Essay about The Character of James Gatsby

“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

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is told from the perspective of one of the main characters, Nick Carraway. Nick tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, who is his neighbor in the West Egg. Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as a man who everyone wants to know and copy but deep down are very envious of him. Gatsby trusts few people and those whom he trusts know his life story. To everyone else, he is a mystery. Everyone seems obsessed with Jay Gatsby. For this reason the novel revolves about rumors of Gatsby rather than the truth.

At the beginning of the book Nick sees Gatsby as a mysterious shady man. In the beginning of the chapter Nick somewhat resents Gatsby. In Nick’s opinion Gatsby was the representation of “…everything for

In the beginning of this novel everyone seems to know, or at least have heard, about Gatsby. He is talked about a lot and it is manly in a good way. Gatsby appears to be a very powerful person who also has a lot of respect from people. He has a very strange and kind of mysterious personality. For example when he has his party’s, usually on

     Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby explains the type of character he is, through his lies. Gatsby acts out to be a man who has it all. The only item missing from Gatsby’s life is love. Love is the only true key to happiness with out it you are lost. Gatsby goes all out to be loved even if it means lying.

Jay Gatsby, the title character of the novel is an incredibly wealthy young man, living in a medieval mansion in West Egg on an imaginary area of Long Island. Gatsby has many laudable traits. For example, he is filled with optimism and the ability to transform his dreams into reality. Jay is also extremely faithful to his true love, Daisy Buchanan, even to the point of death. When we first meet Gatsby, he is the aloof host of the fantastically opulent parties thrown every weekend at his mansion. It appears he is surrounded by wondrous luxury and is courted by beautiful women and the rich and powerful men of the time. Jay is also a very admirable character due to his status of wealth and being a hero of War World I, “In the Argonne Forest I took two machine gun detachments so far forward that there was half a mile gap on either side… I was promoted to be a major, and every Allied government gave me a decoration- even Montenegro”. However, Nick who narrates the book views Gatsby as a flawed man who is dishonest, deceitful, a liar, and a dreamer whom is searching for answers in the past, “he talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself, perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy… if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…”

     In the text, The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald leads us to sympathize with the central character of the text, Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald evokes our sympathy using non-linear narrative and extended flashbacks as well as imagery, characterization and theme. Through these mediums, Fitzgerald is able to reveal Gatsby as a character who is in an unrelenting pursuit of an unattainable dream. While narrative and imagery reveal him to be a mysterious character, Gatsby's flaw is his ultimate dream which makes him a tragic figure and one with which we sympathize.

The dream that he would be more than he was when he was a child, to have all the riches that a man could have, all the women, cars and houses. “ The truth about Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself.(98) .Gatsby’s young life, we are told that it wasn’t the best. He starts with so little being the son of an unsuccessful farmer. He distanced himself from his family because he did not see them as his parents, His imagination refused to see that way..”His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people-his imagination never really accepted them as his parents at all.” (98) As he grew older he had less and wanted to change that so he did. He spent his time on the

“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.”

Early in the book, the character Jay Gatsby, is introduced as a dreamer who is gracious, charming, and a bit mysterious. As the novel progresses we also learn that Gatsby is a self-made man who achieved the American Dream of rising up from the lower classes to the top of society. But to Gatsby, the desire for Daisy and love proves more powerful than money. Something that shows his obsession of her, is this example.

    F. Scott Fitzgerald is well known for being an excellent writer, for expertly describing the Jazz Age, and for having a drinking problem.  However, he is not so well known for creating deep and intriguing characters.  In The Great Gatsby, the majority of the characters remain one-dimensional and unchanging throughout the novel.  They are simply known from the viewpoint of Nick Carraway, the participating narrator.  Some insight is given into characters in the form of their dialogue with Nick, however, they never really become deep characters that are 'known' and can be identified with.  While all of the participants in the novel aren't completely flat, most of the main characters

It is revealed that James Gatz created the persona of Jay Gatsby. As the novel continues it becomes apparent that James Gatz no longer exists and that Gatz has completely internalised Jay Gatsby making it his true identity. This appears to have damaging effects on Gatsby that we find out throughout the novel, however Gatsby appears to be in denial about these

Jay Gatsby, the title character of The Great Gatsby, is really not all that the title might suggest. First of all, his real name is James Gatz. He changed it in an effort to leave behind his old life as a poor boy and create an entirely new identity. He is also a liar and a criminal, having accumulated his wealth and position by dishonest means. But he is still called ‘great,’ and in a sense he is. Gatsby is made great by his unfaltering hope, and his determination to live in a perfect world with Daisy and their perfect love. Gatsby has many visible flaws—his obvious lies, his mysterious way of avoiding straight answers. But they are shadowed over by his gentle smile and his visible hunger for an ideal future. The coarse and playful Jay

According to Cynthia Wu, no matter how many critical opinions there are on The Great Gatsby, the book basically deals with Gatsby's dream and his illusions (39). We find out from the novel that Jay Gatsby is not even a real person but someone that James Gatz invented. Wu also tells us that Gatsby has illusions that deal with romance, love, beauty, and ideals (39). Wu also points out that Gatsby's illusions can be divided into four related categories: he came from a rich upper class family, a never ending love between him and Daisy, money as the answer to every problem, and reversible time. Through Nick's narrations we can really see who this Jay Gatsby is and the reality to his illusions, and from this we can make our own decision

First off, Jay Gatsby comes off as a nice man who throws huge, florid parties and lets everyone come over even if he doesn’t know who they are. He seems mysterious, reticent, and rather elegant but know one knows who he once was. Gatsby was in the war as everyone knew, but no one knew his secret love. He didn’t get rich in a correct way but more so a corrupt way. He sold fake bonds and was a bootlegger and did it all for one girl. The light at the end of her dock was glowing green brightly and he would stare at it from his, reaching for