Themes and Meanings
Published near the beginning of his career (Fitzgerald wrote it in either 1921 or, at the very latest, early January, 1922), “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” shows a constellation of the motifs that would persist throughout the author’s career. Despite the fantastic trappings, it tells a radically autobiographical tale. Fitzgerald situates Hades, the Ungers’ hometown, on the Mississippi—like his own St. Paul—and devotes the story’s initial pages to ridiculing its pretensions. (Even a Chicago beef-princess, the author sneers, would judge the most sophisticated social functions in Hades to be “perhaps a little tacky.”) John Unger reflects the self-congratulatory boosterism of his provincial upbringing, and in this respect he is a target of satire. John also, however, evokes sympathy as a young man daunted by an unshakable sense of his unworthiness among the aristocratic rich. The model is unmistakable. In a letter to John O’Hara in 1933, Fitzgerald described himself as having “a two cylinder inferiority complex. So if I were elected King of Scotland tomorrow after graduating from Eton, Magdelene the Guards, with an embryonic history which tied me to the Plantagenets, I would still be a parvenue [sic]. I spent my youth in alternately crawling in front of the kitchen maids and insulting the great.”
Fitzgerald attributed his problem, in the same letter, to the tensions inherent in being “half black Irish and half old American stock with the usual exaggerated ancestral pretensions” (his paternal forebears included Francis Scott Key, after whom he was named). Precisely this personal conflict constitutes the story’s subtext. As midwestern burghers, the Ungers suggest his mother’s side of the family: Grandfather McQuillan rose from poor immigrant to wealthy merchant through the wholesale grocery business in St. Paul. The Washingtons, whose breeding stands in conspicuous contrast to the Ungers’ tackiness, clearly represent the Fitzgeralds (an association emphasized by the name Fitz-Norman), and in particular his father, Edward, a gentleman with southern grace characterized by his son as “one of the generation of the colonies and the revolution.”
The biographical reference of St. Midas’s is still more apparent. Like Basil Lee’s search for acceptance in “The Freshest Boy,” John Unger’s need to adjust to living among social superiors harks back to Fitzgerald’s painful entrance into the prep school world. However, a simple identification of the mythical prep school on the outskirts of Boston as a vast exaggeration of the Newman School, the Roman Catholic academy in New Jersey attended by the author, seems not to reach nearly far enough. The story’s dreamlike quality calls for psychological analysis, and from this perspective, the significance of St. Midas’s relates to its position within the “dream’s” structure: midway, in effect, between the Unger and Washington families. Essentially, “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” traces a boy’s transformation into a man. The pivotal moment in that process (which is set in motion by his departure from the “maternal fatuity” of Hades) is the encounter with his alter ego, Percy, at the school appropriately named for King Midas—in a manner of speaking, the “patron saint” of transmutation. As a result of the friendship with his “dream self,” John virtually becomes a Washington, emerges as an heir of sorts to the “father” he has presumably wished dead in his fantasies, and confirms the meaning of his passage through adolescence by spending a symbolically nuptial night with Kismine.
That interpretation, however, strikes to the design written on the story’s underside; what Fitzgerald presents at the surface seems to obey no corresponding intent. Indeed, he shifts direction so often that one infers that the fable is obedient to no...
(This entire section contains 737 words.)
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conscious plan at all. Until well past the introductory sections, Fitzgerald makes a target of snobbery, fixing expectations that the plot will somehow produce a complementary moral. By the midpoint, however, the energy of this attack is spent, and snobbery does not affect the combination of events that brings the story to its climax. Nor, for that matter, does John Unger, who is relegated to the role of spectator while Braddock Washington is being defeated by the United States government and rejected by God. Then, in the final section, Fitzgerald not only reestablishes John at the center but also assigns him a closing soliloquy about youth and illusion that has no discernible connection with either society’s vanities or the destruction of the Washington empire.
Themes
Last Updated September 9, 2024.
Immorality of the Wealthy
A recurring theme in Fitzgerald’s work is that immense wealth often leads to
unethical behavior. For the Washington family, this effect is intensified by
their almost complete isolation from society. Percy, Kismine, and Jasmine were
raised to believe they are superior to others due to their fortune and were
shielded from anyone who might challenge this belief.
Braddock Washington routinely imprisons or kills visitors who might reveal their secrets. Kismine finds this slightly troubling, but her warped moral perspective becomes evident when John asks her when her father has summer visitors murdered: “In August usually—or early in September. It’s only natural for us to get all the pleasure out of them that we can first.” Braddock Washington shares this view that others exist to be enjoyed or used by his family. Percy tells John that to design the Washingtons’ chateau and grounds, his father simply kidnapped various design professionals and forced them to work.
Does the pursuit of wealth lead to immoral behavior, or are those who seek great wealth already morally compromised? While Fitzgerald does not provide a direct answer, he does show how selfishness and delusions of grandeur are passed down from one generation to the next.
Freedom and Imprisonment
While most people associate greater wealth with greater freedom, this is not
the case in “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.” Braddock Washington’s luxurious
prison isolates him from the rest of the world. He has no friends or
colleagues, only slaves, and views others with suspicion. His children's
visitors must be killed after their visit, preventing them from forming lasting
friendships outside the family. The entire family is imprisoned by the diamond
mountain they must protect at all costs.
The story contains numerous examples of imprisonment. The most literal example is the aviators trapped beneath the Washingtons’ golf course. Why does Braddock Washington imprison rather than kill the aviators? He seems to enjoy verbally sparring with them. Perhaps, on some level, Washington is so desperate for companionship and human connection that he keeps them alive to fulfill that need.
Another example is the black slaves whom the Washingtons have deceived into believing that slavery was never abolished and that the South won the Civil War. Ironically, Washington’s behavior towards the slaves, aside from his blatant racism, is not much different from his behavior towards outsiders; since he views all people as commodities, it is unsurprising he finds slave labor a practical solution.
When John and Kismine plan their escape from the Washingtons' estate, Kismine is thrilled at the thought of being "free and poor." John responds, "It's impossible to be both together." Although there is some truth in his words, it’s also evident that the Washingtons' immense wealth hasn’t granted them true freedom. Ultimately, freedom is not tied to wealth or poverty; it is a state of mind. This state of mind, dependent on neither riches nor status, is something none of these characters have attained.
American Idolatry of Wealth
John T. Unger embodies the American middle class's obsession with wealth and
the affluent. He recites statistics about the number of millionaires in the
U.S., rambles about the jewels owned by the Schnlitzer-Murphys, and overlooks
his moral doubts about the Washingtons upon seeing their lavish home.
Fitzgerald suggests that John's awe for wealth was instilled by his family and
community: “The simple piety prevalent in Hades has the earnest worship and
respect for riches as the first article of its creed—had John felt otherwise
than radiantly humble before them, his parents would have turned away in horror
at the blasphemy.” In the early 2000s, this same fascination with the wealthy
is evident in the popularity of tabloids that relentlessly follow rich
celebrities, revealing intimate details of their lives. One can easily imagine
John T. Unger being an avid viewer of the television show Lifestyles of the
Rich and Famous.