In my opinion it was be very difficult to argue that Jay Gatsby was an admirable, heroic or “great” person who accomplished the American Dream when one considers the way the story played out at the end. At almost every turn he is at odds with the ideals of the dream because he originally came upon his fortune in an illegal and arguably unethical manner. Similarly, he seems to believe that everything in life can simply be bought – Daisy’s love, the respect of his peers and social status in general. “Can 't repeat the past?" Jay at one point cries incredulously when Nick Carroway wonders about his intention to start seeing Daisy again "why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald, 1925, 153) His wealth and status have corrupted him so utterly that he This idea all comes crashing down as the reader begins to learn more about his background and gets to see his actions throughout the story. He is clearly a man with an incredible work-ethic, his daily schedule from 1906 sees him “Rise from bed” at 6am and get straight to “dumbbell exercise and wall-scaling” (Fitzgerald, 1925, 104). Nick hears from his that that “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he 's got about improving his mind? He was always great for that. He told me I et like a hog once, and I beat him for it". (Fitzgerald, 1925, Scott Fitzgerald himself were so caught up with was more about the “pursuit of happiness” than anything else. Somewhere along the line, Jay seems to get this confused with the pursuit of wealth and status at the cost of everything else. While this paper has certainly made the case that Gatsby is not admirable, heroic or representative of the American Dream it is not to say that he is not a sympathetic character, either. He has been absolutely corrupted by the idea of achieving his dream and has simply wound up going about it in completely the wrong way. Nick, at one point in the novel, argues that Gatsby is “worth the whole damn bunch together” (Fitzgerald, 1925, 45) reflecting his apparent belief that Gatsby is actually a decent man who has perhaps gotten involved with the wrong sort of people. Pearson (1970, 126)
Jay Gatsby was a dreamer. His character personified the American Dream of rising from rags to riches.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him.
The quote that best describes Jay Gatsby is, “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy” (110). The good qualities of Jay Gatsby are he is a loyal person and he has a good heart. The bad qualities of Gatsby are he is amoral, dishonest, and throws his money away. Fitzgerald developed this character to show how people use their wealth to get love only to discover the love is not real. Additionally, he is developed throughout the novel to be an example of how living extravagantly can be an empty life.
The character of Gatsby and Fitzgerald’s commentary on the logical fallacies of the American Dream are closely intertwined, which is why Fitzgerald goes to such great lengths to separate the two. By distinguishing Gatsby from the flaws he possesses allows the reader to care for Gatsby, and the impact of his death all the more powerful when it finally occurs. By making Gatsby a victim of the American Dream rather than just the embodiment of it, Fitzgerald is able to convince his audience of the iniquity of the American Dream by making them mourn the life of the poor son-of-a-bitch
Jay Gatsby is dishonest to himself to and those around him which ultimately leads to his failure. He lies about his past, his family, and his accomplishments in order to achieve his version of the American dream, which ...
Jay Gatsby, who is one of the main characters of the Great Gatsby, is a man with a mysterious background and an unknown personality. He doesn't mention too much about his past except certain fabricated highlights of his life which were designed to impress others. The strange and humorous thing is that he carries articles of evidence that back up most of his lies to prove that he isn't lying. Gatsby is also the kind of man that is used to getting what he wants no matter what the consequences are, causing him to be a very determined man that once has an idea in his mind won't let it go until he accomplishes it. The things that Jay Gatsby values the most is money, to impress others and gain acceptance and most of all, having things his own way. In a manner, these are some of the characteristics of the American Dream and what people strive for when they come to America.
When looking at Jay Gatsby, one sees many different personalities and ideals. There is the gracious host, the ruthless bootlegger, the hopeless romantic, and beneath it all, there is James Gatz of North Dakota. The many faces of Gatsby make a reader question whether they truly know Gatsby as a person. Many people question what exactly made Jay Gatsby so “great.” These different personas, when viewed separately, are quite unremarkable in their own ways. When you take them together, however, you discover the complicated and unique individual that is Jay Gatsby.
Gatsby has been a self-made man starting as a young man. As his father describes him at his young age: "Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolve like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind? He was always great for that"(173).
