Examples Of Individualism In The Great Gatsby

Human nature empowers even the most unfortunate people to reach for superiority. In search of these aspirations, some people become obsessed with perfecting past decisions, or returning to a “golden time”. However, human nature renders the seeker unable to achieve such a delusion. F. Scott Fitzgerald explores this principle within his novella, The Great Gatsby. Establishing déjà vu throughout the novel, Fitzgerald juxtaposes cyclical plot with the unattainability of the past to portray flaws in human nature at what seems to be the zenith of Gatsby’s American Dream.

Up until chapter six of Gatsby, the reader, along with most people who know Gatsby, are curious about who this notorious man really is. At this point in the story, the narrator, Nick Carroway, reveals Jay Gatsby's true identity: he is James Gatz, an impoverished man who partly through luck and partly through disciplined hard work, worked his way into the upper-crust of American society in hope of winning over the woman he loves. In The Great Gatsby, the title character's identity remains a secret for most of the story as a means of attempting to win over the woman he's loved since he was a teenager. Fitzgerald uses this secret to develop the theme that dreams are ultimately empty and difficult to attain because everyone is selfish.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famed novel The Great Gatsby incorporates many dynamic characters and situations into the world of the Roaring Twenties. Given the title, many readers will argue over whether the main character, Jay Gatsby, a mysterious man who throws elaborate parties, was truly great or not. The true definition of great is one who is selfless, pure of any illegal actions, and who doesn’t lie. Gatsby rebelled against all of these characteristics. Gatsby was selfish, committed illegal actions and lied about his overall past. Using these three reasons, one can prove that Jay Gatsby was not as great as some believed him to be.

Gatsby creates an identity for himself as a wealthy man, who lives a glamorous life by throwing huge parties, and is known by the most prestigious figures in New York. What the partygoers don’t realize is that the parties and his wealth is all in the hopes of rekindling with his love from the past, Daisy. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of a young man named Jay Gatsby, who came from nothing, and built up to be everything that he had hoped and dreamed of being. However, his one dream did not become a reality due to misfortunate events. All the money in the world couldn’t make Gatsby happy, as he died as his true self, not the identity he created for himself.

Gatsby is a character who aspired to be successful and to realize his dreams of love and wealth, however, when he faced his reality he was never able to fully accomplish his dreams, revealing that one will use all their energy to hold on to a dream that will never reach a reality.

The human condition is the idea of all the questions, concerns, and theories people have on what it takes to be human. The concept of life and death, and everything people have to deal with in between, all count as subjects related to the human condition. It is a wide topic and it is something people have been mulling over for thousands of years. Authors take advantage of the human condition, and all its separate parts, knowing that the characters and situations will always end up being that much more relatable to readers. It is a very smart strategy, and it is one that seems to work time and time again. Out of the stories “The Great Gatsby,” “Everything Stuck to Him,” Everyday Use,” and “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” the overarching

Daisies, a flower with two flowers, with white petals and a yellow center, much like Daisy Buchanan, in The Great Gatsby, who appears innocent but is truly corrupted in the center. The novel was set in the 1920s which was a time of rapid industrialisation, materialism, and failure of the American dream. The wealthy enjoyed their lavish lifestyles, while the poor were left hopeless in grey nothingness. Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, surrounds Jay Gatsby on his journey to achieve his American dream, a future with Daisy, all in which ends fatally. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald portrays Daisy as a despicable and loathsome character. Daisy is deceptive in her appearance, giving an impression of being innocent but in truth, materialistic and superficial. The indecisiveness and selfishness is evident through her careless behaviors. Furthermore, her ignorance and shallowness are key characterizations of her personality. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays Daisy Buchanan as the most despicable character due to her deceitful personality, her irresponsible decisions, and her facileness.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald, the author of a book widely renowned as the greatest American novel, is known for his tendency to insert autobiographical elements within his works of fiction. Within The Great Gatsby itself, Fitzgerald wrote scenes and storylines from his own corrupted and perverse experiences, ones brought about by his damaged psyche. The greatest examples of Fitzgerald’s personal biography within The Great Gatsby are the amoral female characters which he wrote. Nevertheless the fact that the 1920s are widely regarded as the era in history when feminism first began to have a fighting chance, Fitzgerald wrote his female characters as destructive forces who are less than their male counterparts and have to be controlled. Fitzgerald’s misogynistic opinions are present in Daisy, a woman villainized despite being under the control of others, Jordan, a corrupted girl who negatively represents the feminism of the jazz age, and Myrtle, a character who was written more like an animal than she was a woman. Drawing from his own negative experiences with women, including unhealthy obsessions with those out of his social league and an affair-ridden marriage with his wife, Fitzgerald branded his female characters within The Great Gatsby with practically irredeemable qualities, revealing his sexist ideals and intentions.

