The Great Gatsby Truly Great

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.

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.

No one has heard of this man till now, and the old money in East Egg is very curious to know where it came from. We the reader know that he was originally supposed to get his money from an older man named Cody, but that money was taken by Cody's mistress after he passed on which leaves the reader wondering what moral high-grounds he had to disregard to get where he is. Since this is an era of prohibition, alcohol being banned at every age, when the reader is shocked when they find out Gatsby was selling alcohol to make this money. However, when it comes up, Gatsby is not concerned with being caught in the lie, “'What about it?' Gatsby said politely. 'I guess your friend wasn't too proud to come in on it.'” (Fitzgerald 284/285) As Gatsby sees it, everyone is involved in some type of deceit. Morality comes into question more than once throughout the book, not just with Gatsby's money but also his love for Daisy. She is married to a wealthy man named Tom, whom she doesn't love, and begins to have an affair with Gatsby (facilitated by her cousin and the narrator, Nick Carraway). This parallels how Tom Joad killed two men during the entire caravan trip to California because it was what he needed to do to get him and his family closer to the

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.

He made money his goal, but only sees what he wants to see. He only sees the large house he lives in, the expensive clothes he wears, and the happy people at his parties. In chapter 9, a man Nick called to visit Gatsby’s funeral had “implied that [Gatsby] had got what he deserved.”(pg#), showing how little everyone truly cared for him apart from his money. Gatsby saw the money as a chance at happiness, as a chance at Daisy. The rose tinted glasses he wears prevented him from foreseeing the fake friendships, and his sad, empty funeral that the money would play a large part in causing

The Great Gatsby is too concerned with conveying a picture of 1920s American society to have relevance to modern readers.

I think Nicks reasons for thinking of Jay Gatsby as "the great Gatsby", is because Jay Gatsby has done or said he has done a lot in his life to get to where he is today. He makes himself sound very good when he tells nick everything in the car. Nick was sort of shocked by how successful he is or was. Jay is not keeping his past from society; he's more open with it. People decide to make up these rumors because Gatsby was never really noticed by anyone to be able to tell the truth about everything he's done in his past.

Gatsby is not only a World War I soldier, but also a business man which means he is used to getting exactly what he wants. In 1917 Gatsby met a beautiful woman named Daisy Fay while he was an officer for the United States Army. Gatsby was then shipped overseas and Daisy was left alone. Daisy married a man named Tom Buchannan, and when Gatsby once again found his Daisy Fay in 1922, he was desperate to get her back. In chapter 4, while Nick Caraway was having a conversation with Jordan Baker, Jordan said, "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay." (Fitzgerald 83) This just goes to show that Gatsby will do anything to try and marry the love of his life. This characteristic is also shared with a lyric from the song "Here Without You", "A Hundred Days have made me older since that last time that I saw your pretty face. But all the miles that separate disappear now when I'm dreaming of your face." (3 Doors Down) Gatsby has not seen Daisy in so long that he is getting tired of waiting, so he had a house built on the opposite side of the bay. Gatsby does not care about what Tom Buchannan thinks about his actions, so he carries on with his plan. Even though Gatsby was hundreds of miles away from Daisy at one point in their lives, he still did not stop thinking about her, not even one day. Gatsby even kept a scrapbook of every

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

We know as the reader that Gatsby lives in West Egg where the old money is. This is that area that the older crowd and the not so legal side of making money is from. Some of the rumors about Gatsby and how he got his money were true. Said by Tom Buchanan “ ‘He and Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts.

Justin Phan Mrs. Bergamotto Academic English II 12 November 2017 The Not-So Great Gatsby Many things are called great such as food or a football team, but what is the true meaning of greatness? What are characteristics that one person or thing must have to be considered great? In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the word great is used to describe the characters and even things, but when analyzed these “great” things or people are actually quite the opposite.

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.

Is the great Gatsby really great? Jay Gatsby is great in some ways but is also not great in other ways. Like most people they have things that make them great and they also have things that don't make them so great. In this essay I will be talking about things that make him great. I hope this essay would change your mind if you didn't think Gatsby was a great man.

One of my favorite classic rock songs has always been “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen. I grew up listening to my dad’s music and this is one song that has always stuck with me. When I first found out that it was inspired by the Novel “The Great Gatsby” by F Scott. Fitzgerald I was shocked, I had never really listened to the lyrics before. After Reading the book and listening to the song a few more times, I realized that every verse is loosely based on different main characters. This gave the song new meaning for me, it now makes me picture the characters from the book and also has reminiscent sadness attached to it while still connecting to the idea of the American dream, a theme which is also very prevalent in the great Gatsby. The inspiration of characters for verses in this song makes it connects with the book on a whole new level.

Joe Dispenza the neuroscientist once said, “Greatness is holding fast to a dream, independent of the environment” (“Be Inspired”). Since Gatsby is born as a poor farmer but has this perpetual vision of him making it big, he embodies this definition of greatness. He leaves his family and scouts out an opportunity working alongside millionaire, Dan Cody, where Jay essentially starts his life over as a wealthy young man. While Gatsby is in training to fight in World War I, he meets his true love, Daisy. As Jay Gatsby becomes a war hero, Daisy grows impatient and marries Tom Buchannan, a well-off and unfaithful man. When Gatsby gets back home, he dedicates his entire life to winning Daisy’s heart back in New York. Gatsby’s neighbor and Daisy’s cousin, Nick Carraway, reunites the two only for the harsh reality of Daisy’s materialism to come into the light. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is characterized as a giver, lover, and dreamer, all of which contribute to his overall greatness.