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113
"ABSOLUTION": GATSBY'S FORGOTTEN
FRONT DOOR
Ryan LaHurd
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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.
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."
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.
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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).
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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.
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).
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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.
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GATSBY'S FRONT DOOR 121
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122 COLLEGE LITERATURE
a deep Catholic sensibility, could not have developed into the figure such
a
plan required.6
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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.
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