Why Is The Great Gatsby Great

When Nick receives Wolfsheim’s message that Wolfsheim, who was one of Gatsby’s only friends, will not be coming to the funeral, Nick feels that it is he and Gatsby against them all. Nick realizes that no one truly cares about him and his friend. After reaching out to people to encourage them to come to the funeral and finally being rejected by someone who Nick thought Gatsby called a true friend, he experiences “a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity.” Because of Wolfsheim’s close connection to Gatsby and his friendship and relationship with Gatsby, Nick believes that he will at least be able to bring someone to Gatsby’s funeral. However, when Wolfsheim says that he doesn’t want to get mixed up with Gatsby’s murder, Nick senses that no one has really cared for Gatsby or for him. Nick feels that he is all alone, that everyone is against him and that there is no one left who cares.

Nick and Gatsby’s relationship becomes especially clear at the end of the novel. In life, Gatsby appeared to have it all - wealth, status, an innumerable amount of friends, judging by the attendance of his parties. But in death, he was no one.

In contrast, that wasn’t the case here. Based off this quote, the reader can infer that Gatsby’s friends were fake and only used him to get free food, drinks, and music. This is sickening to think that none of Gatsby close friends can even attend his own funeral, but they’ll be the first person at his house when they hear that Gatsby is hosting a party.

I’ve only known Gatsby for a few months, and so I’ll start with my first impression. It was summer, and many people came to enjoy his premises. He held huge parties at his mansion every Saturday.1 They were the most opulent and ostentatious parties, typical of the West Egg. All sorts of people came, from the city or just across the lake, looking to mingle and join the wealthy. They basked in Gatsby’s display of wealth, enjoying the alcohol, the music, and the atmosphere. They enjoyed so much of his parties, yet they never got to meet

Fitzgerald uses Gatsby's parties and the way in which Nick views them to reveal that whilst Gatsby is surrounded by shallow and vulgar people, he is above this. Fitzgerald also uses these parties to expose Gatsby's isolation which leads us to feel sympathy toward Gatsby. Despite the amount of people at the party, Nick observes Gatsby's seclusion and loneliness, "my eyes fell to Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps". This evokes a great deal of sympathy from us as although Nick describes Gatsby in a warm and friendly way, "It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life", we now can see that Gatsby is a lonely figure. This sympathy is accentuated when Nick is the only person to turn up to Gatsby's funeral, as we know that Gatsby is a decent and honourable character and thus our sympathies are emphasised by Gatsby's isolation. When Nick first meets Gatsby, he reveals Gatsby to be a fascinating character that we would like to know more about. The warm and assuring smile that Nick describes is in antithesis to the

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famed novel The Great Gatsby incorporates many dynamic characters and situations into the world of the Roaring Twenties. Given the title, many readers will argue over whether the main character, Jay Gatsby, a mysterious man who throws elaborate parties, was truly great or not. The true definition of great is one who is selfless, pure of any illegal actions, and who doesn’t lie. Gatsby rebelled against all of these characteristics. Gatsby was selfish, committed illegal actions and lied about his overall past. Using these three reasons, one can prove that Jay Gatsby was not as great as some believed him to be.

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.

When Gatsby returns from the war, he seeks to separate himself from his family by changing his last name from Gatz to Gatsby. After moving into an elaborate mansion and living there alone, he throws ostentatious parties. Even though Gatsby is surrounded by hundreds of people he fails to create meaningful social connections with any of them. The guests are then left to theorize about his background. One person says “Someone told me they thought he killed a man once” (Fitzgerald 44). A second person theorizes he may have been a German Spy in the war. This is evidence that Gatsby has isolated himself so much that even standing in a crowd of hundreds of people, he is alone. Gatsby's lack of social connections is further evidenced at his funeral. Only three people bothered to attend: his only friend, Nick Carraway, the minister, and his

He wants closure about what happened between them. Daisy confronts Gatsby about an affair she had with Tom, and he doesn’t even care at this point because what they had was ‘real’. She claims to love them both but she decides she wants to go back with Gatsby and not her husband. On her way back, she accidently kills a woman on the side of the road speeds off with Gatsby’s car. Gatsby gets blamed for the death and the husband of the woman shoots him. No one attends Gatsby’s funeral but Nick. This goes to show Gatsby really had no body in his life, and his own true love whom he did everything for, didn’t love him equally. Throughout the whole book, Fitzgerald points out that Gatsby was living his American dream, but because his dream was Daisy, he was living his dream out of fantasy not reality.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him.

