Jay Gatsby Great

Secondly, Gatsby is a very mysterious character. Nick has been Gatsby’s neighbor, or so he thinks, and has never met him. Nick says “It was Gatsby’s mansion, or, rather, as I didn’t know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name” (5). This shows you that even Gatsby’s own neighbor does not even know who he is; which shows that Gatsby is mysterious. Later on, once he actually meets Gatsby, Nick goes on to say “I don’t like mysteries, and I don’t understand why you won’t come out frankly and tell me what you want. Why does it all have to come through Miss Baker?” (71). As expected, this frustrates Nick and gives him more reason to believe that Gatsby is mysterious and not trustworthy. Nick doesn’t understand why someone who seems to be his friend is hiding so much

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.

When considering Nick’s reliability as a narrator, several contradictions also exist concerning the consistency and dependability of his thoughts about Gatsby. Although Nick states that “Gatsby represented everything for which I had an unaffected scorn” (2) he also describes how Gatsby is “worth the whole damn bunch put together” (154) and that “there was something gorgeous about him [Gatsby]” (2). The above quotes contrast both Nick’s unfavorable and positive opinions of Gatsby and further add to his volatility and unpredictability. The greatest inconsistency occurs when Nick conveys how “Gatsby turned out all right in the end (2)”, despite later saying that he “disapproved of him from beginning to end” (154). It seems that by frequently changing his opinions on Gatsby, Nick is unsure and hesitant on portraying Gatsby’s character.

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

Since he died for taking the wrath of something he did not do. Gatsby is a man who struggled to get what he wants and who much reach a certain status before marrying the woman he is in love with. He was basically an outsider who comes from an uncertain past. Gatsby was able to win the hearts of many of the people around him with his tales of adventures and showing off his wealth. Yet, there is not a view that shows the success of Gatsby. He tries to convince Nick about his upbringings and his heroic exploits. Gatsby’s stories seemed extraordinary to the point where people questioned it but they still believe

Throughout the novel, Gatsby exhibits his persistent ambition to achieve greatness. Firstly, when describing Gatby’s past, Nick states that Gatsby “sprang from his Platonic conception of himself,” illustrating his high expectations for himself (98). Meeting with Nick for the first time, Gatby’s father mentions that “he knew he

In The Great Gatsby, Nick’s perspective on others is much different compared to how he responds to Gatsby. Nick sees Tom, Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle, and Wolfshiem all self-centered and shady individuals who are lost in the time era. However, Nick is enlightened by Gatsby; he is interested in Gatsby and uncovering his inner realness since he recognized many characteristics that he wishes people would hold (Bevilacqua). In the first chapter of the novel, when leaving New York heading to the Midwest, he says that he has lost all hope for humans because they have seemed to have lost their morality (Will). Nick continues to say he is one of the few honest people he has met. When he meets Gatsby and starts to discover Gatsby’s emotions, he finds that Gatsby is different from all his other acquaintances; he’s true to his word and proves it all throughout the story.

The real contradiction to Nick is The Great Gatsby himself, Jay. Jay and Nick share a similar small town upbringing but Jay was able to parle his stolen trades into the corrupted version of the American Dream. Most of what Nick knows about Jay is based on his reputation and it’s not until they actually meet and Nick sees the “quality of distortion” in Jay’s New York lifestyle that Nick sees for himself the illusion that Jay created. Nick is attracted to the high life that Gatsby has created in the valley of ashes. Who can blame him with all the lavish parties, cars, mansions, women and other temptations. It’s like Fitzgerald has placed Nick in the Garden of Eden and the two characters; Nick and Jay, represent the good

Fitzgerald chose Nick to narrate the text because his perspective creates a multifaceted view of the world Fitzgerald portrays. He is an outsider to the wealthy materialistic world in which he lives. His similarity to Gatsby in that respect helps us gain an appreciation for Gatsby’s character, but although Nick and Gatsby are both outsiders Nick fails to fully understand Gatsby. This appreciation but lack of full understanding gives the reader a very different perspective than a narration from Gatsby’s point of view or that of anyone else in the novel. Nick is caught between the perspective of the man “looking up and wondering” (35) and the man in the party. Gatsby is neither; he holds the party but then scarcely shows up. Far from being an outsider to the world of wealth and materialism, he seems to embody it. Gatsby and Nick both disdain the world of vacuous wealth, but they do so from different perspectives. Gatsby has everything he needs to be part of it and chooses not to; Nick is caught on the edge, unsure whether or not he wants that world, but ultimately he cannot have it. If Nick is an outsider unsure about trying to become an insider, Gatsby is an insider trying, studiously, to make himself an outsider.

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

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, is a story filled with love and loss. Love of people, love of things, loss of dreams, loss of innocence, loss of love… The Great Gatsby can be seen as a romance novel, or a tragedy, or possibly even a coming of age story for the narrator, Nick Carraway. His position as narrator of this novel shows how Fitzgerald wanted to keep the mythical and almost surreal nature of Mr. Gatsby. Gatsby has money, a high social ranking, extravagant parties, and a girl to dream about endlessly, whereas Nick exists almost in the shadows of Gatsby with no dream at all. Nick watches as Gatsby’s life changes and falls apart around him, and Nick’s opinion of him varies and fluctuates at times, but he was also the closest friend Gatsby had ever had. Nick illustrates loyalty, divergence, and a lack of ambition throughout his telling of the story, but he is in no way a static character. He is also human, and is flawed, and has kept his morals throughout life, making him the only character in the story who can really change at all. When Nick moved to West Egg, he probably did not expect to learn so much in the

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

One thing that surprises me about Nick is that he was loyal to Gatsby who seemed likeable enough but empty inside. He seemed like the picture was more important than the real person. Nick was interested in person and would put himself in a bad light to help a friend. “I didn’t want to go to the city. I wasn’t worth a decent stroke

Regarding Gatsby, Nick "had enough of all of them [referring to Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan]"(Fitzgerald 79) and he thought Gatsby was "despicable."(Fitzgerald 79) This is all just after the accident. By the end of the whole story though, Nick's sympathy toward Gatsby improved. He felt terrible that no one paid honor to this man or cared that he was dead.

Although to Nick, Gatsby seems at once completely unoriginal, extremely knowable, being with him, he notes, was "like skimming hastily through a dozen magazines” (Fitzgerald 55). Gatsby, in Nick’s point of view, was disruptive. He is unable to trust Gatsby, for a fear that he would just vanish at the moment in which a promise leans toward its fulfillment.