...Camille Warden Mrs. Cole 4/9/13 PDP English II Gatsby Final Essay “’Her voice is full of money,’ He said suddenly.” (120) The Design of Jay Gatsby If you were to ask someone about the character Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, they will probably describe him similarly to the fashion that the book’s narrator Nick does. He is perceived as a kind, generous, and down to earth man amongst the cutthroat wealthy elite. They may criticize Daisy portraying her as being the cruel temptress who brought him to his doom, or they might see Gatsby and Daisy’s love as immortal comparing the two to Romeo and Juliet. Gatsby on the other hand you will rarely ever hear being demonized. He is seen as mysterious, sad, romantic, and strange, but never overbearing or sexist. He is far from the worst character in the novel and may still be the most generous one in spite of his ambition tainted love, but he shouldn’t be impervious to critique since his mindset is widely prevalent in society and quite harmful if not checked. Through the chosen quote, Fitzgerald reveals the inherent materialism of Gatsby’s love for Daisy, illustrating the dehumanizing effect of female objectification by men. When all five main characters swarm frenetically around Tom’s house then decide to go to town in a desperate attempt to break the unspoken stalemate between Daisy’s husband and lover, Nick postulates that her husband Tom already knows about the affair because Daisy has “got an...
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...Nick Carraway was a young man from Minnesota who moves to New York in 1922 and turns 30, in the book Nick is one of Jay Gatsby’s Closest friends. Gatsby is there for him in his times of need, and since Nick is also Daisy’s cousin he can help him with Daisy the love of his life. Nick is also a great narrator because he can keep his temper down in almost any situation, but he doesn’t do it in a dull monotone way. Nick is always there for Jay, and he said he has many issues inside and he's not very good with money. He blows it all and spends it on very extravagant things like gorgeous parties, but Nick does his best to give him good advice and that does help Jay in very good ways. For example when the innocent woman was hit by a car Nick was...
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...F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story, The Great Gatsby, is a rags to riches story of a man named Jay Gatsby, born in 1892. Raised in North Dakota as a squandering farmer’s son, Gatsby later became a millionaire living in West Egg, where all the new money lived. Jay Gatsby was an iconic figure of a tragic hero because he came from great mental stature, endured great physical and emotional suffering, and had a tragic flaw that inevitably resulted in his downfall. Jay Gatsby had many attributes of a tragic hero including being born into a family of high stature. He felt as if he was born a son of God. When he was a young child, his parents were poor farm workers in North Dakota, but Gatsby knew he was destined for greatness. As he grew, he received his...
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...that identify Jay Gatsby as a tragic hero. Some of the characteristics of that a tragic hero must have; include greatness, a weakness or a flaw, an undeserved fate and a fates’ that are not deserved and the punishment exceeding they get exceeds the crime. they committed. Jay Gatsby encompasses has all of these the characteristics of a tragic hero. Although, the author tries to portray Gatsby as a perfect person, there are still some flaws that are still noticeable. Gatsby's great life unwinds with the death of the Furthermore, even Gatsby’s ending shows that he was tragic hero. We know that Jay Gatsby was esteemed has greatness by the way others spoke of him. Nick describes him as a . He was very well mannered person and everyone who knew knows him looked up to him (pg. 53-54). He wasn’t one of the rubbish people who got recklessly get drunk, and he also didn’t doesn’t act careless like the rich (pg. 54, 188). Meyer Wolfshiem said of him, “fine fellow isn’t he”,” which shows that even Wolfshiem liked Jay Gatsby (pg. 76). In addition, even the title of the book is called, “The “Great Gatsby”,” which shows that the author Nick thought that Gatsby was a great person. Also, when Nick was leaving for his train, he told Gatsby that he's “worth he worth’s the whole bunch”, which includes Daisy, Tom and Jordan, and that shows, that Nick thought that he is exceptionally extremely great as a person and is better than most ((pg. 162). Even though Gatsby was rich, that...
