Is The Great Gatsby Really Great

And I thought that if you don’t make very much—You’re selling bonds, aren’t you, old sport?’ ‘Well, this would interest you. It wouldn’t take up much of your time and you might pick up a nice bit of money. It happens to be rather confidential sort of thing,’” (82-83). Here, Gatsby is trying to make it seem like he is doing Nick a friendly favor, when in fact he knows that Nick is Daisy’s cousin all along. Essentially, he assumes that if he can get closer to Nick, it will bring him even closer to Daisy. Gatsby’s absurd reasoning behind his illegal activity is solely due to his belief that it is all for Daisy. He truly is not a bad person at heart, nor are his intentions to harm anyone. He simply wants to be with Daisy and he is willing to do anything to make this dream a reality. He needs this money so that Daisy can be just as in love with him as he is with her. He thinks that if he is more wealthy and flamboyant, she will be amazed and come running back to him. He is clearly determined to change himself, as he goes as far as risking his life, and being put behind bars in order to reinvent himself. By the time he manages to become extremely wealthy, he returns back to the real world to find that Daisy has already moved on. He does not accept the fact that Daisy is no longer interested in him, which further infuriates him. His anger and frustration fuel his passion to get back with her. Furthermore, Gatsby is so at the mercy of

In Gatsby’s mission to attain wealth, power, and status he loses sight of his morals through his “dealings” with various shady people that are rumored to be lucrative and illegal. The extent of Gatsby’s criminal activities is confirmed by Tom Buchanan one hot summer night when Tom shares that Gatsby and “Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores…and sold grain alcohol over the counter,” (133) an illegal venture during prohibition. In addition to Gatsby’s business investments, his obsession with winning Daisy clouds his mind with thoughts of inspiring her to leave her husband and abandoned her child. Nick believes Gatsby would “want nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you,’” (109) and prove her marriage was a sham.

N=Necessary Information: In “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carroway, the narrator, has recently moved from the midwest to start his career in New York. He lives on the island of West Egg, next door to a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby. Nick becomes friends with him and learns that Gatsby is in love with his cousin Daisy. They never married because Gatsby had to go off into the military and he was not rich enough for her, so when Gatsby was shipped overseas, Daisy married another man named Tom Buchanan. When Gatsby returns from his service and discovers this, he begins bootlegging to make enough money to try to impress her and win her over. After Gatsby uses Nick to

His feelings for Daisy are so strong that he practices many illegal acts he learns via Meyer Wolfsheim who even, “fixed the 1919 World Series” (author page #). Dan Cody and Wolfsheim showed Gatsby how to make a fortune by way of illegal business, and it appears they lead him to believe it was acceptable to carry out these deeds as long as a proper goal was being reached.

A marvelous novel, “The Great Gatsby” written during the 1920’s by F. Scott Fitzgerald proposes a question about the truth of being “great”. The novel's protagonist, Nick Carraway grows close to Jay Gatsby; a rich, party man. Carraway strongly believes that Gatsby deserves to be known as “great.” Nevertheless, Gatsby should not be considered “great” for many reasons. To list a few, Gatsby does not do anything extraordinary to earn the title of “great”, does not work hard for success, and pretends to be somebody he wishes to be.

A villain is also called the antagonist—defined as one who contends with or opposes another in a fight, conflict, or battle of wills. The true villains held within the pages between the two covers of The Great Gatsby could be classified as anyone and everyone. I believe the three main ones throughout the story, though, are Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan; they’ve hurt so many people. Some on purpose, some unconsciously were hurt. Jay Gatsby could be known as the most villainous, but to himself.

The book begs an interesting question about morals, especially during the time where money was the end-all-be-all. Bootlegging seems innately wrong, and we are so quick to label it as such. However, a character like Gatsby is morally ambiguous and it is difficult to label him as truly good or evil.

In order to attain his wealth, Gatsby creates this identity by bootlegging. There are multiple rumors and stories that go around about his previous life, and what he has done. People who have never even met him say that “he’s a bootlegger” (61). However, to cover up his confidential business, he is deceived as an enhanced version of his actual self. Instead of telling the truth, he tells people that he “was brought up in America but educated at Oxford” (65). Gatsby says this so that he sounds more important and successful. People aren’t supposed to

Being great is something that a lot of people have different perspectives on. Perhaps to some people a person who is great is someone who cares about the wellbeing of others and always has hope. There are many different key points in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald that make Jay Gatsby great. Gatsby is a poor man who had nothing to offer to Daisy, this woman that he had fell in love with. Ever since Gatsby has been trying to work his way up to win Daisy back by doing everything in his power to be wealthy. Gatsby is deserving of the title “Great” because of his optimism and ambitions to grow in his wealth.

