171) that they
come to be a part of his ideal world. For Rudolph's greatest satisfaction
comes when he can "trick God," or curse, or "heroically" deny that he
tells lies; it is then that "a silver pennon flapped out into the breeze some
where and there had been the crunch of leather and the shine of silver
spurs" (A,171).

By the time Rudolph has become the seventeen-year-old James Gatz,

fantasizing about his puzzle of perfection has become a way of life. "His
heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The most fantastic conceits haunt
ed him in his bed at night. A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself
out in his brain. . ." (G,99). The puzzle had begun to be formed when
Gatsby began adolescence; but as he entered manhood, "each night he
added to the pattern of his fancies" (G,100). An even older Gatsby court
ing Daisy Fay still wondered "what was the use of doing great things if
I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?" (G,100).
Through the use of an alter ego Rudolph and Gatsby could vacillate be
tween the world of reality and the more amenable ideal world of fantasy,
and it is in the character's attitude toward the life of fantasy that "Ab
solution" leads into Gatsby.

In a mature psychological insight Rudolph becomes aware of the re

lationship between himself and the alter ego he has created. "Hitherto
such phenomena as 'crazy' ambitions and petty shames and fears had
been but private reservations, unacknowledged before the throne of his
official soul. Now he realized unconsciously that his private reservations

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GATSBY'S FRONT DOOR 117
were himself. . .the pressure of his environment had driven him into the
lonely secret road of adolescence" (A,167). The difference between reality
and illusion has become clouded. Yet, rather than attempting to free
himself from his illusions and return to the real world, Rudolph finds jus
tification for his life as Blatchford Sarnemington. Father Schwartz, whose
opinion Rudolph has been taught to respect, shares a love for the glim
mering world of illusion in which Blatchford lives. In fact, Rudolph is,
in effect, warned not to return to the world that is really real "for if you
do you'll only feel the heat and the sweat and the life" (A,171). With
this Rudolph "felt that his own inner convictions were confirmed. There
was something ineffably gorgeous somewhere that had nothing to do with
God" (A,171). Thus Rudolph's life of fantasy exists outside the realm of
God and his laws because it has been formulated independent of God's
circle of relevance.

With the information in "Absolution," then, the reader knows certain

important things about Gatsby's character by the time he first appears
in the novel?certain characteristics that are either not contained in the
novel or are difficult to discover. Compelled by his environment into
adolescent isolation, Gatsby has formed an alter ego and a puzzle of per
fection. He has a characteristic "honesty of imagination," and in mat
ters of his life of illusion he is answerable only to his imagination rather
than to God.

Confronted with the glamorous world of Dan Cody's yacht, James Gatz
sees that his romantic world can exist in reality, that it is a fantasy that
can be brought to life. For the first time he introduces himself as Jay
Gatsby to a person in the real world. His ego and alter ego merge. At
this point Gatsby has taken himself out of the world of nighttime fan
tasies into "the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty" (G,99).
In Dan Cody, Gatsby sees a man who actually lives the glirnmering life,
unlike Father Schwartz who had grown old in mere fantasy about such a
life. When Dan Cody died Gatsby knew already that he could put the
puzzle of perfection together and, "left with his singularly appropriate
education; the vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the substan
tiality of a man" (G,102).

With this education, Gatsby goes about obtaining the pieces of his
puzzle. From the world Gatsby ultimately builds around himself, it can be
seen that his puzzle included orgiastic parties, his mansion ("a collosal
affair by any standard"), his fabulous wardrobe, an aura of mystery, and
most importantly, Daisy Buchanan. An understanding of the type of il
lusion Gatsby had built illustrates that Gatsby's fantastic surroundings
are better understood if they are seen as more than simply a way to
attract Daisy. Gatsby had begun to plan his ideal world at least
by the

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 118 COLLEGE LITERATURE
time Dan Cody died, long before Gatsby met Daisy. This understanding
demonstrates the lack of omniscience in Nick's remark when realizing
Gatsby's connection with Daisy: "He came alive to me, delivered from
the womb of his purposeless splendor" (G,79). Seen in the perspective of
his psychological development Gatsby's splendor is quite purposeful.
With the material in "Absolution" the reader has more information about
Gatsby than Nick who, as a first-person narrator, has limited privilege.
Such a result is perhaps one indication of what Fitzgerald meant when
he said in a letter to H. L. Mencken, "As you know, ["Absolution"] was
to have been the prologue of the novel, but it interfered with the neat
ness of my plan."5 Indeed, Daisy is the culmination of Gatsby's dream.
But the idea of a larger puzzle of which she was only a part works better
to explain the vastness of Gatsby's illusion and such effects as his library,
which had little to do with winning Daisy, but were carefully engineered
as part of Gatsby's overall image. It was all part of Gatsby's "long, secret
extravaganza" (G,148).

