Jay Gatsby is a Sympathetic Character in Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby was born into a life of poverty and as he grew up he became more aware of the possibility of a better life. He created fantasies that he was too good for his modest life and that his parents weren’t his own. When he met Daisy, a pretty upper class girl, his life revolved around her and he became obsessed with her carefree lifestyle. Gatsby’s desire to become good enough for Daisy and her parents is what motivates him to become a wealthy, immoral person who is perceived as being sophisticated.

Gatsby’s dream of being with Daisy is completely shattered by Tom’s words and Daisy’s demeanor and actions. Tom reveals the truth about the persona that Gatsby had created, known as “Jay Gatsby.” Tom tells them all that Gatsby is a “common swindler” and a “bootlegger…and [he] wasn’t far from wrong” to assume; consequently, Daisy was “drawing further into herself,” for learning how Gatsby obtained his affluence changed her mind about wanting to be with him. Her intentions of leaving Tom vanished within her, as she told Gatsby that he demanded too much of her. When it all becomes too much to bear, Daisy resorts to calling to Tom to take her away demonstrating to Gatsby that she picks Tom over him. This was Gatsby worst nightmare: to have Daisy

Jay Gatsby from Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a complex character. He is shrouded by an aura of mystery from the beginning of the novel and certain aspects of his personality are unclear. Gatsby’s corrupt route to wealth and the fake front that he displays, both to win the love Daisy, make him an ambiguous character. His moral ambiguity expresses the corrupt American dream of the 1920’s, a fake concept that influenced people to obtain wealth and social status in illicit ways.

Jay Gatsby is renowned for throwing the biggest parties in New York to display his wealth. In reality, these parties are meant to impress one person, Daisy, the love of his life. Daisy’s friend, Jordan Baker, confirms this when she tells Nick, “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night, but she never did. Then he began asking people casually if they knew her, and I was the first one he found” (F, 80). Unfortunately, Gatsby lost his chance to marry Daisy because of his low social class. His hope to be reunited with Daisy is the ambition behind his wealth. However, the parties he throws fail to attract Daisy’s attention and results in his self-doubt; this is seen through his attempt to ask people about Daisy. His uncertainty makes him desperate, which conducts him to use his wealth to throw parties for their use value. Even though Gatsby is now accepted as a bourgeoisie, he remains unhappy because he cannot be with the person who makes him truly

In the book, Jay Gatsby seems to be a loyal and determined man. Five years before the plot of the story began, in a flashback, we learn that Jay and Daisy met before. Not only have the meet previously before tea at Nick’s house, they were once in love. Gatsby has never been in love with anyone else in those five years, when he was separated from Daisy. He was in love with Daisy so much that he changed his life around; so he could live in a house across the bay from Daisy’s (Fitzgerald 78). Even though it took several years to grasp Daisy’s attention, Gatsby never stopped thinking about the women he loved. In fact, he created and kept a book full of newspaper clippings about Daisy (93). Determination helped create Jay’s loyalty to others.

Fitzgerald displays Gatsby as man who came from nothing, with an unrelenting passion to obtain material success, or the 1920’s American Dream. Radical transformation was one of Mr. Gatsby’s most outstanding characteristics, taking his desire to change from the once impoverished man to the point of changing his name. Certainly Gatsby possesses admirable traits, as his will power is once again displayed through the longing for his lost love, Daisy. The misconceptions of the time period are illustrated as Fitzgerald displays that Gatsby’s underlying desire for money is to win over Daisy through impressing her with his wealth. Within Adam Cohen’s piece “Jay Gatsby Is a Man for Our Times”, Cohen discusses the worthiness of Gatsby’s goal: “The callow Daisy, whose voice is ‘full of money,’ may not be a worthy goal. But Gatsby’s longing for her, and his willingness to sell his soul to pursue her, are the purest thing in this sordid tale.” Essentially, Fitzgerald demonstrates that Gatsby, nor his relentless will to succeed, are not the issue. It is the time period, along with the misconceptions of a dream, which corrupt the character. Gatsby’s wealth is obtained through unethical ways, like many others who followed the path of easy money. The corruption of bonds does bring Gatsby the wealth he had always longed for, along with extravagant and lavish parties at his mansion. Consequently, we learn that reaching the goal of obtaining wealth ultimately does not lead to

Gatsby had no home and no money for food, so, he would try to get any job he could find so he had food and somewhere to sleep for the day. Gatsby was also an emotional wreck to a point that it would haunt him in his sleep. After, when the two met, Gatsby’s world changed in front of his eyes, “To young Gatz, resting his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world…At any rate Cody asked him a few questions and found that he was quick, and extravagantly ambitious”(Fitzgerald 106). At this moment, a new world flash in Gatsby’s eyes and showed him the world of the rich. After the five years with Dan Cody, Gatsby became a new man with riches and this began his journey of his personal ambition of the American Dream.

