Gatsby Identity Quotes

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However, Patricia Highsmith and F. Scott Fitzgerald also present us with a negative outlook of fluid identity by indicating that it is fake-which means that there is the threat of someone discovering the truth because it isn’t permanent or secure. Gatsby changes his immigrant name ‘Gatz’ to the melodious ‘Gatsby’ which illustrates that identity is plastic and can be remade or rebranded. This links to the setting of the novel because the jazz age is known to have an element of artificiality despite its glamour and allure. Furthermore, Nick describes Gatsby’s personality as “an unbroken series of successful gestures”; from this, we can infer that Gatsby performs an act. Similarly, Tom is able to copy someone else’s voice, way of speaking and …show more content…

Tom committed identity theft along with murder and the source of Gatsby’s success comes from his participation in illegal activities-such as bootlegging. Critics claim that Tom Ripley is a sociopath because he is quite reserved, unsocial and presents an ordinary and composed face to others, yet inside he is corrupt and dangerously amoral. When he first contemplates killing Dickie, Tom’s attitude is nonchalant “If he killed him on this trip, Tom thought, he could simply say that some accident had happened”, Tom even expresses excitement at the thought “the danger of it, even the inevitable temporariness of it which he vaguely realized, only made him more enthusiastic”. However, the murder of Dickie initiates another murder: the one of Freddie Miles. Tom panics when he understands that he could be exposed “Freddie wouldn’t stop now until he had found Dickie” therefore he spontaneously murders Freddie. As a consequence, the sense of doom and hopelessness arises, leading us to believe that fluid identity inaugurates condemnation. In ‘The Great Gatsby’ we learn that Gatsby is also involved with crime through the Tom Buchanan accusations “ A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know” and later on, his denouncements “’He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drugstores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter.” This implies that fluid identity is connected to

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