Certainly scholars have compared the two texts, many seeing The Great Gatsby as a prose version of The Waste Land, and identifying similar themes, settings, motifs, and more. Water as a motif is huge in The Waste Land, appearing as both a giver of life and a dangerous possibility for death. While water is not as heavily analyzed in The Great Gatsby, it still plays the same role of life-bringing or deadly, particularly...
Certainly scholars have compared the two texts, many seeing The Great Gatsby as a prose version of The Waste Land, and identifying similar themes, settings, motifs, and more. Water as a motif is huge in The Waste Land, appearing as both a giver of life and a dangerous possibility for death. While water is not as heavily analyzed in The Great Gatsby, it still plays the same role of life-bringing or deadly, particularly in two critical scenes.
In most desolate wastelands, the lack of water is what keeps things so barren. Water is life-giving because it keeps plants and animals alive and readers see this again and again in The Waste Land. Towards the end of the poem, the desire for water indicates how much the desert is at the mercy of it. In the barren land there:
"is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
[...]
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock" (lines 331-338).
The horrors of the waste land comes from its lack of water. Water is shown to be the renewing force that would bring the land and its travelers to life again. In The Great Gatsby, rain comes as a symbol of renewal during the tea and lunch that Gatsby has Nick engineer so he can have some time alone with Daisy to rekindle their love. The scene begins very awkwardly, as a rain storm casts a shadow over the event. However, this shower seems to act as a re-birth for Daisy and Gatsby's relationship, and by the end of the visit they are in love again.
Further, references to watery deaths are notable in The Waste Land. Consider Phlebas the Phoenician and his death by drowning, not to mention the eating of his corpse by sea life. Additionally, in The Burial of the Dead section, Madam Sosostris' actions of pulling the Drowning Sailor card, quoting The Tempest lines about Alonso's supposed death in a shipwreck, and warning the reader to "fear death by water" (line 55) all work to show water as a deadly force. The Great Gatsby addresses this version of water as well, again with a rainstorm. This rainstorm comes at Gatsby's funeral, where Nick is depressed to discover that he was Gatsby's only real friend. Unlike the previous rain shower, which brought on hope and joy, this storm seems to confirm that working towards the American Dream is futile and kills the hope that was brought by the previous rain. And Gatsby died while in the swimming pool, which you can connect back to the Phoenician sailor in The Waste Land to analyze the role of water as a bringer of death.
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