Title The Great Gatsby Essay

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald raises a lot of questions. From the title, Gatsby is hidden in a side shadow. Is Gatsby really that great? Or is it all irony? There is always more than one way to read a book title. In this situation, there is the level of Gatsby’s persona, then the ironic reading, and then there's a way of looking at just the adjective.

The level of Gatsby's persona is hidden within the title. His greatness goes unseen by most. Even though he started out dirt poor, Gatsby is one of the wealthiest people on Long Island and certainly the wealthiest in West Egg. He owns a mansions with the nicest, and most expensive stuff. Then there are the legendary events he hosts every weekend, also known as his parties. “And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” Gatsby made this comment
Gatsby serves as the grand illusion. Gatsby’s “dream-life” is all a facade. Gatsby uses his parties to mask the truth about himself, James Gatz. He is a pawn in infidelity. Every little bit of his persona, is fabricated. Gatsby essentially abandoned his family and even went against them by changing his name. “His imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.” He gets to the top of society in the most dishonest way. He earned his money illegally. The “old money”, or people who live in East Egg, see right through his facade. They are not fooled by it, and think he is a phony. “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end." (98). When Gatsby’s life begins to crumble, all the friends of his turnout to be people who just took advantage of his generosity and riches. This clearly shows when the only people at his funeral are Nick, Gatsby’s father, and a couple servants. Fitzgerald uses the moniker The Great Gatsby to make this illusion of a great man sound