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... The ‘I’ in this quote is Nick Carraway, and the ‘You’ is Jay Gatsby. The ‘whole damn bunch’ that Nick was comparing Gatsby to was the crowd of too wealthy people that inhabited New York, including the woman Gatsby loved and ultimately gave his life for. Gatsby was a man who was a projection of the hopes and dreams of his younger self. Jay Gatsby wasn’t always Jay Gatsby. He came from the humble beginnings of North Dakota as James Gatz. He had next to nothing; no money, no education, and no connections. But he was determined to make something of himself. His father said, “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he's got about improving his mind? He was always great for that. He told me I et like a hog once, and I beat him for it” (Fitzgerald 182). This showed that young Jimmy Gatz believed in the American Dream. However, all his hard work to change himself was ultimately for nothing because the American Dream is only a dream, and would lead to a path of dishonest gains and his own demise. Shrouded by rumors and secrets, Jay Gatsby is a man made from James Gatz’s imagination and dreams. He keeps his life secret to his many party goers and keeps very few friends. He is trying to escape his past the best he can, but he cannot because his entire persona is a projection of his younger self’s ambitions. Nick proves this by saying, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception...
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...Falls and Rises of Jay Gatsby Having read a genuine masterpiece by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald titled “The Great Gatsby”, I am obliged to state that this great book reminds me of another, not in the least minor, work of Jack London titled “Martin Eden”. They are both about great falls and great rises of a men pursuing happiness; lonely, struggling against Destiny and following their Dream. But what are the falls and rises in these two books that I call great? First of all, I would like to present you the London’s book. The story runs about a 21-year-old sailor who by a sheer coincidence finds himself in an apartment of a wealthy man whose son he had protected from ruffians. In the home, he is enthralled by the college-age daughter, Ruth Morse, having never encountered such a vision of feminine purity before. Spurred by his growing affection, Martin determines to live by his brain rather than his back: he will be an author. He gets to reading loads of books in public libraries, educates himself, gives up sailing and starts writing stories and sends them to different magazines to be published. But he is ignored by the publishers and is forced to live from hand to mouth. But he is inspired , enchanted by the purity, brightness of Ruth, thinks her ideal. In order to enable himself to match on her, he must upward crawl diligently. The more books he reads, the less attractive his own circle seems to him – the circle of working people, people of routine, people...
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...The True Killer of Jay Gatsby Jay Gatsby lies dead, sprawled across the floatie in his pool. But whose fault is it when the question question of responsibility comes up? At the end of the story The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby, formerly known as James Gatz, is murdered. George Wilson is the gunman who took Gatsby's and his own life at the end of the story. However, is Wilson really to blame for Gatsby's death? With many people in the story who affect his life and his decisions, there is greater texture to the original question then noticed at first. There are many elements that contribute to the murder of Gatsby. It is clear that someone other than Mr. Wilson bears greater responsibility for this crime. Daisy Buchanan, eyes shaded with love, possesses the hand that took down the great Gatsby. Mr. Wilson, who held the gun that shot Gatsby, might not be the first person one might mention as his killer. George Wilson may have pulled the trigger, but he is merely a pawn in Myrtle and Tom’s game of love and affairs.In the end of chapter 7, Tom tells George that the yellow car isn’t his. Although this is true, George just accepts the information so easily. A minor character who never appears again, Michaelis, is a keen observer who witnesses the accident. He says that [George] “he was one of those worn-out men...He was his wife's man and not his own”(Fitzgerald,136). Fitzgerald makes it clear that George is a weak man who becomes a pawn in a big game of the American...
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...Jay Gatsby the main character in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby represents the self improvement that embodied America in all of its grit and glory during the 1920’s. It is this aspect of Gatsby that F. Scott Fitzegerald created which allows the reader to connect on a personal level making him one of the world’s most cherished and memorable fictional characters. Gatsby is a mere image of Fitzegerlds wildest imaginations and dreams. Fitzgerld always wanted wealth and notirity and he lives through is character to accomplish his goals. Fitsgerald also lives out his own inner complexity and confusions through Gasby as he himself hates the shallow thoughts and actions of the rich and famous while at the same time he despertaly wants to be a part...
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...Throughout the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Jay Gatsby’s incapability to maintain his identity is evident as everything he does is not for himself, but for Daisy. The characterization of Gatsby is important in proving that the corruption in mortality is the result of the obsession with completing a goal; consequently, Jay loses all his initial morals and develops new morals all in the hope of winning Daisy back. Simply stated, Gatsby’s actions of selling illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities, lead to this corruption. Although, Gatsby believes that his actions of bootlegging are not corrupt since it is all going towards acquiring great wealth by which he will attain Daisy’s attention and win her back. Gatsby’s...
