Lack of Religion in The Great Gatsby


In class, we read many critical lenses on The Great Gatsby that can be used to analyze literature. After reading, I realized that really, text can be viewed with any type of lens, and each makes the same passages contain completely different meanings. I’ve realized that religion is a motif in the story in many ways, so I thought it would be interesting to try to view the novel through a somewhat religious lens. I say somewhat because I am not completely familiar with any religion myself, so I focused on the general term religion rather than using specific biblical references for Christianity.

Through this somewhat religious lens, I would argue that the lack of religious beliefs among the characters caused their morality to be corrupt. Each motivated by their own goals, many of a materialistic nature, the characters performed many unethical acts, including extra-marital affairs, excessive drinking, illegal exchange of liquor, and even murder. Most of the characters do not seem to talk about religion in a serious manner, and even George, who mentions “God” in the text, says that he “[doesn’t] belong to any [church]” (86). By not having religious beliefs, the characters also lack moral standards that would generate guilt within each individual’s mind whenever they get involved in inappropriate activities. This guilt is not seen within many of the characters, especially Tom and Daisy, who seemed indifferent towards Myrtle and Gatsby whose deaths were caused by the Buchanans.

The God-like figure in the text seems to be Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, whose eyes “look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose” (12). After Myrtle’s death, when George Wilson said that “God sees everything,” he looked up at those eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. Ironically, the color yellow of his spectacles is the color representing corruption in the American society, and could possibly represent that instead of believing in a religious God, the characters seemingly have similar beliefs that focus on a materialistic “God” within themselves. By placing this billboard in the Valley of Ashes, it can also be said that religion was also something everyone pretended not to see as a way of justifying their own corruption, like how the working class’s struggle is trampled upon by the upper class.

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