Coupling this carefully executed plan with the information about Gats
by's honesty of imagination helps to explain what Nick calls "the vitality
of Gatsby's illusion." As Rudolph had risked himself in order to create
carefully the situation of his perfect alibi, so Gatsby uses all of his crea
tive powers to put his illusion into reality. Again his library is an excel
lent example of this tendency. The great pains Gatsby has taken to make
it perfect prompts the owl-eyed man to declare: "This fella's a regular
Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism!" (G,49). Once
Gatsby's plan is perfected he is committed to the perfect fulfillment of
all its requirements. Even in getting Daisy, the only piece missing from
Gatsby's puzzle, time, is sacrificed to the proper mode of acting.'" I don't
want anything out of the way!' he kept saying" (G,80). As Rudolph's honest
imagination causes his failure, so Gatsby is tripped up by the same mech
anism. Apparently his illusion dictates that Daisy could never have loved
anyone but Gatsby, but he cannot persuade her to admit it. "So he gave
up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away"
(G,135). Gatsby's honest imagination will make no exceptions; his dream
must die instead. The older Gatsby never learned to conquer the one
trait which had been his undoing over twenty-five years before. An in
can be drawn between Gatsby's commitment to his
teresting parallel
illusion and his religious background as it is presented in "Absolution."
As a child, Rudolph had been trained in the strict rules of Catholic moral
from those rules by his "bad confession" causes him
ity, and his deviation
great distress. In Gatsby the strict adherence to a moral system seems to
have been transferred to the "tyranny" of his illusion. His characteristic
honesty of imagination forbade deviation from the puzzle of perfection
as his traditional moral training had forbidden sin against the laws of

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GATSBY'S FRONT DOOR 119
God and the Church. Rudolph's willful abuse of confession coupled with
his shock at the unexpected response of Fr. Schwartz may be seen as the
genesis of the transference of control from the authority of the Church
to the authority of his imagination.
As Gatsby's almost frantic attempt to complete his puzzle of perfection
with honesty can explain the vitality of his creativity, so also does it aid
in accounting for* the loss of his creative drive. With the last piece of
his puzzle in place there was no longer anything for Gatsby's imagination
to work on. Gatsby had won Daisy, and when he kissed her "she blossomed
for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete" (G,112). The
alter ego of James Gatz had put the last piece of his puzzle into place
and had thus become incarnated into a living reality. At the same time,
however, Gatsby realized that "his mind would never romp again like the
mind of God" (G,112). That is why "it was when curiosity about Gatsby
was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Satur
day night?and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio
was over" (G,113).

"Absolution" is also a key to understanding the basic innocence of

Gatsby in following his dream. Because Rudolph sees his ideal illusion
as that "ineffably gorgeous thing somewhere that had nothing to do with
God" (A, 171), he becomes responsible only to his imagination. What
ever leads to the fulfillment of his puzzle of perfection is morally right.
In view of this, his activities that by other standards would be illegal
or sinful are for Gatsby outside the realm of traditional moral judgments.
He did only what was intended to make things fine and beautiful. Like
Rudolph, he must have known that God would not be angry with him,
"because He must have understood that Rudolph had done it to make
. .
things finer. .brightening up the dinginess. .by saying a thing radiant
and proud" (A, 171).