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...work and determination. Each person has their own version of The American Dream and their attitude of achieving it can vastly vary. In the novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author displays The American Dream through a corrupt love and the idea of becoming wealthy and having the ability to acquire anything. Jay Gatsby does not truly love Daisy, rather he sees her as an object he must acquire in order to achieve his personal vision of the American Dream. First of all, Gatsby wants success and views Daisy as the means to achieving it. Second, Daisy is treated and viewed as a possession that Jay Gatsby has to attain under any circumstances to fulfill his American Dream. Lastly, Gatsby is trying to set up an image and reputation for...
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...Fitzgerald’s handsome, rich, and well-known Jay Gatsby truly great? Several characterizations of Jay Gatsby demonstrate how Gatsby goes beyond his own descent and creates the impression of being great, which will, however, continue to be only an impression. Readers are exposed to Gatsby’s many great achievements, including his ascent into excessive wealth and reputation, his abiding pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, and of course his tragic, galvanized death. The exposure of his poorly explained fortune and questionable social status, his fading, hopeless relationship with Daisy, and his dreary passing, emerges him from his reality, which is what shatters the glimmering illusion and ultimately establishes that Jay Gatsby, contrary to the novel’s...
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...THE GREAT GATSBY ESSAY: TRAGIC HERO OR ANTI HERO In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we read about a man named Jay Gatsby and his life in Long Island the summer after World War One. When reading the novel, you might have different point of views on Gatsby and whether he is the great man the narrator, Nick Carraway portrays him to be. Here we will decide if he is an example of "The American Dream" consisting of wealth and women or if he is just a manipulative fraud. Gatsby can be portrayed as someone living "The American Dream" because he came from nothing to being a nouveau riche. Gatsby lived the dream because he gets the girl of his dreams and is very wealthy for a while before his early death. We read about all of Gatsby's mansion parties and his lavish lifestyle. "There was...
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...Compare and Contrast: Jay Gatsby and Dick Diver Griffin Gilmore Mrs. Clark Humanities 28 November 2012 In the novels Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night by Scott Fitzgerald the two main characters, Jay and Dick both face problems in achieving their dreams and face much adversity trying to achieve it. In both novels pursuing their dreams leads to their demise due to their failure to realize that success is from within, not from the superficial qualities that the society around them looks up to. The first difference between Gatsby and Dick is how they value money. Jay Gatsby believes that with money he can buy his happiness, he plans on using his money to fall in love with him and have her leave her current husband (Tom) to be with himself. Dick on the other hand doesn't like all the wealth of Nicole and trues to distance himself way from it. When Nicole and himself start out they are living off of his few thousand a year. Nicole's parents then buy them their own clinic. Much like Gatsby his wealth by no means that he is happy. “had wedded a desire for money to an essentially unacquisitive nature … he had never felt more sure of himself … than at the time of his marriage to Nicole. Yet he has been swallowed up like a gigolo, and somehow permitted his arsenal to be locked up in the Warren safety deposit vaults.” This just goes to show how even with their almost endless income, they were not satisfied, which properly illustrates the time period which took place then,...
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...Throughout the novel the author uses small moments to develop a character’s personality and sense of self. In the Great Gatsby there are many descriptive nuances that contribute to a character’s development. James Gatz, also known as Jay Gatsby, character was developed through the small moments he traveled through in his childhood and through the time of his passing. Jay Gatsby started off as an extravagant and ostentatious man. Everything he has done in his adult life has been with the sole purpose of fulfilling the most unrealistic of dreams of recapturing the past. Gatsby's rags-to-riches success story makes him an embodiment of the American dream. He started life with little and by the time he was a young man he had even less. There's being dissatisfied...
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...has a tragic flaw which eventually leads to his downfall. Gatsby might not seem to be the everyday man, in reality he actually is. At one point Gatsby's past is being examined and his parents are described as "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" which shows the readers that he came from humble roots and was just like everyone else (Fitzgerald 95). He was not born into wealth and privilege and did not have any special background that gave him an advantage over others. Another instance in which Gatsby is portrayed as the average man is when Nick is discussing Gatsby's past and he says, "So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent"(Fitzgerald 95). This shows that the identity that Gatsby has created for himself is that of any average, immature boy. As the novel progresses further you find Nick recounting Gatsby's past and describing him as being a "penniless young man" which again shows the reader that Gatsby is really just the common man with a big dream (Fitzgerald 141). This statement helps take away some of the disguise of wealth and overwhelming power, and brings him into a more human perspective. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is a tragic hero because he displays the fundamental characteristics of modern tragic hero. Gatsby's tragic flaw is that his view of the world is obstructed by his own naive idealism. It is very clear to the reader that Gatsby is idealistic when, while Nick is over at Gatsby's house, he...
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