Blindness In The Great Gatsby

On the western side of Long Island, a charming young man captures the attention of East Egg with his new money in the 20’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, follows Nick Carraway’s retelling of the tragic story of the great Jay Gatsby. His friend Nick Carraway admits Gatsby represents everything everyone should hate, but he insists that Gatsby was a great man. Despite this, Gatsby’s blindness from his restless dreams, materialistic values, and dishonesty contradicts his “greatness”.
Throughout the novel, Gatsby is a restless dreamer. His dreams are anxiety inducing, which causes him to do things nonstop to ensure his dreams would come true. In the article The Greatness of Gatsby, the writer praises Gatsby for his undying belief in the promise of everything falling into line; “Gatsby is great for having paid life the compliment of believing its promise”. Despite his undying belief that inspires Gatsby to conquer his dreams, it blinds him of a false reality which ultimately backfires on Gatsby and affects everyone around him. For example, throughout the summer,

During Nick and Gatsby’s car ride, Gatsby questions Nick about what rumors he’s heard about him. After Nick admits to what he’s heard, Gatsby insists clearing the air about the “false” rumors by explaining is past with pieces of evidence sitting in his pocket. Gatsby talks about being “the son of wealthy people in the middle west—all dead now” (Fitzgerald 65). Nick curiously questions what part of the middle west Gatsby is from, and in response, Gatsby says San Francisco. Here, Gatsby claiming he is from the Midwest but from San Francisco is a blatant lie because San Francisco is in the West, not in the Midwest. In addition to this, at Gatsby’s funeral, his “dead” father arrives to pay respect. Through these instances of Gatsby lying so many times about his past ultimately ruins his chance of being considered great because he is a