Editor's Choice

What is Fitzgerald's purpose in contrasting "hard rock" and "wet marshes" in this passage from The Great Gatsby?

And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes but after a certain point I don't care what it's founded on. When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament"—it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.

Quick answer:

Fitzgerald employs the contrast between "hard rock" and "wet marshes" in The Great Gatsby to symbolize the moral foundations of the characters. "Hard rock" represents individuals with solid, unshakable values, while "wet marshes" signify characters with shifting, unstable morals. However, most characters in the book, including Tom, Daisy, and Nick, are shown to have their morals founded on "wet marshes", indicating fluid and changing values. Only Gatsby, despite his flaws, is considered by Nick to have some semblance of "hard rock" integrity.

PDF

Expert Answers

| Certified Educator

Cite

In this passage, Nick Carraway contrasts the difference between individuals whose conduct (behavior) is founded on "hard rock" and those whose conduct is founded on "wet marshes." The metaphor of a one's behavior being founded on "hard rock" can be applied to a person with integrity, honesty, and respect. Throughout Nick's experience in East and West Egg, the only genuine person he encountered was Gatsby, who happened to be a flawed man with a corrupted dream. However, Gatsby was upright and honest with Nick, to the extent that Nick believed that Gatsby was too good for Daisy and her associates. Nick Carraway was also introduced to a myriad of selfish, deceitful, superficial individuals throughout his experience in the East. Their disposition being founded on "wet marshes" represents their debased, self-centered, unsympathetic personalities. Characters such as Tom Buchanan are utterly detestable as they openly flaunt their infidelity and status. Tom...

Unlock
This Answer Now

Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.

Get 48 Hours Free Access

Already a member? Log in here.

is a brutal man who abuses women and cheats on his wife. Daisy Buchanan andJordan Baker lack the ability to honestly communicate and form genuine relationships with others. By the end of Nick's experience in the East, he is sick of interacting with individuals whose character is founded on "wet marshes."

Approved by eNotes Editorial

| Certified Educator

Cite

In this passage from The Great Gatsby, Nick employs contrasting metaphors to explore the lack of morality present in the Old Money characters, particularly Daisy and Tom Buchanan, whose "careless" behavior Nick rebukes at the end of the novel.

The phrase “Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes” is a metaphor that explores two different foundations, like that of a building. Conduct, or, as Nick implies here, behavior based on morals, can be solid and unshakeable if founded on “hard rock,” while the conduct of those who have it founded on “wet marshes” really lack a moral compass.

Throughout the novel, Daisy, Tom and Jordan Baker exert a certain carelessness about their activities. Tom flaunts his affair with a poor woman and doesn’t care about smashing her nose in when she upsets him. Daisy jumps right into an affair with Gatsby without concern for how it will affect those around her. (It’s interesting to note that Nick does not hold Gatsby to the same moral standards as Daisy despite him engaging in just as immoral behavior.) Jordan explains that she's a “rotten driver” but that other people will “keep out of [her] way,” so she doesn't have to be more careful.

At the end of the novel, Nick explains the result of these characters’ conduct that was built on “wet marshes”: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and people and retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let others clean up the mess they made . . .”

Nick, meanwhile, seems to believe his conduct was built on “solid rock,” but this belief is hard to justify as he was implicit in his approval of Daisy’s, Gatsby’s and Tom’s behavior throughout. Unfortunately for Nick, his behavior seems to be built on the same “wet marshes” as the others major characters.

Approved by eNotes Editorial