ParagN+AlternateCovers

=The Great Gatsby Alternate Covers and Personal Analysis of Original Cover= By: Parag Kapadia

The cover for the iconic novel, The Great Gatsby, is unique in that the novel references the art as a symbolic piece, arguably integral to the full understanding of the text. Many interpretations have colored many different readings of the text. The most controversy had concerned the eyes, whether or not they were of T.J. Eckleberg, or Daisy, before Daisy’s reading had pulled ahead citing that the eyes were feminine, she was central to the whole story, and the eyes were not large and bespectacled as Eckleberg’s had been.

However, a lesser known fact about the popular novel is that for a time, various editions of the book carried different covers. For a book so critically tied to its cover not to carry said cover, the publishers either felt that it was unnecessary, and put of a bland colorless cover, or tried to substitute it with an equally interpretive cover. Unfortunately, the former mindset seemed to have set in.

(Note, the figure(s) to which I am referring from here on out should be located at the bottom of this article

Of all the covers collected in the image, only two allow the reader some kernel of interpretive freedom. The other covers, for what they are worth, are only to some degree or another, obvious depictions of scenes, or generic drawings of characters (some as live actors, possibly corresponding with some theatrical release). At worst, the leftmost on the third row down is simply a solid dark color; there is only an illusion of a picture there due to the reflective glass.

The first cover is a black and white image of a stately car driving down a road. What makes this image at least somewhat thought provoking is the angle at which the image is ‘shot’. The street architecture set against the white sky casts a gothic shadow on the cover with sharp and jagged angles. In art, jagged, harsh lines such as these represent violence or, in Gatsby’s case, high tensions between he, Tom, Daisy, and Myrtle. Though the buildings themselves are note discernable from the collection image, the apparent darkness of the blacks and lack of midrange grays projects a dreary mood. The Great Gatsby, for all the humor that had been injected into the storyline, had been the profoundly sad experience of one man who hadn’t learned to let the past rest.

The next cover of note is directly below the previous one. This one depicts what one assumes to be Gatsby and Daisy silhouetted against a blank backdrop. Their bodies are turned away from the reader and they are looking out into the blank expanse. The blankness can be representative of one of two things, either serenely, or an empty nothingness. As Gatsby and Daisy are looking out into that blankness, they are, in a sense, looking out into their future together. And, after a full reading of the book, one can see that the blankness is meant to show that there is no future for them. The silhouettes cast the two characters in a shroud of anonymity. After Gatsby’s death all of three people appeared at his funeral willingly, and Daisy hadn’t been a person of any real importance other than ‘the wife of Ton Buchanan’. The shadows, thus, show the reader that beyond all the parties and fanfare, beyond all the troubles Gatsby went through to show Daisy that he still existed, and beyond all Gatsby did to build up Daisy as the perfect woman, in the end, they were just as meaningful to the people around them as a stranger. Even Nick, in the end abandon’s his endeavors in the East and heads back West to let go of the memory of Gatsby.

Unfortunately, the alternate covers don’t leave much for a reader to look into as the original cover does. However, as there have been advancements in digital editing and digital artistry, more contemporary fans of the iconic novel have stepped forward, citing the original cover, and attempting to make their own interpretive cover for the book.

This next piece is of a small man leaping to reach a string attached to a floating green light bulb. This one will be considered contemporary as the original uploader did not mention if it was his or her original work, and the ‘aged’ look is an after touch, or if it was a scan from a very old copy of the book. Regardless, the design and the message are quite simple. The small man is Gatsby himself and the flyaway string is attached to both a balloon and a green light. The book mentions a green light near Daisy’s house that Gatsby looks to when he wants to orient himself to her home. So, the bulb/flyaway balloon is Gatsby’s dream of being with Daisy. Of course, as it is simultaneously a balloon, once it has been lost to the air, it is only going up and away from the owner; ultimately, to be lost forever. The size of the balloon is also significant in that it is larger than Gatsby, his dream is beyond his capacity, he cannot repeat and fix the past.

Most other covers concentrate on one or two aspects of the Gatsby Story. The original, even, concentrates, depending on the reader’s lens, on Gatsby, Daisy, or both. Rarely does a cover attempt to encompass the entire story from the onset. The piece is of a wine glass filled with a golden liquid, set against a plain white background. The author describes the significance of the colors he chose. The author sees the white as representative of purity, innocence, royalty, and goodness, whereas the yellow of the wine acts as the tarnishing agent and represents such elements as decay and moral corruption. Finally, the author sees the green in the piece, perhaps appropriately in the form of a small thin under Gatsby’s name, to represent hope; essentially attempting to convey Gatsby’s hope for his future with Daisy.

The two characters in the wine glass could be anybody except for Nick and Jordan, as neither seem to have any designs on Gatsby’s fall. There are only two possibilities for who those two characters may be and those are either Daisy and Gatsby, symbolizing the death of their relationship, though the moral decay element the author spoke of is somewhat obscured barring Gatsby’s criminal dealings. The other possibility seems to be Tom and Daisy…. One could then see the two as conspirators. Much of the author’s intent is in the posture of the man in the image. He is slightly bent over the woman, domineering, even; thus, the Tom element.