Additionally, near the end of Gatsby 's experience, the narrator notes after hoping for a call from Daisy that "No telephone message arrived...I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn 't believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared" (Fitzgerald pg. 161) Before his death, Gatsby realizes his loneliness, and the readers realize that all the wealth he had has no impact on his happiness later on. Additionally, at his grand parties, Gatsby was never seen by the attendees . This suggests Gatsby permitted anyone to come to help him not feel alone. However, it was only that opposite at Gatsby 's eventual funeral in which only three people attended. The funeral is an excellent representation of Gatsby 's loneliness all along. Diane Telgen in her examination of The Great Gatsby mentions "Nick characterizes himself as someone who understands Gatsby better, who wants to set the record straight, and who sides with Gatsby against the world that made him up and then deserted him" (Telgen 79). The desertion she touches on refers to the funeral 's attendance and how the party 's attendees left Gatsby, and how Nick, the narrator, was essentially the only person to want to get to know the man. What Gatsby sought was essentially out of reach; he had spent time acquiring money in illegal ways to try stealing the girl of his dreams, but in the process ruined his social life. His focus on money and his love was so

however, not a single person consented to pay a visit to the funeral of a man who once threw a series of extravagant parties which every socialites of New York attended. Gatsby was once one of the most well known individual in the city due to the parties he threw for Daisy’s attention, however his neglect in his own social life and friendship resulted in no one except Nick and few insignificant individuals attending his funeral. The Tragedy in this is that Gatsby was neglected by Daisy, who he chased for his lifetime, and also had nobody mourning for his sudden death. In the novel, Fitzgerald describes the funeral, “The minister glance several times at is watch, so I took him aside and asked him to wait for an hour. But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came.” (174) Gatsby’s never ending effort to reclaim daisy nor his large parties created any individuals that even remotely cared for Gatsby’s unfortunate death. It is evident that Gatsby was leading himself to the path of arrogance, ignorance, and vanity, guided by his obsession over his old love, Daisy. Although some, such as Jordan, showed interest in the mysterious identity of Gatsby, his complete lack of social skills and common sense, all fueled by Gatsby’s unrequited chase for Daisy, led to the utter indifference of his acquaintances when they received the news of Gatsby’s death. Using this

Even after Gatsby’s death Nick remained loyal to Gatsby by being one of the only people to attend his funeral. "The minister glanced several times at his

One of the ways Gatsby liked to show off was with his incredible parties he held at his mansion. Many people came, most of them uninvited to the party, unlike Nick. Most of the people that came to Gatsby's party were rich, famous, and only cared about themselves. These people came to Gatsby's parties without even knowing who Gatsby is, but the fact was that they didn't care to know who Gatsby is. After Wilson's wife, Mrytle dies because she is hit by Gatsby's car, Wilson shoots Gatsby and now Gatsby is pronounced dead. The irony of his death was that at his funeral, only three attended. Nick, Owl Eyes, Henry Gatz, and a few of his servants attended his funeral. Looking at the people that came to his

            Selfishness is a vice that contributes to New York's image as "a valley of ashes." This egocentrism is commonplace in the characters of The Great Gatsby and gives the impression of a society where people have adopted the "me first" rationale and a carelessness for altruism.   Gatsby's relationship with Nick first started out that way.  Gatsby became friends with Nick so that  "he could 'come over' some afternoon to [Nick's] garden" (83) and catch a glimpse of Daisy whom he had waited five years for.  Gatsby was using Nick to see her. His friendship with Nick became secondary to his passion for Daisy. Had Gatsby not loved her, he would have never been a friend with Nick because he would not have someone to use.  This selfish behavior is also present in Klipspringer, Gatsby's houseguest, when he replies to Nick with uncertainty about his presence at Gatsby's funeral, "Well, I'll try. I'm staying with some people in Greenwich and there's a picnic or something. What I called up about was a pair of shoes I left [at Gatsby's house]" (177).  Klipspringer takes Gatsby's death with such levity, implying that the funeral is on the same plane of insignificance