F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby was viewed as a big dreamer and he has accomplished most of his dreams, but one. His idealistic vision of him and Daisy is an illogical concept that he has invested so much time into. He reinvented his whole life, changed his name, worked hard to earn the money, bought a house close to Daisy's, threw lavish parties just to achieve his dream to be with her. The only fault that ruined his plan was the fact that Gatsby lacked self knowledge and identity, which lead to deception throughout his life. In the novel, Nick Carraway illustrates his idea of Gatsby after he found out the truth about him.

“The Great Gatsby” is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald set in the 1920’s and is a recollection of a man named Nick Carraway's memories of the summer he met Jay Gatsby the person he could not judge. Jay Gatsby changed the most throughout the novel because He started the novel as a rich and extravagant man with a mysterious background, but it was revealed that he didn't start his life this way, James Gatz was a seventeen-year-old fisherman on Lake Superior who had big dreams that he thought he never could make a reality. But he adopted a persona that modelled the ideal person through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old, and met his good companion and friend Mr. Dan Cody. But towards the end of the book the window that is Jay Gatsby is shattered

Since American literature’s emergence, the American dream has become a conceptual ideal for many people throughout history. Although the dream has its own distinct aspects throughout different time periods, it predominantly focuses on the foundations of wealth, success and a desire for something greater. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, is primarily known for the numerous lavish parties he throws each weekend at his ostentatious mansion in West Egg in an attempt to reunite with Daisy Buchanan, a woman he falls in love with prior to entering the war before the Roaring Twenties. However, he is seized with an impotent realization on the fact that his wealth cannot afford him the same privileges as others that are born into the upper echelon. Gatsby is completely blinded from his opulent possessions until he becomes oblivious of the fact that money cannot buy love or happiness. Throughout the story, the predilection for materialistic features causes many characters to lose sight of their aspirations, demonstrating how a dream can become easily corrupt by one’s focus on acquiring wealth and power.

Beginning to end, Jay Gatsby portrays himself as a man of passion to his new neighbor and the narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway. Gatbsy unexpectedly takes an interest in Nick because of his relation to Daisy and invites him to one of his opulent parties. James later finds Nick to be terribly good company and decides to keep him close. He shows Nick that there

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers. Fitzgerald uses the Roaring Twenties as the setting of this novel. The twenties were a time of promiscuity, new money, and a significant amount of illegal alcohol. Fitzgerald was a master of his craft and there was often more to the story than just the basic plot. He could intertwine political messages and a gripping story flawlessly. In the case of The Great Gatsby, he not only chronicles a love story, but also uses the opportunity to express his opinion on topics such as moral decay, crass materialism, individual ethics, and the American dream.

The American Dream, is an idea that all Americans are familiar with, no matter what age they are. It is the dream that everyone has an equal opportunity, to use hard work and integrity to achieve success. The American Dream is an integral aspect of Jay Gatsby’s life in the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel follows Jay Gatsby, as told by Nick Carraway, through the trials and tribulations that correspond with newfound wealth and the quest to find true happiness in a cynical and testing environment. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald suggests that the American Dream has the power to corrupt individuals, through his depictions of wealth, materialism, and the consequences they inflict in the character’s lives.

(105) The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God… he must be about His Father 's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. 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. As Nick recounts Gatsby’s backstory, he offers both factual information and this more abstract description. He notes how artificially Gatsby has created his personality and identity, but also seems to respect the commitment he shows to that artifice. To better articulate the fraudulence of Gatsby’s identity, Nick employs several sets of symbols. First he describes him as a “Platonic conception of himself,” implying that Gatsby projected an ideal (“Platonic”) way his life could

James Gatz, a character in conflict with society due to the shortcomings he suffers throughout his life must, therefore, resort to illusions to cope. Jay Gatsby, was a poor youth from North Dakota who could never accept the fate that he was given in life. He never had enough money to marry the woman he loved and was forced to pay for his college by working as a janitor. As a result of all the defeats and drawbacks that Gatsby suffered through during his youth, he began to despise the life that he lived. Jay Gatsby was a man that “defie[d] oppressive society by trying to conform to it.” (Hemis, 2010). Gatsby desires nothing more than to oppose the life society has offered him by becoming a man that contradicts everything he was during his youth. Wealth, power, respect are what Gatsby pines for and one day he is given the chance to begin again. To escape from the lack of wealth that James Gatz was given in life, he creates the persona of Jay Gatsby. Recalling Gatsby’s transformation, Nick informs “he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to the conception he was faithful to the end” (98). It is important to understand that the colossal illusion that Gatsby creates in his youth never fades and the rest of his decisions in life all stem from the one illusion. The fantasy he conceives causes him to believe that he is beyond society’s laws and is able to bend them to his liking. Gaining a false sense of power from the

Nick has found himself on “Gatsby’s side” (164). When only a few people attended Gatsby's

“The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. 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.”

The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God-- a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that-- and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. 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 (99).

Regardless of how one would go about arguing how Jay Gatsby is not a ‘good man’, he is undeniably an embodiment of the American dream. Born James Gatz to two poor farmers in the Midwest, Gatsby’s “imaginations had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby … sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God … to this conception he was faithful to the end” (98). The notion of the self-made man alone is something that is honored within American society, and therefore, Jay Gatsby is an honorable person. Parallel to Benjamin Franklin, Gatsby envisioned the perfect man and left home with nothing in order to become that idealistic version of himself. Gatsby’s similarity to Benjamin Franklin is highlighted by Mr. Gatz with Gatsby’s childhood schedule seemingly based off of The Way to Wealth. Yet, being an honorable person alone does not make Gatsby a ‘good man’. What does make Gatsby a ‘good man’ though, is his outstanding selflessness. Despite the immense wealth he gains, Jay Gatsby is always trying to do things for others, such as asking Nick on his boat, or giving a random party-goer an entirely new dress after ruining their original dress at one of Gatsby’s parties. Even in the case of Gatsby doing Nick favors, Gatsby does not expect anything in return from Nick, but he does hope for a reconnection with Daisy.

In our novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has been a very suave, clean cut character but he is also very inscrutable. F. Scott Fitzgerald describes Gatsby when Nick meets him at a party in this excerpt: “His tanned skin was drawn attractively tight on his face and his short hair looked as though it were trimmed every day” (44). The unfulfilled character, Jay Gatsby, is described as a handsome, spiffy, and a perfectionist. Gatsby has shown to be a man who’s perfected appearance has dazzled the residents of West Egg. Although Jay is very noticeable in appearance, his gestures and personality are enigmatic.

As Nick continues to narrate throughout the story, the reader never has a good sense on who Jay Gatsby truly is. Nick’s description is very fluctuating of Jay and constantly fickle about who he perceives Gatsby to be. The reader constantly has this perception the narrator gives of Gatsby as either romanticized (“He smiled understandingly... It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it” (Fitzgerald 48).) or corrupt (“ Precisely at that point it vanished- and I was looking at an elegant roughneck” (Fitzgerald 48).)

The American dream is an ideology, a vision that’s form varies from individual to individual, based upon one’s own experiences. Although the one thing that remains constant in every single definition is that this ideology, just as the name states, is only a dream. It is meant to merely drive people to unlock their hidden potential and become their best self, for the sole purpose of living one’s out one’s own definition of success. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is Jay Gatsby’s inspiration and his opportunity, however, as the book progresses it becomes more evident that not all people share the same opportunity.