Much of the suspicion of conspiracy stems from one passage where Nick is ensuring everything is alright in the Buchanan home, “He was talking intently across the table at her and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement…. anybody would have said they were conspiring together” (Fitzgerald 152 - 153). All this, just after Tom and Daisy had a slight falling out at the hotel with Gatsby. Daisy seemed all too calm near Tom so soon, and Tom seemed to be convincing her of something. It is also interesting that the very day of Gatsby’s death, Nick couldn’t reach Daisy.

Let us then look at the piece of art that started all of this, the original painting commissioned by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The beauty of art is that, within reason, multiple interpretations can be seen and accepted. The art is simply there, it is the viewer who brings her collective experiences, emotions, lenses, and other knowledge to color what she sees in the image. Thus, I would like to give my own interpretation of the iconic image. First, the eyes. They have been established to be those of Daisy Thus, the rest of the image will act to inform aspects of Daisy. As stated earlier, most covers concentrated on one aspect of the story rather than to attempt to get the entire thing in one image. The same goes for this one. It concentrated on Daisy, her character, her life, and the effects she had on those around her.

The sadness in her eyes is proved by the green tear, but upon closer inspection of the tear, it further resembles a reflection on a body of dark water. This tear is then referencing the reflection of the green light from Daisy’s side of the bay from Gatsby’s perspective. Of course, to look up to see the source light, only reveals the haunted eyes. These three interrelated images, the reflection, the eyes, and the missing, but very much there source spotlight, are a message of regret.

Daisy loved Gatsby. She had gotten a letter from him the night before her marriage to Tom, and (drunkenly) wanted to end the engagement. She even took the letter with her to the bathroom. Granted, she may not have been thinking straight as she’d been inebriated, but there does not seem to be any other reason for her to be drunk the very night before her wedding unless she had some misgivings about it (Fitzgerald 81 - 82). This scene very much ties in with the portrait as well, in fact one can argue that this very scene in which Daisy is drunkenly dismissing her engagement, may well be the ‘writing in’ of the painting. Daisy was given a pearl necklace by Tom as a celebration gift for their wedding, it is this necklace that seems to be set in a glowing afterimage of a Ferris wheel near the landscape of what looks to be Coney island (Fitzgerald 81). It was that necklace she tried to give to Jordan, thus rejecting Tom, and continuing to hold out for Gatsby.

The significance of the lips can be found in the surrounding dusk. Those lips are the only glaring contrast in the image. All the other colors resonate well with the nighttime atmosphere, except for those lips. This, beyond solidifying the silhouette as a female, establishes Daisy’s uniqueness to Gatsby. Tom had been perfectly fine moving about with other girls while he was married to Daisy, so much so that they had to move from Chicago to escape scandal (Fitzgerald 139). But for Gatsby, he’d spent the last five years building up an identity that he felt Daisy would feel comfortable with. She’d been in love with him because of the things he know of the world, not for the money he’d inherited or he’d prospected to amass later (Fitzgerald 157).

Nick, too, is treated to some of her attitude. When they first meet, Daisy is absolutely enthralled to see him. Even if he’s her second cousin, she approaches him as a close relative. She does not question his prospects, but simply tells him she is delighted to see him (Fitzgerald 13). Daisy simply likes people for the sake of being people. Gatsby knew this at first, but let the notion be warped as he saw she’d been married to a far more materialistic Tom. This is noted in her displeasure at Gatsby’s own party “except for the half hour she’d been alone with Gatsby she wasn’t having a good time” (Fitzgerald 112). Daisy would rather be in the company of one whole person, than the caricatures that populated his home.

And so this brings us to the very perspective of the painting. Only Gatsby saw Daisy as such a singularly unique person so as to pursue her for five years until his bitter end. Gatsby’s home is directly across the bay from the green light that he looks to in order to orient himself to Daisy’s home. And lastly, Daisy has no reason to look at me, but every reason to look to Gatsby, especially with sad regretful eyes. The distance from Daisy’s home, the distance from common sense and reality even, is all portrayed by the far off Coney Island; a golden place of merriment and happy memories. He wanted to redo the past, turn back time and fix a mistake he’d made, she’d made, that they’d made. It was simply impossible. Instead, all he has is a shadowed foreground, looking out across the bay.







Anot

Works Cited

Blue-Fish,. //The Great Gatsby Book Cover ~ by Blue-Fish//. 20 Apr 2009. Web. 20 Feb 2010. .

Fitzgerald, Scott. //The Great Gatsby//. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.

nleigh13,. //Covers of The Great Gatsby//. 28 Oct 2005. Web. 20 Feb 2010. .

//The Great Gatsby on Flickr//. Web. 20 Feb 2010. .