Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - Parallel between Jesus of Nazareth and Jay Gatsby

One in twenty-five people suffer from borderline personality disorder, a condition where a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relations and self-image form at the beginning of early adulthood and continue on. Jay Gatsby pathologically has an excessive and erotic interest in himself and his physical attributes and appearance, which makes him classify as a narcissist. Narcissism and borderline personality disorder can combine together to make a unique set of symptoms, such as a need for admiration, a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, a grandiose sense of self-importance, being interpersonally exploitative, preoccupation with excessive fantasies of success and ideal love, and frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. In cases that exhibit a grandiose sense of self-importance, a person may exaggerate personal achievements and expect to be superior and be recognized for said achievements. Gatsby has a myriad of these symptoms and behaviors; and, like in most cases, his condition led to a death because of his unfathomable obsession with Daisy, trying to earn her love and compassion, and attempts at altering the past. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby exemplifies symptoms and mental attributes associated with narcissistic borderline personality disorder.

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses imagery and symbolism to represent bigger ideas in his stories. For his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald was able to do something most authors aren’t. He was able to approve of the cover of his book. The cover selected was a painting of a nightly city, being watched over by celestial eyes. The eyes stand out in juxtaposition of the rest of the dark blue sky due to their sickly yellow color as a teal tear travels down from the left. However, a closer look at the eyes in the cover show that they irises are blue, and inside the eyes are two women. The surreal art piece has as much symbolism in it as the pages it protects, especially the eyes in which the painting is named for. The women within the eyes on the cover

According to Aristotle, there are a number of characteristics that identify a tragic hero: he must cause his own downfall; his fate is not deserved, and his punishment exceeds the crime; he also must be of noble stature and have greatness. These are all characteristics of Jay Gatsby, the main character of Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby.  Jay Gatsby is a tragic hero according to Aristotle's definition.

Jay Gatsby, displays various qualities and characteristics of Jesus Christ that relates to Jesus (Dilworth). He rows out to Dan Cody only to let him know that he has anchored “over the

Authors from the 1920’s are among the most exceptional and famous writers of today, one of the greatest well-known being F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald wrote multiple extraordinary novels, though he is most accredited for The Great Gatsby. In this book he discloses essential truths about life, which are more relevant in today’s society than ever before. Within the article A Gatsby for Today, Sven Birkerts provides further insight to these truths and imparts the importance of their lessons. F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals important truths about life through the characters Jay Gatsby, who displays disillusionment, and Myrtle Wilson, who demonstrates hope.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the God is one who does not interfere with what people are doing on Earth. He does care about them, even if they have done wrong, doesn’t try to change them, or their morals. He is described as a “watcher” (Fitzgerald 167). He watches people cause their own destruction but does not do anything about it. The role of God and Religion in Gatsby is evident in the lack of religion among the upper/business class, it’s effect on mortality, and the symbolism of God.

When Nick is describing Gatsby he uses this bold comparison between Gatsby and Jesus Christ to illuminate what Gatsby has created himself to be. Jesus is described to be “faithful to his self-created dream but scornful of the factual truth that finally crushes him and his dream”—an appropriate description of Gatsby. Though the comparison between Gatsby and Jesus is not an important event in The Great Gatsby, it is nonetheless a suggestive comparison, as Gatsby transforms himself into the image that he envisioned for himself as a youngster and remains committed to that idea, despite the obstacles that society presents to the

By depicting Gatsby and Jean’s lower class origins, Fitzgerald and Strindberg set the scene for their aspirations and inevitable failure. Jay Gatsby was originally James Gatz a young man from a poor, uneducated family. However, from a young age, he possessed a focused ambition, as shown by his time-table and list of goals for personal improvement. Even after James Gatz becomes Jay Gatsby on the water, ambition remains Gatsby’s main attribute, and he

22:14). At the party, one of the girls states that Gatsby "doesn't want trouble with anybody" (48). Jesus described himself as "gentle and lowly in heart" and commanded his followers to "turn the other cheek" (Mt. 11:29, 5:29). When Nick prepares to leave the party, he looks for Gatsby "to apologize for not having known him in the garden" (57). These words echo two major biblical images. First, Adam hides from God in the Garden of Eden. Even more closely tied to this image is the scene at the empty tomb where Mary Magdalene mistakes the risen Jesus for the gardener. Gatsby's mysterious origins allude to the confusion about Jesus' authority. Tom asks "where is he from, I mean? And what does he do?" (53) When Jesus preaches in the synagogue at Nazareth, the people ask "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?" (Mt. 13:34) On at least two occasions, Gatsby tells Nick that they are "going up": first in the hydroplane and later when they "ride up" to New York for lunch (57, 68). This ascendant diction suggests that, like Jesus, Gatsby "had come from God and was going to God" (Jn. 13:3). It also follows the biblical convention by which all travel to Jerusalem is described by the Hebrew word "aliah": to go up. Fitzgerald even put Jesus' words on Gatsby's lips, as in the car when Gatsby asks Nick "what's your opinion of me anyhow?" (69) This echoes Jesus' journeying question of his

Qualities like absolute moral perfection are even less attainable than world peace, and they have no place in quality literature. No one relates to the main character that never lets his emotions get the better of him once in a while. Truly powerful characters require at least some degree of moral ambiguity. Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby engages in illegal liquor sales and business with the man who rigged the World Series, which combine with his purest of intentions and virtually universal kindness to create some definitely ambiguous morals. Due to that ambiguity, Gatsby’s character remains imperfect and one whom readers can entirely relate to, while promoting the prominent theme in the novel of the American Dream’s

1. We see all the action of The Great Gatsby from the perspective of one character whose

Andrew Dillon points out that James Gatz, the son of a ineffectual Midwestern farmer, is the son of God in his own self  idealization of who he should be (54). We already know that his parents were poor and unsuccessful, and Gatsby couldn't accept them for that so he promotes his actual name to what he thinks should be his real name: the elegant and appealing Jay Gatsby. Now that Gatsby has left James Gatz behind and is a new person he begins to look for more.

With regards to human nature during the Jazz Age during which he wrote, F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, would most likely agree with the general philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on human psychology. In a nutshell, the view of Rousseau was simply that man is naturally pure and free, only to be corrupted by society and the outside world. In connecting Fitzgerald’s use of appropriate color symbolism to the two parts of Rousseau’s view, we can see how he (Fitzgerald) is describing the nature of man in general terms through the story of Jay Gatsby. The colors mainly associated with Jay Gatsby throughout the course of the book are white, yellow, and blue, which, in order, represent the progression of his mental state and his

Jay Gatsby himself had killed a man. Countless different conversations with the topic all on Gatsby. These differing conversations all held by the ever changing people not even invited by the supreme pontiff himself. Those guests came and left like dust in the wind. In and out of Gatsby’s seemingly flawless life. Jay, a pretty spiffy man if I do say so myself, just gallivants around inconspicuously observing and spectates the crowd around him. But, for what; what is something that this man feels he needs so much that he can not join his own parties that he hosts every week end?

This close analysis is based around the passage at the beginning of chapter II of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.