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Who Is Jay Gatsby Truly Great

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Is 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 …show more content…
His wealth is never hidden as Fitzgerald is sure to include his beautiful mansion, luxurious cars and his on-going parties—“In his blue Gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains.” (Fitzgerald 41) Gatsby is handsome, rich and socially reputable; or so it is believed, which is proven by the way the simplest thing, like his smile is described. “It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of external reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would believe in yourself.” (Fitzgerald 49) This is Nick’s first close examination of Gatsby’s character and appearance which occurs in Chapter 3. …show more content…
First Gatsby having everything, then suddenly nothing, demonstrates his beyond questionable distance from greatness. Overall, if he was so great, how come his death is not memorized or honoured? Instead it is forgotten and ignored. “No one arrived except more police and photographers and newspaper men...” (Fitzgerald 157) Gatsby’s death is Fitzgerald’s last reminder to readers that although he has his great moments, they eventually led him to his death. “Most of those reports were a nightmare—a grotesque, circumstantial, eager and untrue.” (Fitzgerald 155) Fitzgerald explains that no matter the great moments Gatsby had, they were all forgotten or overpowered by his demise, demonstrating that as a whole, he is far from

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