Ana Sofa Gonzlez Saravia Pea

Cities, Ashes and Dust: The Idealization and Destruction of The American Dream in F. Scotts Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby and John Fantes Ask The Dust

Americas big metropolises have become the representation of the American dream. Since the beginning of the Twentieth Century, they have stood as beacons of hope for immigrants and nationals alike; as promises of a bright and wealthy future in which an individuals social status and ethnicity are not limitations on their pursuit of happiness. However, this promise is often flawed and deceitful, and most of the time it brings about the destruction of the individuals dream and, in some cases, the destruction of the individual itself. This processthe pursuit of a dream in a metropolis and its subsequent destructionis the core element in both F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel The Great Gatsby and John Fantes Ask The Dust, and the metropolises in which they are set are two of the most emblematic cities in America: New York and Los Angeles. These novels depict two charactersJay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby and Arturo Bandini in Ask The Dustwho, in their pursuit of fame, money, love, and recognition, as well as their escape from poverty and marginalization, travel from the rural and traditional Mid-West to the city. On the hand, there is Jay Gatsby, who is looking for money and distinction in order to be worthy of the woman he loves, goes to New York; the city which is most recognized for its sophistication and luxury. On the other hand Arturo Bandini, who wants to be a famous and celebrated writer, goes to Los Angeles, a city which is the embodiment of fame. Thus, these cities become symbols, material representations of the dream each character specifically has. However, these cities are not depicted as

glamorous and splendid, but as bleak, corrupted places where most people linger or strive to fulfill their dreams, and the only thing the individual can find is banality and loneliness. Both cities are contrasted with the stillness of a desertic, desolate landscape where the destruction of the dream of these characters is takes place. In The Great Gatsby this landscape is portrayed as the valley of ashes which separates the city from Gatsbys home, and where the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight (35). Thus, ashes and dust become a presence that hides and disguises an individuals true nature and this impenetrable cloud opposes the guiding and inspiring image of the green light which symbolizes the act of hoping for the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us (154). That way, the security of dreaming, of following the green light is obscured by the deception and uncertainty that these clouds of ashes portray. This dust is not only present in the valley of ashes but in Gatsby himself: it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short winded elations of men. (Fitzgerald 20) This foul dust becomes not only the falsehood and deception of the people around Gatsby but the lies and the crimes he commits in order to fulfill his dream. As the impenetrable cloud of ash surrounds the people who drive to the citypeople like Tom Buchanan or Gatsbys party guests who are false and baneso does the foul dust in the wake of his dream attempt to cover up Jay Gatsbys true identity: Jimmy Gats, a poor boy turned criminal in order to be with Daisy, the woman he loves. However, unlike those dusty people, Gatsby stands as a heroic figure; because despite his falsehood, his romantic readiness (Fitzgerald 20) and the purity of his dream is what makes him, to some extent, pure and immune to that corrupt and dusty influence. However,

that foul dust becomes the downfall of Jay Gatsby since it is in the uncovering of his deception that his dream finds its destruction. This destruction is materialized in the accidental killing of Myrtle Wilson in the valley of ashes and as he leaves the city with Daisy, he leaves the embodiment of his dream, which dies definitely when he enters the dust and ashes valley of deceit and destruction. The death of his dream brings about the death of Jay Gatsby himself; since the sole purpose of his existence is the pursuit of that dream. It is also dust that takes Gatsbys life in the form of Myrtles husband George Wilson; a man who lives and comes from the valley of ashes, and who is described as an obscuring, dusty force with a white ashen dust [which] veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity (37). That way, Gatsbys death is a result of the obscuring uncertainty which clouds Wilsons judgment and which comes from Daisy and Toms falsehood. In Ask The Dust, dust is a presence that is found everywhere in Los Angeles and inhabits every city in America; a presence that follows everyone wherever they go: dust of Chicago and Cincinnati and Cleveland on their shoes, doomed to die in the sun [] enough to keep alive the illusion that this was paradise (Fante 49). To Bandini, Los Angeles is an idealized city that has completely lost its charm. The same way, Bandinis dream to become a respectable and admired writer is on hold at the moment the novel begins, since he is poor and unemployed, and has not written anything. However, his passion is rekindled when he meets Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Yet, this passion is constantly changing from romantic love and sexual desire to hate and violence. This dichotomy is symbolized in the contrast between the city dust and the desert, and it is also a reflection of Bandinis pursuit of happiness.