Finally, "Absolution" can give an insight into Gatsby's disappointment

with the final solution of his puzzle of perfection. It might be said that
there remained an aura of adolescence around Gatsby's life of illusion.
Rudolph had grown into his life of fantasy as he followed "the lonely
secret road of adolescence" (A,167). It was his way of experiencing
the "silver pennon," "the crunch of leather," and "the shine of silver
spurs." Because Gatsby had been convinced that it is possible to repeat
the past (G,lll), he must have expected a similar electric situation to sur
round the completion of his long sought and carefully planned extrava
ganza. But the electricity was not what he had hoped and "the expression
of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby's face, as though a faint
doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness"
(G,97). The adolescent expectation had grown beyond the limits of what

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 120 COLLEGE LITERATURE
mature reason could expect, "it had gone beyond her, beyond everything.
He had thrown himself into it with creative passion, adding to it all the
time. . . .No amount of fire or freshness can what a man will
challenge
store up in his ghostly heart" (G,97). Caught in adolescent solipsism,
Gatsby had failed to realize that all reality cannot be made to bow to
one man's plan. He had failed to learn that there are other people who
live in their own illusions, people like Tom and Daisy Buchanan. "They
were careless people, Tom and Daisy?they smashed up things and crea
tures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness,
or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up
the mess . ." (G,180-81).
they had made.

Fitzgerald's short story "Absolution" can give valuable insights into the
character of Jay Gatsby and his mode of acting which the novel alone
cannot. Through it one can draw a more complete picture of the develop
ment of Gatsby from a boy whose romantic imagination forced him to
create an alter ego to cope with his an alter
constricting surroundings,
ego that would merge with his real self and search for a way to repeat
the electric experience of creating something ineffably gorgeous that is
beyond God Himself. It is from "Absolution" that Gatsby's characteris
tic honesty of imagination can be discovered, a trait that helps to explain
the vitality of his creative passion. Through an insight into Gatsby's form
ative years, one can put Daisy into her place as only a part, albeit the
culmination, of Gatsby's illusion. Finally, the unused prologue of The
Great Gatsby helps to account for Gatsby's innocence and for the failure
of his illusion to satisfy his longstanding expectations. Thus, the use of
"Absolution" creates one more stance from which to view and interpret
The Great Gatsby. My suggestion is that this approach be merely one
door into the novel and that other doors should not be left untried once
the students have become involved with explicating the novel.

The approach through "Absolution" also serves as a valuable pedagogi

cal device for aiding students to see a novel as a product of authorial
creativity, craftsmanship, and decision-making. Students should be en
couraged to discuss whether they believe Fitzgerald made a good deci
sion in removing "Absolution" from Gatsby. In fact, Fitzgerald's having
rejected the story as a prologue reflects the high degree of discrimination
in his artistic technique, for, as he observed himself, the use of the short
story as a prologue would have destroyed both the sense of mystery and
the neatness of the plan of the novel.

Studying the relationship of the novel-and the short story substantiates

Fitzgerald's observations. A few of the reasons, briefly outlined, are the
following:

1) Much of the success of the first part of Gatsby depends on the

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GATSBY'S FRONT DOOR 121

masterful way in which Fitzgerald creates the myth of Gatsby through

the conjectured biography in the gossip of those who frequent Gatsby's
parties (Cf. Miller, p. 98). The device is effective in creating an atmos
phere of suspense and expectation in the reader. If the prologue were
used, Gatsby's true past would be known by the reader before he came to
the novel, and much of the effect of these wild stories would be lost.

2) The introduction of the nature of Gatsby's early environment

as an effective force in shaping his vision, especially the religious ele
ment, would serve to undercut in many ways the aura of love-romance
which surrounds the novel.

3) The reader's knowing beforehand the mechanism of Gatsby's

moral and spiritual inculpability destroys the effect of Nick's gradual
realization of Gatsby's innocence.

4) The use of a prologue with an omniscient narrator complicates

and contradicts Fitzgerald's well-planned use of the sensitive first-person
narrator in the novel. At times the reader of the Prologue would know
more than Nick Carraway. If the reader can judge the truth or aptness
of the narrator's comments with knowledge that the narrator himself
does not possess, the reliability and sensitivity of the narrator are called
into question and the relationship of reader to narrator is destroyed.

5) The reader's possessing a knowledge of Gatsby's unimpressive

background prior to meeting him in Gatsby as "The Great" would destroy
the mythic proportions in which Fitzgerald casts Gatsby.