“Oh no,” [Gatsby] exclaimed, “this isn’t the man” (Fitzgerald 71). During this conversation Nick became suspicious that Gatsby was doing some shady, illegal work in order to gain his money. This was selfish of Gatsby because he was was breaking the law to gain a profit, he could care less how it would affect him or others. Later on in the story Gatsby reveals that his business is immoral, “Well this would interest you… it happens to be a rather confidential sort of thing” (Fitzgerald 83). When Gatsby offers this deal to Nick it shows that he doesn't care how it will affect Nick in the future, as long as he gets his

When Fitzgerald made the character Meyer Wolfsheim he was inspired by the real criminal who fixed the 1919 World Series. Just like in real life the involvement in organized crime has consequences. Gatsbys involvement in organized crime had a major effect of Daisy love for him. After she found out he was a bootlegger she broke up with him. Gatsbys connections to organized crime eventually ruined all of his relationship. First he tried to bring nick in on his underground business operation, but that failed. Them Daisy found out that we was a bootlegger and she never talked to him again. She didn't even show up to his funeral.when everyone found out gatsby was part of the organized crime they looked at him differently. By the end of the book all of the people gatsby knew shut him out and didn't show up to his funeral. Eventually his involvement with bootlegging and crime got him killed. Gatsbys death was a revenge plot made by Tom Buchanan. Tom was angry at Jay for stealing Daisy. He called Gatsby out and told everyone what he had done, So Daisy ran out and Gatsby ran after her. She was driving home and wasn't paying attention and killed Mrytle. Tom thought it was Gatsby and had

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is seen as a mysterious character that’s not called great or bad. The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920’s during the “roaring twenties” or called as the “Jazz Age”, a period ending the Great Depression and an era where jazz and dancing become trendy. Gatsby does not seem to be fit to be called “great”, instead he is fit for being called a determined man. Some may not call Gatsby “great” because of his lies and some will call him “great” because he is a man who is determined to get Daisy back from Tom or because Gatsby is a nice man who does not have much ignorance like Tom. An example why Gatsby do not deserve to be called a “great” man is because he is a liar and a “great” man does not

Gatsby does well in the war and he then tries to go back to Daisy but is unable to and is sent to Oxford instead. When he comes back, he is absolutely broke and then he tries to find a job. He shows his selfishness again when he tries to get money. Gatsby meets Meyer Wolfshiem while searching for a job. He ends up getting involved in some shady, illegal business and becomes a bootlegger. Gatsby was so adamant in getting money and rising up in society that he was willing to do whatever it took to get money. His greed and selfishness led him to do illegal things that he shouldn’t have been doing. Gatsby ends up buying a house across from Daisy where he was hoping to reconnect with her again. He again shows his selfishness by wanting to reconnect and rekindle his love with her even though she is already married to Tom Buchanan. Daisy is clearly taken and Gatsby wants her to leave Tom and go away with him since now Gatsby isn’t poor and can provide for her. Even now, he still selfishly hides the truth by lying about his education and not telling the truth about the source of his wealth. He even confronts Tom about his love for her saying “she never loved you. She loves me.” (Fitzgerald 137) Gatsby’s selfishness ends up costing him his life at the very end. He does end up showing some selflessness by taking the blame for the accident even though Daisy was the one driving.

     Gatsby earns his money, not through hard work, but it is hinted that he is bootlegger and deals in illegal things because of his relationship with Meyer Wolfsheim, a known gangster. During Prohibition, when the consumption of alcohol was illegal, people could make a lot of money providing alcohol illegally, and they were called bootleggers. Jay Gatsby was even going against American laws in order to achieve his American Dream of getting enough money to buy Daisy's love.

To accomplish his one main goal, Gatsby would do anything to make money, so he did it illegally. Gatsby is a very rich man, but he did not earn his money the way that most of America did. “[Gatsby] differs from the other newly rich members of society in that he did not earn his money in an honorable way.” Gatsby made his money out of illegal bonds and bootlegging. Bootlegging is when one illegally sells alcohol under-the-counter, at a time where alcohol is banned. His main goal left in life is to win back Daisy Buchanan, and to accomplish that he needed money. All that he could do was to get into illegal business, which at that time in his life, was the only easy way to get wealthy fast. Gatsby could not wait any longer to reunite with the girl he had thought about every day since he had left to fight in World War I.