Letters

Szonja Lengyel

Dear Nick Carraway,

I often wondered how you see the world, and how you have perceived Gatsby. I understand that Gatsby was quite an interesting figure in your life, and I wish to comprehend why you thought of him the way you did. 

“He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.”  This particular thought made me wonder why you portray Gatsby as a kind of heroic figure. At first Gatsby is depicted with a sort of “romantic readiness” to chase after Daisy and the American Dream. On the other hand, Gatsby’s hopes and dreams are heavily based on obsession and illusion, idolizing Daisy and their shared past while ignoring Daisy’s current personality and choices. 

You seem as if you view Gatsby as morally superior to the Buchanans and most of the wealthy layer, when you shout “They’re a rotten crowd,” “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” across the lawn. However, as the story progresses, I find more and more of the same faults in Gatsby. He is equally as materialistic, shallow, morally compromised as any other person. For example, he hosts extravagant parties to buy him respect and get Daisy’s attention, and he got his money through questionable businesses, for example selling alcohol during the Prohibition era (1920-1933).

Even though I don’t understand Gatsby’s character fully, I too am drawn to his optimism and hopeful stubbornness. At the end of the day we all fell for Gatsby’s charm. 

With admiration and curiosity always,

Szonja Lengyel

Márk Gál

13 Lincoln Street
East Egg
New York
NY 11101
29th of November

Dear Jay,

I’m writing to you to warn you about a threat: George Wilson might be planning something terrible against you. If you read the whole letter everything will be clarified.

Wilson found out that his wife had cheated on him. He loved her and he trusted her the most and his world was almost completely destroyed. The person he trusted most after her is Tom Buchanan. I think I don’t need to introduce him to you. I heard rumors that he was Mrs. Wilson’s lover, and I even saw them kissing each other at his party. You also know that he knows about your relation with Daisy and he doesn’t find it great obviously. If I were Tom, I would try everything to get rid of you.

I heard about the “butchering of Myrtle” too, from George when he was repairing the engine of my car in his workshop. He thinks that you killed his wife because your car hit her and Tom told him that you had been driving it. Tom also accused you of the situation with Mrs. Wilson; her husband is convinced that you killed her because you wanted to remove all the evidence. I don’t know what your intentions were, but it was very reckless to leave her there without even the slightest assistance. Now Wilson and Tom seek
vengeance.

It is a complex situation for which I don’t have a full solution, but you had better ask for help from the police and hire some guards, even if you are afraid that the cops will get to know our business. As you are one of my favorite clients, I hope this turmoil ends as soon as possible and we can continue our project. If you need some recommendations for bodyguards or something new happens, write me!

Take care,

Meyer

Fanni Farkas

Dear Daisy,

I’m writing this letter to you, because I wanted to address a very important matter. As we all know your husband is cheating on you. He has a girl in New York. Her name is Myrtle Wilson. Her husband, George, owns a run-down garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle herself possesses a fierce vitality and desperately looks for a way to improve her situation. Unfortunately for her, she chooses Tom, who treats her as a mere object of his desire. Which you also did. You chose Tom Buchanan over Jay Gatsby. Yes, you heard that right. I know about your affair with Gatsby, I know about the letters, I know about the house across the bay that he bought just to be close to you, I know about how you didn’t want to marry Tom after Gatsby’s letter. But you did. Here we are and no one is happy, because of these choices you all made. Tom wants to be with Mrs. Wilson, which is impossible, because you are his wife and he can only go there in secret. The secret is only in front of Mr. Wilson, because you know about the woman in New York. Which is also very weird, because why on Earth are you still together with Tom after knowing he has another woman?. You married him when you know deep down you love Gatsby, who loves you back and treats you right, unlike Tom. I know it can be hard to break out from a marriage and getting divorced is considered very bad, but come on. Is it really worth it to stay with Tom when you don’t even love him or vice versa? Just think about what I said and write back as soon as you have decided how to solve this problem.

Sincerely,

Nick

Balázs Kalcsó

Dear Nick,

I’ve been thinking about the way you talk about Gatsby, and I wanted to write back to you because your mix of admiration and confusion really interests me. You keep saying you’re not one to judge, but the way you describe Gatsby shows you are very curious about him. And I see why there’s something magnetic about someone who believes so fiercely in a dream, even if the rest of the people have given up on theirs.