6) The appearance of Gatsby's father in the end presents a beautiful

irony. It shows Gatsby's ties with the earth through the farmer who has
given him life, and his basic fallibility and humanity in the humbleness
of his father, when both have been so finally displayed by his death. Hav
ing known Gatsby's father through the prologue would render such irony
impossible and his father's comments about his past redundant.

Finally, perhaps the most significant thing to be learned about Fitz

gerald's artistry from a combined study of these two works is how the
scope of Gatsby must have developed in his mind, and how that develop
ment necessitated jettisoning "Absolution." In the end, Fitzgerald turned
Gatsby into a myth encompassing the movement of the nation across the
continent toward its frontiers and a completion of the cycle by a return
to the East. Jay Gatsby stands as a perfect hero to embody this plan.
Like the current of American history and thought, Gatsby combines a
strong idealism with a deep sense of practicality that leads him to hold
his dream as a dream and yet to seek its realization. Certainly Fitzgerald
must have come to realize that Rudolph Miller, a Roman Catholic with

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 122 COLLEGE LITERATURE
a deep Catholic sensibility, could not have developed into the figure such
a
plan required.6

To avoid the possibility of minimizing the representative quality of

his hero, therefore, Fitzgerald made certain very significant alterations.
Because of the prejudices of the times and because of the need to em
phasize the Mid-Western origins of the character, Jay Gatsby could not
have been Catholic. So, the one time in the novel when religious affiliation
is mentioned, the reader is told that"a little before three the Lutheran
minister arrived. . ." (G,175). Besides avoiding the limitations of choosing
a Catholic, this change emphasizes Gatsby's origins by using a denomina
tion typically associated with the Mid-West.

To further enhance Gatsby as representative of the American spirit

on a broader scale, Fitzgerald built in the Protestant Ethic. He took care
that it would be clear by putting all the references to it in the last few
pages of the novel and in the mouth of a newly introduced character,
Henry C. Gatz, Gatsby's father from Minnesota. The reader learns that,
like Benjamin Franklin, Gatsby had kept a careful schedule for his daily
activities and an aphoristic list of "general resolves" written on the fly
leaf of a book called Hopalong Cassidy, the story of a cowboy hero. In
his father's eyes, Gatsby is Horatio Alger: "If he'd lived, he'd of been
a great man. A man like James J. Hill. He'd of helped build up the coun
try" (G,169). Ultimately, what Fitzgerald accomplished was a redefinition
of his hero from a Catholic Romantic to an American Representative
Romantic standing in a direct line with the Dutch sailors whose eyes
first fell on the "fresh, green breast of the new world" and with the Ameri
can pioneers and immigrants who moved West?a line of continuous
and cyclic movement.

In conclusion, I would reiterate my belief that this approach to teach

The Great Gatsby has many advantages. Not only does it offer a way
ing
to introduce students to the novel from a fresh perspective unadulterated
by the cinematic adaptation, but it adds information to that contained
in the novel-as-published which aids in explicating the character of Gats
by. Further, used in the manner I have suggested, the coupling of the
two fictional works leads into valuable lessons concerning character
motivation, fictional craftsmanship, the use of psychology in literature,
and the differences between short fiction and the novel. Students are
also given a first-hand experience of the differing results and processes
when a reader explicates a work of fiction in isolation, as is the case when
the class reads "Absolution," and when he uses information external to
the work. Perhaps the most important lesson of all is that we need not
?
always approach literature from the cellar, the attic, or the window
especially if there is a wide, though forgotten, front door.

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GA TSBY'S FRONT DOOR 123
NOTES
1 Quoted in Arthur Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1951), p. 172.
2 F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (New York: Scribner, 1925), p. 97. Sub
sequent references to this novel will be given in the text in the form (G,97).
3 The Fictional Technique of F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1957),
p. 98.

4 F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Absolution." In Malcolm Cowley, ed., The Stories of

F. Scott Fitzgerald (New York: Scribner, 1951), p. 164. Subsequent references

given textually in the form (A, 164).

5 Quoted by Henry Dan Piper, "The Un trimmed Christmas Tree: The Reli
Background of The Great Gatsby." In Frederick J. Hoffman, ed.. The
gious
Great Gatsby: A Study (New York: Scribner, 1962), p. 323.
6 I am indebted throughout this concluding section of my paper to the edi
torial advice and commentary provided by Bernard Oldsey in a letter dated
4 January 1976.

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