Character Change In The Great Gatsby

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was in the prime of his youth during the 1920s, or as he coined it “The Jazz Age”. This was a period of the lighthearted lifestyle that both he and his wife, Zelda, embraced with open arms. They became the ‘talk of the town’ or the “it couple” and were known famously for their carefree and jovial life style. This type of lifestyle may have, in part, given him the inspiration to develop the lifestyle and character of Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is the main character in Fitzgerald’s most well-known book, The Great Gatsby. Throughout the novel, Gatsby doesn’t significantly change; however, the reader’s view of Gatsby changes dramatically. Gatsby’s character transforms from the mysterious man that is the talk of the town into a man who no longer has any secrets and eventually becomes a victim of the

Throughout the novel, there are symbols that represent the character that Gatsby portrays. His mansion is a symbol that shows the personality he portrays or his persona as well as showing the real Gatsby that is hidden behind the grand mask that he himself had created. The mansion “parallels his persona — grand, mysterious, and richly adorned.” (Morton- Mollo, par. 1) while also symbolizing his “vision, aspiration, idealism, and belief in the American Dream of the self-made man.” (Morton- Mollo, par. 1). The grandeur that that Gatsby indulges in at every party he hosts and in the home he lives in shows these traits. The persona he puts on is that of a rich, mysterious, and aloof host while in reality he is a very kind hearted and hopeful man that continually looks into the future with optimism, he does,in fact, still believe in the American Dream and it is this belief that pushes him into creating this persona in his hope of finding Daisy and conjuring the past into the present. Another symbol in the novel is the area in which