The Façade of Those Who Seem to Have it All

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Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fiztgerald and the poem, “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar the reader can truly understand the facade of those who seem to have it all. In the novel Daisy Buchanan, a prominent character, acts like she has no clue what is going on. Similarly, Jay Gatsby, the hero, puts up an amazing front to hide who he does not want to be from himself and others. An acute comparison can be made between these two literary works because Daisy pretends to be a fool and Gatsby hides behind a façade to fool himself and others.
Throughout the novel the reader see’s Daisy as this innocent character that knows what her husband, Tom Buchanan, and his mistress, Myrtle Wilson do in their spare time but never acts on it. In reality she knows exactly what is going on but refuses to let that come between her and her husband. Daisy is introducing her and Tom’s daughter to Nick Carraway, the narrator and her cousin, when she says, “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17). Daisy wants her daughter, Pammy, to be exactly like her, and to know what is going on but not to care. She wants her to act like a fool. This quote relates to the line in the poem, “Why should the world be over-vise, / in counting all our tears and sighs” (Laurence Dunbar 6-7). The line in the poem is a reflection on how the world counts all the bad things and never see’s the good. The lines in the poem are a reflection on how the world only counts the bad things even if they see the good. Even though Tom continuously cheated on Daisy she still loved him and always will no matter what comes between them. Daisy wants her daughter to b...

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...se she was just as fake as Gatsby is. In conclusion, Gatsby wears a mask throughout the novel by portraying himself as someone he isn’t.
Laurence Dunbar’s poem relates to Fitzgerald’s novel in the ways that Daisy wears a mask and acts like her and Tom have it all together when they do not. Gatsby also wears a mask when he lets people just assume who he is and when he changes himself to impress Daisy, he figured if he was rich Daisy would leave Tom for him, but she did not because she was just as fake as he is. Throughout the novel and the poem it is apparent that the world is a cruel place and sometimes you have to act like someone you are not to get far, and no matter what happens “we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 180).

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925. Print.

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