Finding 'Real Meaning' in "Tender is the Night"

Author: Michael O'Brien

Two of my most beloved English teachers consider "Tender is the Night" to be the greatest American novel ever written, so I was shocked to find Edward Pickering's dismissal of the book as one in which it is "hard to finding any real meaning" ("Literary Picks", Sept. 11, 2003). I feel that this position is all but indefensible, whether one considers it the greatest American novel, as my teachers did, or just a keynote work by one of the greatest 20th century American writers, as I do.

Pickering notes that the novel bears many similarities to Fitzgerald's own biography, but I think it is a fallacy to read any work of literature merely along the lines of parallels to an author's life. No writer can, or would, escape the many demands which writing a fictional work places on the author, including the intricacies of plot and characterization, allusions to larger spheres and universal meaning, of which Fitzgerald has generously granted his readers. Even if the novel were only an autobiography, anyone who has been part of a dysfunctional relationship can find numerous parallels in "Tender is the Night", bringing with them the comforting knowledge that "You are not alone," a key task of the writer in the opinion of the Jewish writer Harlan Ellison.

Before one is even introduced to Nicole and Dick Diver and their tragic relationship, the reader is given indications of higher, "real meaning." Nearly all of the main characters are men and women occupying a unique position, rich American tourists and expatriates in a Europe economically destroyed by war.

One character's name, Abe North, is a clear reference to Abe Lincoln and a clue to one of the novel's main strains - the linking of the (American) Civil War to the (European) First World War. Like "The Great Gatsby," "Tender is the Night" is a novel concerned with America, this time on the global scene. Post-WWI America is shown to be the newest and greatest player on the world stage, yet one which even then was beginning to show signs of corruption and eventual decay, something that seems quite prescient in the America of today.

America's decay is clearly seen in the decay of Nic and Dick Diver's relationship. The psychological complexity of the relationship is something I would never try to summarize in 700 words or less, but I will give some indication.

The first character introduced in the novel is neither of the Divers, but rather Rosemary Hoyt, a very young American actress guarded by her mother, the beginning of a parent-child theme that becomes even more striking when Nicole's past is revealed. Rosemary is destined to fall in love with Dick, and become the outlet for all of the much older Dick's less virtuous inclinations and frustrations toward Nicole, who is still a frightened child at middle age. The parallels to Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" become more and more apparent.

Along with universal meaning, it is important to note the effect the novel had on the reading public at the time of its publication in 1933. "Tender is the Night" deals with psychological problems in a way that America, land of the confident self-made man (and woman), was not prepared to deal with. The thoroughly European notions of Freudian psychoanalysis, and especially the decidedly crude notions of the Oedipus/Electra complexes, caused quite a stir. Without giving away the central secret of the novel, the root of Nicole's problems is one that even today is considered taboo in the land of the Puritans.

In closing, I have to question the focus of the "Literary Picks" column. Certainly I admire and respect the novels that have been the subjects of the Mr. Pickering's articles.

However, it seems that they consist of books and authors that any serious reader of literature already knows he or she should read, and any non-serious reader would not touch outside of fulfilling a core requirement. It would seem more valuable to choose either lesser-known, marginal works or works more pertinent to the current cultural or world situation, given the temporality of a newspaper.