[On May 21, 1901, Connecticut enacted the first speed-limit law in American history (freakin’ Connecticut, am I right anyone who has to drive through New England?!). So for the 125th anniversary of that groundbreaking legislation, this week I’ll AmericanStudy cultural representations of fast cars, leading up to a weekend post on the Fast & Furious franchise!]
On what the classic novel reveals about a new technology’s threats, immediate and long-term.
Last April, to commemorate the centennial of The Great Gatsby’s initial publication, I dedicated a weeklong series to different layers of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel and its contexts. In Tuesday’s post, which focused on the relatively new technology of the telephone and how it drives three important moments in the novel, I also highlighted automobiles as another prominently featured early 20th century invention. So check out that hyperlinked post (under “Tuesday’s post” above) if you would, and then come on back for further thoughts on cars and The Great Gatsby.
Welcome back! To connect today’s post to the historical event that gave this weeklong series its inspiration (Connecticut’s speed-limit law), the most obvious and central car culture contexts that Fitzgerald’s novel highlights are the dangers that this technological and transportation innovation could present. There are various events and factors that precipitate the climactic tragedies with which Gatsby concludes, but at the heart of them is an act of both vehicular manslaughter and hit & run, as Daisy Buchanan (a very inexperienced driver) is at the wheel of Gatsby’s yellow car, hits and kills her husband Tom’s mistress Myrtle Wilson, and drives off (with Gatsby eventually and fatally taking the blame for the accident). Moreover, Fitzgerald had foreshadowed that event with a seemingly small detail much earlier in the novel, a sequence where a car full of partygoers from one of Gatsby’s famous soirees has had its own minor accident, getting stuck in a ditch. In small and large ways alike, then, Fitzgerald’s novel reminds us that this exciting new invention had the potential, particularly through the speed of travel it made possible, to at least inconvenience and at worst destroy our lives.
I would also argue that, through the characters and situation of the Wilsons, Fitzgerald highlights another potentially destructive (and certainly unmistakable) change that cars were producing in American culture and society. Myrtle’s husband George, who ends up killing Gatsby and then himself in response to the accident, own and operates a garage and gas station, one located in the novel’s most symbolic setting, the “Valley of Ashes” between Long Island and New York City. Nick calls the place by that time because of the ash-heaps produced by the commuter trains that pass through, reminding us that transportation technologies have been affecting their settings and communities for far longer than automobiles have been around. But at the same time, George’s profession is a new one, created by car culture and its attendant (pun very much intended) needs. That profession has allowed him the chance to create and run his own business, but it also makes him quite dependent on rich assholes like Tom Buchanan, the types who were likely to own their own automobiles in 1922. When he meet George, he’s trying to buy an old car of Tom’s, reflecting his desire (akin to his wife’s) to emulate and perhaps enter this wealthy world. But Tom brushes him off and then resumes his affair with George’s wife, a painful reminder of the gap between car owners and car servicers in this brave new technological world.
Next car culture conversation tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Car culture works you’d highlight?
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