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The Enigmatic Great Gatsby What is unknown is often talked about as being mysterious, perhaps even ominous. Naturally, many people become curious and want to find out what lurks about in the dark and be able to say that they know what others do not. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, the main character, Jay Gatsby is quite enigmatic. Seclusion and isolation are well known to Gatsby, especially when it comes to his personal life and his history. Throughout the novel, except when with Nick or Daisy, Gatsby asserts himself as an observer, who would rather watch others than to join in with the crowd. The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight, and turning my head to watch it, I saw that I was not alone--fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor's mansion with his hands in his pockets . . . (p. 21) Being the absolute mystery that he is, Gatsby is this "silhouette of a moving cat," and lives his life this way. As this quote shows, Gatsby emerges from the shadow to reveal himself to Nick (who is one of a very few amount of people that he confides in with the truth of who he really is). Whether Gatsby is throwing extravagant parties in his own home or with a small group of people, who he is remains a secret. Gatsby is constantly encompassed by darkness and secrecy When Gatsby threw his large parties, he was rarely seen amongst his guests and was most often alone, observing them. "Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another."(p. 50) The one time that Gatsby is noticed talking to his guests is when he introduced himself to Nick and started a conversation with him. Yet, most of the time that he throws these parties at his own home, he is alone and does not socialize with the people who attend. Trying to understand Gatsby is a very difficult thing to do, because there is so much to grasp. Entering into the upper class of wealthy people, Gatsby not only held onto a secret past, but also had the hidden agenda of trying to get Daisy back, whom he had fallen in love with while in the war. As people became more and more curious as to where he came from and who he really was, Gatsby stepped farther into the shadows and attempted to blend in with his surroundings. This went on until he met Nick Carraway, Daisy's cousin, who was able to bring him out of his small world. Then, upon reuniting with Daisy, Gatsby was pulled even farther into the reality of who he really was.
Jay Gatsby is the main character in The Great Gatsby. He is the mysterious character that the story revolves around. Nick is his neighbor that gets invited to Gatsby’s party that set in on Gatsby being a mysterious person that has so many people talking about him and talking about different stories about Gatsby that unravel how big of a mystery Gatsby is. In The Great Gatsby, “Gatsby’s notoriety, spread about by the hundreds who had accepted his hospitality and so become authorities on his past, had increased all summer until he fell just short of being news” (Fitzgerald 105). In chapter six, the real truth is revealed about the great Gatsby. The stories of the mysterious Gatsby in the parties were not true. The stories about Gatsby also went around New York, which made Nick ask Gatsby about his past ("The Great Gatsby," Fitzgerald). Nick also asked about Gatsby’s past hoping Nick would finally hear the truth. According to The Great Gatsby, “This was the night, Carraway says, that Gatsby told him the story (its factual details have been told earlier in the novel) of his early life. The purpose of the telling here is not to reveal facts but to try to understand the character of Gatsby’s passion. The final understanding is reserved for one of those precisely right uttera...
The two were young lovers who were unable to be together because of differences in social status. Gatsby spends his life after Daisy acquiring material wealth and social standing to try and reestablish a place in Daisy’s life. Once Gatsby gains material wealth he moves to the West Egg where the only thing separating he and Daisy is a body of water. It is through the eyes of Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, that the reader gains insight into the mysterious Jay Gatsby. In Nick’s description of his first encounter with Gatsby he says, “But I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” The reader soon discovers that the green light is at the end of Daisy’s dock, signifying Gatsby’s desperation and desire to get her back. Gatsby’s obsessive nature drives him to throw parties in hopes that his belonged love will attend. The parties further reveal the ungrasping mysteriousness of Gatsby that lead to speculations about his past. Although the suspicions are there, Gatsby himself never denies the rumors told about him. In Nick’s examination of Gatsby he says, “He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself.” This persona Gatsby portrays shows how he is viewed by others, and further signifies his hope and imagination
No one can be perfect in everything; it is good to make mistakes as long as we learn from them. Jay Gatsby was a man of secrets; he leaves an insightful mark on every person he talks to. Gatsby’s neighbor, Nick, says “it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”(Fitzgerald 6-7). Nick was simply appalled by Gatsby and wanted to know about him and any secrets he may have, Nick felt Gatsby was a great man of mystery and was extremely interesting. Gatsby told Nick “I don’t want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear” (69), then opened himself up to Nick and told him “My family all died and I came into
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby many characters are not as they seem. The one character that intrigues me the most is James Gatsby. In the story Gatsby is always thought of as rich, confident, and very popular. However, when I paint a picture of him in my mind I see someone very different. In fact, I see the opposite of what everyone portrays him to be. I see someone who has very little confidence and who tries to fit in the best he can. There are several scenes in which this observation is very obvious to me. It is clear that Gatsby is not the man that everyone claims he is.
