A Tale of 2 Lanes

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    One of the biggest themes that Fitzgerald uses to drive the plot in The Great Gatsby is the division between old and new money during the 1920s. He represents the division between the classier, almost aristocratic, old money and the eager and gaudy, new money through the water between the East and West Egg. The physical division between the eggs is as much an obstacle to Gatsby as the division between classes to his end goal of Daisy. When thinking about what type of message this was designed to convey to the reader, it immediately reminded me of something that happened to me about 2 years after I started competitive swimming.

    Lane 1, or the Senior group was the penultimate of Lifetime swimming, that’s where Coach Mike would spend most of his attention and where the fastest swimmers would be. Even though I was already considered one of the veterans of the team, and I was swimming at the same times as the Senior group, I saw Senior as the key to all my wildest swimming dreams. Gatsby changed everything about what he did for Daisy and to attain the old money status, similarly, I shifted my training habits. I switched my usual swim lane to be right next to the Senior, attended every swim meet that I could, bought all this new equipment, and started attending extra practices. Everything I did in my life during that period, I had pretty much done to prove my worth in swimming to Coach Mike.

    Eventually, some of this work began to pay dividends, my progress in swimming began to skyrocket, and I even became faster than some of the swimmers in the Senior group. However, even despite this, Coach Mike seemed blind to my commitment to swim, promoting everyone except for me. What I didn't know at the time was that showing progress and commitment to swim wasn't what got those members into Senior. At the time, I was a very judgemental swimmer, I had been playing this game of comparison between me and everyone else for so long that it eventually began to change my interactions with other swimmers. Although speed might've prevented me from entering Senior at the beginning, it eventually became the attitude I brought towards others that prevented me from entering Senior. 

    Maturity in the sport was what separated me from the upper echelons of my swim team, just like how even though Gatsby became wildly richer than Tom, he still didn't become "old money". How he had spent his fortune and his social connections were the obstacles that prevented him from achieving his goal. In the end just as Gatsby can't remove the gulf separating him from Daisy, his actions can't determine his class in society.

Comments

  1. Abbas HussainOctober 13, 2024 at 5:47 PM

    I liked how you were able to draw a connection between class distinctions in the Great Gatsby to similar distinctions in swimming in your own life. It was really cool to read about how passionate you are about swimming and how you acknowledged that it was your attitude that separated you from the Senior group.

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  2. Nathan WangOctober 13, 2024 at 8:10 PM

    Wow Johnny, going strong with the swimming connections, and it hasn't gotten old. I really really liked how introspective you were, even ruthless, when you realized that it was your attitude holding you back. That was pretty powerful, and helped solidify the connections/parallels you made between club swim and Gatsby.

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