Scott Fitzgerald, also follows the theme of breaking the social norm, except this time by showing counterculture in society. The book itself focuses on the story of Jay Gatsby through the events experienced by the main character and narrator, Nick Carraway. Nick is Gatsby’s neighbor and friend over the last year of his life, in this time period Nick gets to experience a reality completely separate to his own. He experiences the world of someone who wasn’t born into money but instead made it all illegitimately. The book shows the darker side of some business, with secret crime syndicates that function without the knowledge of the masses. Gatsby partakes in some of said seedy businesses and is without a doubt a con man; however this book uses his rise to power to show a point of view not commonly accounted for, the gangster/swindler. That person who got to where they were by stepping on everyone else and becoming someone totally without morals. Nick even experiences a change in person by the end of the book, even though he initially makes Gatsby out to be some lower class nobody, he throughout the book gains a large amount of respect for him, the last time that Nick sees Gatsby alive he tells him “They’re a rotten crowd… You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (164 Fitzgerald). This total change in character happens because Nick realizes that what society has taught him isn’t 100% true. He realizes that the norms set by his culture and society are all wrong, and only work off of black and white thinking, he realizes that class is not a relevant as he had originally believed. The book expresses the counterculture of that time period, promiscuous women, gangsters, and corruption. It tackles the underground world from the eyes of a rich narrator who has never came in contact with such things, allowing him to lead us through how he understands the other walks of life. Because the characters all represent opposing
Gatsby is not so great because he is a liar. From the very start Gatsby is said to be an alumnus from Oxford, who fought in WWI, hunted big game, and had parents from the Midwest. He even justifies himself when Nicks asks and Gatsby pulls out a picture of him at Oxford and a WWI medal that he carried around in his pocket. He even changed his name, James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, but why? “James Gatz – that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career” (6). Gatsby is mysterious and mystifying, known for his large parties yet no one knows why he has them. Keep in mind this is the prohibition era, but at Gatsby’s parties there is always plenty of alcohol to go around and no one knows where it comes from or how he acquires so much, one of the many mysteries. In attendance at these parties there are people like Meyer Wolfshiem “the man who really did fix the 1919 World Series” (118), to the mayors and governors. More questions arise in this company as to how Gatsby is associated with gangsters and why they attend these large parties. It is completely ironic how so many attend these parties but none ...
Gatsby’s obsession of his love for Daisy and wealth prove his dream as unattainable. Throughout the novel, he consumes himself into lies to cheat his way into people’s minds convincing them he is this wealthy and prosperous man. Gatsby tries to win Daisy’s love through his illusion of success and relive the past, but fails to comprehend his mind as too hopeful for something impossible. In the end, Nick is the only one to truly understand Gatsby’s hopeful aspirations he set out for himself but ultimately could not obtain. In the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to parallel many themes of the roaring twenties to current society. The ideas of high expectations and obsession of the material world are noticeable throughout the history and is evident in many lives of people today.
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emerging trends of the 1920’s. More importantly, the character of Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man amongst his American dreams and the trials he faces in the pursuit of its complete achievement. His drive to acquire the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, through gaining status and wealth shows many aspects of the author's view on the American dream. Through this, one can hope to disassemble the complex picture that is Fitzgerald’s view of this through the novel. Fitzgerald believes, through his experiences during the 1920’s, that only fractions of the American Dream are attainable, and he demonstrates this through three distinct images in The Great Gastby.
Through Fitzgerald’s symbolic description of Gatsby, he explores the extent of the American Dream’s deceptive nature that slowly destroys a person and his/her morals. During the Roaring 20s it was very common for people to project illusions to mask who they truly were; to fit in, it was almost essential to have one to survive in the highly materialistic and deceitful society. Nick is introduced as the objective narrator...
Many influences he portrays in his writing directly correspond with the characters. Fitzgerald’s life is being shown through gatsby, tom, and nick. Gatsby portrays the author’s “american dream”, desire for fame and wealth, and ungrasped love. Gatsby grew up with a mindset of achieving fame and wealth any way possible which for him was through illegal activities. Just the same, Scott, had his life goals to raise up from his life of poverty and live a pristine wealthy lifestyle."I began to bawl because I had everything I wanted and knew I would never be so happy again” (SITE). This quote from Fitzgerald express his desire for the tangibles such as wealth, so much it brought him to tears. Gatsby also portrays his loss in his own “american dream”. In the novel gatsby is able to rise from rags to riches, only to fall short of the happiness. He feels he will be happy if just he has a little more wealth. The same goes with Fitzgerald, his dedication got him to the top of the class when he realized the corruptness in class and wealth kept him from achieving happiness. This is expressed in the quote about Scott Fitzgerald, “Depression deepened, Americans had become far more interested in the "have-nots" than the "haves."” (SITE). Last, a major connection is the loss love in both the author and how he presents it through gatsby. In the novel, Gatsby works to impress his love daisy, his love from the war, when what
Scott Fitzgerald was one of the first novels I read that helped me realize how much of an impact literature has on individuals, as well as the imperfections of society. I read the book several times before I was able to fully grasp the deeper meaning. Explicitly, the author’s message was to convey the importance of having high hopes and big dreams, which at first I found inspiring because the main character Jay Gatsby, is living the American Dream - something many people aspire to live for. After reading the book a couple of more times, and paying more attention to the symbols, I realized that a major theme in the book is selfishness. At first I found Gatsby’s character encouraging, but I did not realize that his actions was exclusively advantageous to himself and he completely disregard the feelings of others. Only reading the novel once, I was embedded with the idea of having high hopes and big dream which caused me to find Gatsby’s character inspiring. The symbols in literature helped gain a better realization that if I were in his position, his actions and mine would not have many differences.