Life in the fast lane has been an expression that has been used since the emergence of the Eagles song that encaptured the life of a rock and roll fiend. Their lives, full of vibrancy, excitement, and a recklessness, mirror the mannerisms of the wealthy class during the setting of the Great Gatsby. However, the difference between the two is that during the 20s as opposed to the 70s that comprised the rock and roll era, there existed a dream to have that lifestyle full of wealth and glamor. This craze led to a hierarchical system that developed distinct social classes. Thus, car, car maintenance, and reckless driving are used as metaphors to embody the ideals and roles of the various classes in society. The metaphor begins with a multi-lane…show more content… Before even realizing it, people cast judgements about individual inside cars, usually about their role in society given the expected cost of the car. The use of cars in the Great Gatsby is primarily an indicator of the lifestyle by which Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy live by. Fitzgerald compares the lifestyle of a typical American with that of Gatsby’s when he contrastingly explains that Gatsby’s “Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains.”(46) Unlike typical station wagon-bound Americans who scamper through life like a bunch of frivolous bugs, Gatsby lives like a king in his luxurious supercar. On the metaphorical road, the upper class with their Rolls Royces and the like speed by in the outside lane while all the regular station wagons crawl…show more content… For Gatsby, trying to slow down and hold onto his life was perhaps the worst decision he could have made. In his younger days as was common for love in the jazz age, he fell into a love that, “takes upon itself reality and permanence.” The love that he once had with Daisy was what sparked his desire to enter the fast lane. His Rolls Royce, flamboyant lifestyle, and all the outlandish parties were all in pursuit to reach Daisy. However, Nick’s claim that, “you can’t repeat the past” becomes a haunting reality for Gatsby when he finally realizes that his ideal, “permanent love” is a thing of the past. Thus, he slams on the brakes and tries to grasp whatever sliver of their past relationship he can. The fast lane is somewhere that has no mercy for those that cannot comply with the rules. Everyone in the fast lane is moving at incredible speeds and do not wait up for those that slow down or crash. As Robert Ian Scott makes the claim in Entropy vs. Ecology in the Great Gatsby, for life in the 1920s relating to the vast energy of the world, “dreams that try to defy entropy only increase it faster”. While life in the fast lane is already reckless and confusing, Gatsby’s decision to defy the speed and flow of the world in which he occupies simply tips the scales; his obsession with Daisy becomes the demise of his life. Scott claims in his article ““Time’s one way flow keeps trapping us.”,
