The Great Gatsby’s Empire State of Mind

     For Jay Gatsby of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby and the persona of Alicia Keys's song "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down," New York City represents the fulfillment of the American Dream. For Gatsby's companion, however, the Midwesterner Nick Carraway, New York City causes anxiety. For instance, Keys notes that "[t]here's nothing you can't do / Now you're in New York" while Carraway anxiously remarks that "[a]nything can happen now that we've slid over this bridge" from Long Island to New York City, "anything at all." Carraway refers to the Queensboro Bridge which crosses the East River connecting Long Island to the borough of Manhattan whereas Keys mentions the Brooklyn Bridge which also spans the East River although connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Hence, Keys's persona is leaving Manhattan, while Carraway is entering it. The fact that Carraway is leaving the relative comfort of quiet, middle-class, mostly white, Long Island by crossing the bridge, readers see the city through his lens of wonder, especially as he recounts his astonishment at seeing a limousine with three Black youths driven by a White chauffeur. Such a cultural race reversal would be far from common only a few miles away on Long Island. For Keys however her starting place is Harlem, a Manhattan neighbourhood renowned for its slums, high crime rates and poverty levels. Therefore, the Brooklyn Bridge, leading to a comparatively safer part of the city, thus indicates a "going up" of the social ladder for her, while for Carraway the Queensboro Bridge leads to an area of diminished social standing, as revealed by his racially insensitive references to "the tragic eyes and short upper lips of southeastern Europe," "three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl," and Meyer Wolfsheim, a "flat-nosed Jew" with "tiny eyes."
     On the same trip to the city that Nick Carraway recounts, Gatsby seems to agree with the persona of "Empire State of Mind" that the American Dream can be realized in New York City "by any means." First, he avoids a traffic ticket by flaunting the Christmas card that the police commissioner sends him. The police officer goes beyond not giving him a traffic violation by excusing himself for having stopped Gatsby and promising that he will be sure not to do it again. This action reminds Carraway once again that Gatsby is not "just some nobody"; he has social connections which place him above the law. Second, Gatsby meets with his associate Meyer Wolfsheim, a gambler and a bootlegger. Both Gatsby and he are wealthy men that have built their riches on illegal activities. Like Gatsby's outdoing the traffic ticket which he rightfully deserved, Wolfsheim has outsmarted the legal forces that have evidence that he fixed the World Series of 1919 for his own financial benefit. He has yet to be punished for his crime and openly profits from his illegal earnings. Gatsby reasons that Wolfsheim did nothing other than seize "the opportunity" that capitalist America afforded him.
     New York City is this mythical land of opportunities where, in Key's words, "dreams are made." The rags-to-riches mentality is clearly stated in her song: "Some will sleep tonight with a hunger for more than an empty fridge." Presumably the "hunger" pertains to "seeing [their] face in lights [...] down on Broadway." Additionally, the persona has a "pocketful of dreams," implying that her pockets are empty, yet she is confident of future riches and fame. Gatsby also embodies this ideal. He moves east to Long Island and works in the city to make enough money to win his socially-superior former love, Daisy Buchanan. He contacts Daisy through his friend Nick Carraway when he feels that he has recreated himself to the extent that she will now accept him. He has a fine home, a Rolls-Royce, eight servants, and moves in chic social circles. He is even acquaintanced with the movie moguls that make the "movie scenes" to which Keys refers. Perhaps he does not "[see] his face in lights" per say, but his reputation and fame draw crowds to his parties every weekend. Nick reflects that Gatsby must have felt that "his dream [was] so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it." This desire for refashioning is echoed in Keys's lyrics "[t]hese streets will make you feel brand new." Yet his efforts prove to be futile as Daisy ultimately decides to stay in her marriage. Nick suggests that Gatsby regrets having "paid a high price for living too long with a single dream," that of wooing Daisy Buchanan.
     The myth of New York City as the place where "[t]here's nothing you can't do," leads to a feeling of invincibility. When Tom Buchanan heads towards the city to see his mistress, Myrtle, he does not consider that his wife Daisy may leave him because of his affair. He enjoys both the loyal wife, as well as the illicit lover. Yet his belief in his own invincibility is only an illusion; the novel ends tragically as Daisy hits Myrtle with Gatsby's car, killing her. Myrtle's husband then kills Gatsby in revenge, thinking he was at fault, and then he commits suicide. Gatsby, the man who had surrounded himself with socialites, has few mourners at his funeral; not even Wolfensheim makes the effort to attend and Daisy does not even send a card or flowers. At his funeral, readers learn that his father had great hopes for his son. He commemorates Gatsby as a potentially "great man" if he had lived longer, having "a big future before him," and one who could have "helped build up the country." Mr. Gatz, as well as Jay Gatsby, and Tom and Daisy Buchanan believed their American Dream would be realized through another person. For Mr. Gatz, achievement would have come through his son's successes. For Gatsby, it would have been fulfilled in a relationship with Daisy. Likewise, Daisy married Tom in hopes of attaining her dream "of love, of money." And for Tom, he desired the independence of sexual relationships with women, such as Myrtle. For each, their American Dream becomes "the dead dream." Ironically, the unravelling of their individual dreams starts in the heart of New York City at the Plaza Hotel. It is here that Daisy definitively refuses Gatsby's proposition that she leave Tom because she has learned of Gatsby's illegal dealings with Wolfsheim. On the way home from the city, the tragic accident will occur and then the subsequent murder-suicide, demolishing each dream. Leaving the city, Carraway drives "on toward death" crossing over "the dark bridge."

Listen and Watch Alicia Keys sing the song here: