The Great Gatsby is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book and almost universally considered his most impactful work. The novel follows the dialog of Nick Carraway throughout his time in New York, especially focusing on his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, who is trying to enter a relationship with Nick’s married cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Although the work is written from Nick’s point of view, occasionally obscured through influences such as alcohol, his descriptions of Gatsby seem to be mostly genuine and as unaltered from the truth as Nick can make them. Although Gatsby believes his ultimate goal is to create a new future for himself & Daisy, Gatsby is actually constantly trying to relive & change his past, especially in regards to Daisy. It is this unknown internal motivation that dictates much of Gatsby’s decisions &
Jay Gatsby – Protagonist, lives in West Egg, ridiculously wealthy, throws lavish parties quite frequently, made his fortune through criminal activities, in love with Daisy Daisy Buchanan – Both Protagonist and Antagonist, Fell in love with Gatsby, promised to wait for him but when asked to marry Tom she decided not to wait and moved to East Egg (which is across the lake from Gatsby), appears to act very fake to hide her pain from her husbands infidelity Tom Buchanan – Antagonist, Daisy’s wealthy husband, has multiple affairs with Myrtle, suspects something of Jay and Daisy’s relationship, which then results in an angry confrontation Nick Carraway – Protagonist, moves to West Egg to learn more about the bond business, Daisy’s cousin, helps
Jay Gatsby – He is the protagonist in the story. He is a wealthy young man who lives in a huge mansion in West Egg. He throws wild extravagant parties every weekend. It is a mystery to everyone who he is, and how he made his money. He met Daisy and fell in love with her 5 years before the main action of the novel, before he went to fight in Germany in WW1.
Nick’s generosity and constant support made it easier for Gatsby to finally open up to him and tell him what his childhood was really like. “James Gatz, the son of a North Dakota railroad freight agent, is ambitious to escape his origins through his adherence to the American Dream of success; but his boyhood endeavors to become a self-made man in the Benjamin Franklin tradition fail” (Bruccoli, “Jay Gatsby” para. 2). This essentially explains Gatsby’s difficult past, and the facade he had created. He shared his childhood dreams, of being a wealthy man and suggesting that one day he would like to find love. Daisy was the first woman to meet his expectations and once he met her, time stood still for him.
Gatsby, was always trying to impress people with his fancy cars and always hosting parties, it was like he was searching for something that he just could not find. It was not until Nick moved next door and his cousin Daisy returned to Gatsby’s life, that Gatsby finally felt no need to be what everyone else wanted him to be, only what Daisy always needed. The love affair between Jay Gatsby and Daisy was so vividly portrayed in this story and Gatsby thought for sure this love he had for her would end his search to fill his void. You see, the only reason he had ever started his fame to fortune was to only be able to support her one day.
John F. Kennedy once said, “...those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, a young man who recently moved to New York to learn the bond business. The focus of the story is on the happenings around Nick as he becomes familiarized with life in Long Island. Nick’s neighbor, Jay Gatsby, is seemingly at the center of the focus, as he is the connection between most characters in the story. Gatsby is a self-made, rich man who loves Nick’s cousin, Daisy Buchannan, who he met years earlier before he went to war.
Unfortunately, he had to leave Daisy to go to war. After the war, he was determined to find Daisy but five years later, his feelings are not reciprocated; Daisy toys with him, uses Gatsby to make her husband jealous, and allows Gatsby to take the blame for the murder of her husband’s mistress. The most tragic of the three protagonists studied is Jay Gatsby because he demoralizes himself in a futile attempt at expired love, he has few genuine companions, and he cannot let go of the past. Throughout the novel, the contrast between Gatsby's pure past and corrupt future illustrates the degree to which he changes to impress his love, Daisy.
Thus, characters in the novel seek pleasure above all else, as seen through the relationships of Tom and Daisy and Jordan and Nick. For Jay Gatsby, his heart belongs to the married Daisy Buchanan and he longs to reignite the fire that once blazed between the two lovers. Gatsby, who was once a penniless soldier and lover to Buchanan, had been absent in Buchanan’s life for five years, but reappears as a self-made millionaire. Gatsby illegally sold alcohol to become rich and did this solely to win back Buchanan’s love. He gloats his affluence to her by throwing extravagant parties and flaunting his luxuries Out of love, Gatsby goes above and beyond to win back Daisy’s love.
Great Gatsby Character Analysis F. Scott Fitzgerald, known as the author of the great American classic “The Great Gatsby”, a novel set in the “roaring twenties”- a decade, earning the infamous moniker due to the eruption of pop culture, and “scandalous” dance crazes. The Great Gatsby is filled with multiple elaborate characters such as Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan, all who of which have their fair share of drama in the novel. Gatsby is the legendary man behind the renowned parties, lavish mansions and cars, and foremost the estranged lover of Daisy Buchanan, which is the biggest motivator of the plot. In the novel, everything always leads back to Gatsby and his trail of lies, but in Gatsby’s defense, his loyal and driven personality
The story The Great Gatsby is told from the perspective of a man named Nick Carraway. In the story Nick follows the glamorous life of a man named Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a rich man that is in love with Nick's cousine a woman named Daisy Buchanan. Over the course of the story we learn many things about Gatby from bad to good. We learn that Gastbys main reason for getting rich is to get a woman by the name of Dasiy Buchanan.
Nick is a loyal friend of Gatsby’s. An example of Jay caring about Nick can be seen when he sends over a few servants to take care of Nick’s overgrown lawn and shrubs. Whether or not he did this for Daisy or just for Nick is up for debate, but there has to have been a shred of thought in Gatsby’s mind that he was doing this for his friend. Another example is early on in the novel, when Gatsby invites Nick on his hydroplane. Surely a man like Nick would love to own one, and Gatsby was generous enough to invite him.
He focused on getting money and daisy more that he focused on what things REALLY made him happy. When Nick invited Daisy to Gatsbys was when gatsby started to glow. He becomes a whole new person. Jay already had part of the american dream.
Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby’s relationship was not mutually beneficial, which is not how a good relationship should be. Their relationship ended up with Nick in a mental institute and a distaste for New York City. To begin, as soon as Gatsby knew who Nick was, he saw him as a way to get to Daisy. Gatsby invites him to the party, takes him out on the lake, and treats him nicely mostly as a way to get Nick to bring his cousin over and get her close to Gatsby. Daisy is Gatsby’s number one goal and he proves his obsession over this goal throughout the movie, and to him Nick is a great tool for this.
He main character, Jay Gatsby, was a man of new wealth. Coming from an unstable family, it was Gatsby’s goal to become wealthy for one girl, Daisy Buchanan. To Gatsby’s dismay, Daisy came from old wealth, which caused great conflict throughout the whole story. Gatsby was known as a self-made man; however, he wasn’t the kind of self-made man most strive to be. Making all of his money through his illegal bootlegging of
After noticing that Daisy’s cousin lives right next door, Gatsby asks for his neighbor, Nick Carraway, to have Mrs. Buchanan over for tea. As Nick and Daisy commence their gathering for tea, Gatsby stops by Nick’s residence and tries to act suave to impress Daisy. Not everything goes the way Jay Gatsby has planned. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, James Gatz is not great for the reasons that he is a liar, a stalker and tries to ruin Daisy’s marriage to Tom Buchanan. Jay Gatsby is not a great character, because he has been stalking his past love to ultimately make the decision to move to West Egg.