Though the story is told from Nick’s point of view, the reader gets many perspectives of Gatsby from different characters. One can see from characters like Jordan Baker -Nick’s girlfriend through the majority of the novel, or Tom- the husband of Nick’s cousin Daisy; that Gatsby is not as good as everyone where to think. Based on how these characters act and feel about Mr. Gatsby it is evident that they dislike him to some extent, showing a bit more of a flawed human side of him. Tom is quoted saying “I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn't far wrong.” about Gatsby depicting Tom’s harsh feelings towards him and showing the reader Tom’s negative feelings about Gatsby. Because the story is told from Nick’s point of view, Gatsby is still painted as this mysterious man because Nick is a bit curious of him and does not know Gatsby in the beginning. ‘"They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together."’ Nick says to Gatsby, showing that he thinks he is worth more than Daisy, Tom, or the other characters. With this quote one can infer that Nick holds Gatsby on a bit of a high platform than the other characters, giving the reader Nick’s indirect characterization of
By meeting Gatsby Nick has changed for the better. His ideas and actions. all start to change. He becomes very genuine. Sometime after the party Nick says "I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. " Gatsby, p. 41. said this because most of the people at Gatsby's parties were just invited. themselves. This is the time when Nick's character is showing some.
Gatsby yearns to be part of the high society, but, in reality, he is an outsider to his social class. An important note for this is that he is a very wealthy person and has an expensive mansion, yet he lives on East Egg, while the “real” high society people live on West Egg. Near the end of the novel, Nick showed the reader that he was one of Gatsby’s only real friends; it showed when Nick was one of the only three people that attended his funeral. Nick seems to be more or less the only one who cares about him after his death.
It is human nature for people to question the character of those around them, and in Gatsby’s case, his friends did not have much information about him. Since little is known about Gatsby, his neighbor, Nick, must depend on misleading rumors about the man of mystery. At one of Gatsby’s glamorous parties, a group of women gossip, “One time he killed a man who had found out that he was the nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil” (61). Other guest place Gatsby as an illegal bootlegger or as a German spy during the war. While some of these stories may be true to his past, most are the outcome of society’s ignorance of Gatsby.
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.
... Nick notices Gatsby at one of his parties, "my eyes fell on Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another. but no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no French bob touched Gatsby's shoulder, and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby's head for one link". Even in the bosom of a thousand laughing people, Gatsby is still separate from them; he is still alone. Despite his social climb (new money), he still doesn’t fit in.
Jay Gatsby is truly not so great in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, concluding in this essay that Gatsby is not the person who he comes across as in the novel. This novel is full of illusions that are hard to see, but it is up to the reader to find them. Always keep an eye out while reading this novel; the illusions come out of nowhere in such obvious yet so simple scenes that readers tend to over look. Gatsby does bad things with good intentions, he is a criminal and a liar but all to achieve the American dream and pursue Daisy, the love of his life.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is an absurd story, whether considered as romance, melodrama, or plain record of New York high life. The occasional insights into character stand out as very green oases on an arid desert of waste paper. Throughout the first half of the book the author shadows his leading character in mystery, but when in the latter part he unfolds his life story it is difficult to find the brains, the cleverness, and the glamour that one might expect of a main character.
Gatsby was initially a mystery to the readers. Nobody knew who he was and where he came from. When he moved into his new mansion in West Egg, he started throwing huge parties where everybody was invited; yet he never participated in them. He was a generous, but invisible host...
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. Jay Gatsby, the cryptic main character from F. Scott. Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is about a man who has traveled through many rough roads throughout his life. These troubles that Gatsby had to overcome range from fighting in the war, losing the love of his life, and many shady dealings to obtain finances. Despite Gatsby’s life of controversy, many unanswered questions, and a plethora of luck, Gatsby is considered a man of many successes.
The line of attack we use in order to identify individuals around us is an intriguing thing. Our perception is forever shifting, forever building, and affected not only by the person’s actions, but by the actions of those around them. In Scott F. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby Nick Caraway’s perception of Jay Gatsby is always changing. All the way through the novel, Nick’s perception of Gatsby changes from him perceived as a rich chap, to a man that lives in the past, to a man trying to achieve his aspirations but has failed.