Bandinis hateful and violent attitude towards Camilla is the result of the inner struggle he suffers as a poor, dark-skinned Italian American from the conservative Mid-West: When I was a kid back home in Colorado it was Smith and Parker and Jones who hurt me with their hideous names, called me Wop and Dago and Greaser, and their children hurt me, just as I hurt you tonight (50). So, in Camilla Bandini sees himself reflected, a reflection which he hates: When seeking to degrade Camilla, he thus identifies himself as a participant in the Anglo-American mythology (Kordich 23). Thus, the need to belong to the white, rich American society triggers Bandinis dream of becoming a writer, just as Gatsbys dream of becoming rich is triggered by his social condition. However, Bandinis dream is in constant tension between his need for recognition and his hate of the people who can give it to him. That is why he both loves and hates Camilla, because Camilla, just like Bandini, is rejected by white America; she is a Greaser whom nobody respects. The same way, the city is both loved and hated by Bandini because it is the symbol of white American civilization, filled with people who carry their dusttheir prejudices and meannesseverywhere they go. That way, dust is found wherever he faces discrimination like in Bunker Hill, where the lady tenant confronts him with his race just as he arrives. Opposed to the dust in the city and its prejudices is the desert surrounding Los Angeles. To Bandini, the desert is the destruction of civilization: The desert was always there, a patient white animal, waiting for men to die, for civilizations to flicker and pass into the darkness (143). That is why he pictures Camilla as a woman belonging to the desert, wild and uncivilized, devoid of all the prejudices and faults of white America: All of this land and this sea belongs to you. All of California. There is no California, no Los Angeles, no dusty streets, no cheap hotels, no stinking

newspapers, no broken, uprooted people from the East, no fancy boulevards. This is your beautiful land with the desert and the mountains and the sea. You're a princess, and you reign over it all. (110) Bandinis dream is conflicted because he wants it all. He wants the money, the recognition, Camillas love and his writing. He wants the desert and the dust. However, Camilla yearns for the acceptance of American society as well, although her dream is not with Bandini, but with Sam, who scorn and rejects her all the time. Therefore, none of them can fulfill their dreams because despite Bandinis published novel or Camillas beauty and love they are still not white and, thus, not worthy of the acceptance of the prejudiced society. Just as in The Great Gatsby, Bandinis dream is destroyed when Camilla leaves the city and is lost in the desert forever. However, this loss does not destroy Bandini as it did Gatsby because, unlike the falsehood and uncertainty that kill Gatsbys romantic readiness, the desert brings a nihilistic reassurance; a certainty that, at the end, everything Bandini strives forlove, art, and moneywill be erased by the desert, as well as everything that has make him suffer. The efforts and pains of men to fulfill and eternalize their dreams will disappear just as cities will be swallowed by deserts: You could die, but the desert would hide the secret of your death, it would remain after (165) In both novels cities are portrayed as places that promise the dreamer that their goals can be achieved. However, these cities are filled with ashes and dust, symbols of the corruption and prejudices of society that destroy the possibility of fulfilling the American dream. Both novels show that one can never escape its social and cultural condition, and that despite all the sacrifices and effort one can make, society will eventually try to destroy the dream and the dreamer. However, despite the eminent destruction of the American dream, these novels portray the beauty and the complexity of following it. At the end, even if Bandinis dream of

being with Camilla is lost, he drives back to city to carry on with his life, understanding the banality of his search for fame and acceptance; and even if Gatsby dies trying to reach the past that made him happy once, his romantic readiness stands a symbol of the beauty of running towards the green light, however futile it may seem.

WORKS CITED:

Fante, John. Ask The Dusk. Harper Collins Publishers. New York:1939. Print. Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Great Gatsby. Scribner. U.S.A:1925. Print Kordich, Catherine J. John Fante's Ask the Dust: A Border Reading. MELUS, Vol. 20, No. 4, Maskers and Tricksters (Winter, 1995).pp. 17-27. Accessed on Jstor.