He stayed there two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny, to destiny itself, and despising the janitor's work with which he was to pay his way through.
Chapter 6 · Narrator
Context
Nick recounts Gatsby's brief, failed attempt at formal education at St. Olaf's College in Minnesota. The young Gatz enrolled but left after only two weeks, unable to tolerate either the institution's indifference to his grandiose self-conception or the menial labor required to pay his tuition.
Analysis
The metaphor of 'the drums of his destiny' reveals Gatsby's almost narcissistic certainty of his own exceptionalism—he expects the world to recognize and accommodate his greatness without credentials or proof. His contempt for janitor's work exposes the paradox at the heart of the American Dream: Gatsby believes in self-making but rejects the humble labor that supposedly enables it, revealing that his aspiration is not toward hard work but toward the appearance of effortless privilege.
How to Use in Essay
Useful for essays contrasting Gatsby's romantic conception of destiny with the actual economic mechanisms of class mobility, or for arguing that the novel exposes the American Dream's hidden contempt for the working class it claims to champion.