Jay Gatsby, taken in by a bittersweet fruit, drags himself through filth. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby becomes wealthy to achieve his American Dream, but he fails to achieve it because of the corruption and disillusioning effects of materialistic society.

In this novel, The Great Gatsby wrote by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he wants you to understand many things. Fitzgerald mainly wants you to grasp that not everyone or everything in this world can make you happy. Money makes the world go around, or at least makes things seem better. With the risk of consequences of being wealthy and having a bunch of money, Jay Gatsby would rather take that risk and be happy than to be sad. Gatsby was startled and in all contempt for the babbled slander of his garden as if he had “killed a man.” (Fitzgerald pg. 119). Nick sits on the shoreline, reflecting on Gatsby’s life, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it,” he speaks admiringly

‘The Great Gatsby’ novel by F. Scott Fitzgeralds is a novel that has symbolic life lessons that have shaped my values and realities of life. This novel is about Nick Carraway, the narrator, that tells the story of Jay Gatsby a millionaire purposing the American Dream at the cost of losing himself. A key quote in the novel demonstrated the reality of wealth doesn’t define a person. But consumes them was illustrated when Carraway first saw Gatsby. “I could have sworn he was

Following the war, Gatsby attempted to receive an education by studying at Oxford. From this point on, Gatsby dedicates him self to gain the love of Daisy back. He did this by acquiring millions of dollars, a gaudy mansion in West Egg, and his extravagant parties. As the group of friends, Nick Caraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Jordan Baker, travel into the city, Gatsby and Daisy make their love for each other obvious. Daisy and Gatsby ride in a car, separate from the group, to the city. Gatsby has the belief that Daisy is truly in love with him, and not with her husband. Upon arrival to the hotel, the group began sitting and conversing, when Gatsby tells Tom, “She never loved you.” This is referring to Daisy and Tom’s marriage. This is where a heated dispute begins and Daisy finally explains to Gatsby that, “Rich girls don’t marry poor boys.”

He lived the American Dream, yet he was still not satisfied. He desperately ached for the love of Daisy. Throughout the past several years, no object or monetary amount would make him feel the way Daisy did. Gatsby’s true identity is far from rich and lively; on the inside he is extremely troubled and vulnerable. He tries to force happiness and to be content, but to no avail. Once Daisy explained that she could not leave Tom for Gatsby, he felt lonelier than before. “He stayed there a week, walking the streets where their footsteps had clicked together through the November night and revisiting the out-of-the-way places to which they had driven in her white car”, explains how Jay Gatsby reminisced over his time with Daisy. Gatsby had no family to go to for support or friends; the people that went to his parties were strangers. It seems as if he desperately needed love and attention, and Daisy gave him the perfect amount. Without her, he becomes vulnerable and

Jay Gatsby is an enormously rich man, and in the flashy years of the jazz age, wealth defined importance. Gatsby has endless wealth, power and influence but never uses material objects selfishly. Everything he owns exists only to attain his vision. Nick feels

     F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a tragic tale of love distorted by obsession. Finding himself in the city of New York, Jay Gatsby is a loyal and devoted man who is willing to cross oceans and build mansions for his one true love. His belief in realistic ideals and his perseverance greatly influence all the decisions he makes and ultimately direct the course of his life. Gatsby has made a total commitment to a dream, and he does not realize that his dream is hollow. Although his intentions are true, he sometimes has a crude way of getting his point across. When he makes his ideals heard, his actions are wasted on a thoughtless and shallow society. Jay Gatsby effectively embodies a romantic idealism

Time tells us that success often comes with a price. Often money will create more problems than it can solve. The richness of a person’s soul can be hidden in the folds of money. Such is the case of Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is constantly altering in the readers mind due to the various puzzling events that transpire in the novel creating a level of mystery.