What I find amazing is how you swing between being impressed by Gatsby’s hope and frustrated by his blindness. You keep trying to figure out whether he’s a fool chasing something impossible, or someone brave for holding on when everything around him is only lies. The truth is, your fascination says as much about you as it does about him. You’re drawn to his optimism because you see so little positivity elsewhere. Certainly not from Tom and Daisy, with their careless swinging, or from anyone in the crowd that rolled in and out of Gatsby’s house every weekend.

It’s clear that you respect Gatsby more than you admit, even though he has his flaws. You recognize that underneath his showmanship, he actually cares about something or someone so deeply that he’s willing to risk everything for his vision. And maybe that’s what stayed with you the most: not the lavish parties, not the interesting rumors, but the fact that Gatsby believed in a future that he imagined  and may have been living out inside his head. When he met Daisy again he was kind of shy, but when you left them  alone he envisioned the future there and then.

Anyway, I just wanted you to know that your honesty about him matters. It makes your whole story feel so real. I hope you found this letter amusing and I look forward to your reply.

Best regards,

Balázs

Zalán Kaposvári

Dear Daisy,

I am writing to you because of a matter of great importance. I’ve heard the story of the legendary figure Jay Gatsby. My views and opinion regarding Gatsby’s thoughts and decisions are not the ones which eventually made me write a letter to you. Instead I would like to delve into a deeper topic. The one that itself provides a completely appropriate explanation to the question which has probably arisen for you too. That is, why I have started to write to you. I don’t want to waste much more time, so I’ll tell you what worries me the most. It is in connection with the terribly tragic end of poor Gatsby, and, most importantly, your final decision which carved the paths of all the other people who had some kind of relation with him.

At the very beginning your pure happiness for Gatsby was a beacon of shining light in the darkness that he might have felt within. Your fate intersected with Gatsby’s, but then the cursed war separated you. Later, you married Tom, who knew literally nothing of your former love. I cannot judge that; you probably did the right thing. But Gatsby, after the war was over, was constantly looking forward to uniting with you;
what is more, he also created his life-lasting dreams with you as their foundation. Gatsby, with the help of Nick, made plans to make you return to him. Everything went as planned, but at one point the story reached a critical point. One in which you were the only tool that could fulfill Gatsby’s dream. Nevertheless, you hesitated there. The only thing you should have said is that Gatsby was the only one you ever loved. Instead, you hesitated, and said that you loved both of them. Why could you not follow the path your very heart dictated? The path that is the only true path in this otherwise wrong world.

Another bad decision happened when you were heading back home just after the former situation. You were the one driving Gatsby’s fast yellow car. If you had not been so inattentive on the road, you probably would not have hit the wife of the person who owned the gas station. Tom was driving behind you, and when he reached the scene of the accident, he told the poor husband that Gatsby was the one driving that yellow car.

All in all, the two reasons I have explained above are the ones that make me think you caused the unique man’s death. Tom is an unreliable, lying, wrongheaded man. You chose him instead of the person full of good dreams and goals for life. A truly miserable mistake, indeed.

That was all I wanted to say. I hope your sins will be compensated with pain, the same pain that you caused Gatsby.

Best regards,

Zalán

Áron Kaposvári

Dear Gatsby,

I am writing to you because of what I have heard has happened; I would like to comment on your acts and give you some advice.

I’ve heard different rumors and hearsay about your story, mainly from Nick, your friend, and I’m surprised how much you could achieve. As you see, I highly respect your dreams and your character, as you lifted yourself out of the dirt and no one could stop you from reaching dazzling glory. You truly did everything possible to win Daisy back: you erected a great mansion full of parties, fought against her husband as hard as you could, all of this just for her. You are truly a reliable and remarkable person full of never-ending ambition.

On the other hand, the war, and its consequence that you had to go fight, wasn’t your fault. Just imagine the war had never happened! You wouldn’t have broken ties with Daisy, Tom would be nowhere in your life by now; you wouldn’t have needed to throw such great parties, and you could have lived with Daisy happily till you died. But unfortunately, life isn’t that easy, is it?

I know that you centered your life around one single dream, but that led to your failure, too. So I advise you to have multiple dreams next time, in order not to collapse because of failing to fulfill your only one, losing the meaning of life for yourself.

That’s all I wanted to say, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Áron