There are many themes in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby in which many people can relate to today. Fitzgerald demonstrates a lot of themes that have to humanity and its many flaws. One of the major themes in Fitzgerald’s book is the theme of selfishness and its negative effects on the characters and the people around them. According to the Oxford Dictionary, selfishness is “lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure.” In more simple terms, it is when a person puts his or her own needs in before others. There are many characters in this book that depict this characteristic through the story.

Archetypes are a common literary component seen through past and present day literature, their contributions can be noted in many passages such as the “The Big Fish”. Much like Jay Gatsby the main character within the Big Fish, Edward Bloom is a man that is commonly described as being larger than life. Within this movie Edward Bloom, much like Gatsby takes on the role of the archetypal hero and embarks on the ever so known heroic journey. Both characters revolve their quest around hopes of attaining love from their destined soul mate, despite their setbacks because of other male characters. Again, both Gatsby and Edward’s fate ends in their dismiss after they have reached the end of their metaphoric journey.

The archetype that I am interested in writing about is the Hero archetype. My project will be about Jay Gatsby, a character from THE GREAT GATSBY who fits into the hero archetype. Hero’s possess attributes which you could recognize as being heroic such as bravery and strength. They also could have overcame an obstacle that is considered too much for a person. My character fits the hero archetype because he sacrificed his life for a woman he loved. He had one goal and that was to be rich so he could get the love of his life back. He takes the blame for a crime he did not commit, he was a hero for sparing someone’s life. How does Jay Gatsby meet the characteristic of being a hero? Well, he proved himself brave enough to take the blame for a crime.

Innumerable literary critics are of the opinion that archetypes, which represent the universal patterns of human nature, shape the structure of a literary work. In his world renowned novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald has readers and analysts attempting to understand the truth behind the enigmatic Jay Gatsby. Throughout the story, it is evident that Gatsby is deeply in love with Daisy Buchanan and his actions are mainly focused on winning her over. Much more subliminally, Gatsby buried secrets that accounted for his mysterious persona; nobody knew his true self. Although there is evidence that shows Gatsby could be a variety of distinct archetypes, it is clear that he mainly presents both the qualities of a classic romantic and a sinister gangster.

Each person has their own struggles in life, such as lose a loved one, learn a new language, live alone,have to take care of others, etc. There are other people who are fortunate to not have that kind of conflicts, but our culture or economy not matter, because at some point in our lives we all faced a problem and everyone has to choose the actions to take and the steps that we want to take to overcome their struggles and use them as an opportunity for the future. We all have our own struggles that we have to pass, some of them are bigger than others but we must always learn to find a way to pass them and use them as something positive, because struggles should be like an impulse to challenge ourselves to do the things better, it also helps

Human nature causes us to make assumptions about others based on their external qualities whether we like it or not. It does not matter if the assumption made regardes their gender, race, age, social class or anything else, it is just a habit of the human brain. Although we try our best to keep an open mind and not act judgemental, when it comes down to it we easily assume things about other based on what they say and how they say it. Now these inferences aren’t necessarily negative, even though most of the time they are.

Jim Morrison, an American singer and poet, once said, “the most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal evolution.”