Theme Of Fantasy In The Great Gatsby

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Recommended: The decade ofthe 1920s

A fantasy world is a personality trait in which a person experiences a lifelong extensive and deep involvement in fantasy. This is what Scott Fitzgerald attempted to portray about people living in the 1920’s in his novel, the Great Gatsby. This book takes place in the 1920’s, shortly after WWI, a period of time where people were trying to block out the bad memories associated with war and embrace happiness. Embracing happiness meant creating fantasy worlds filled with money and materialistic items, blocking out reality and attempting to relive old memories. In the Great Gatsby, reality clouded by fantasy illustrates that people are not capable of living their lives in a rational way, because their mind has blocked out the harsh reality in which …show more content…

Gatsby is determined to relive his past, but Nick points out, “You can’t the past,” and Gatsby replies with, “Why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby has dedicated his whole life reliving the past with Daisy. Gatsby whole-heartedly believes he can repeat the past, “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,” he says (Fitzgerald 110). In Gatsby’s fantasy, he believes that Daisy and him can be together now that he has the money she wished he had in the past. “In the end, it is this romantic idealism that destroys Gatsby; he refuses to relinquish the illusion that has propelled his life,” Gatsby’s inability to let go of a fantasy built upon events from past, Daisy, is ultimately what led to his death (Hickey). There is one character in the Great Gatsby that proves to be the only one not drowning in a fantasy, Nick. “They’re a rotten crowd. You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together,” Nick says to Gatsby (Fitzgerald 162). He says this because he realizes that everyone around him is corrupt and living in a fantasy world, including Gatsby, but Nick realizes that this is the very thing that is destroying

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