There is a controversy over whether Jay Gatsby is a good man with pure intentions or a corrupted man with evil intentions. Jay Gatsby uses all his wealth only for pure intentions. He is willing to do anything to be with his love of his life Daisy. He will go to any means to ensure a future of love and happiness with the girl of his dreams. There are those who would argue that Jay Gatsby never intended to be a good honest man.
There are a lot of rumors speculating around Gatsby’s wealth. Some say that he got his money from Kaiser Wilhelm, while others think it was all simply inherited. All of this was false, but what is true is that he had help from other people, and the person who helped him the most is Dan Cody. Before he was Jay Gatsby as the people know him as now, he was “James Gatz — that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career — when he saw Dan Cody’s yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior.”
Some say Jay Gatsby is a horrendous criminal that cares only for his greed for wealth. Others say his criminal actions are justifiable because it is to attain Daisy. Does Gatsby deserve pity or is he a greedy scumbag that deserved his fate. Gatsby is worthy of pity because he is selfless and moral throughout the novel. Gatsby is selfless because he only cares about Daisy and only got wealthy to be with Daisy.
Jay Gatsby’s name is a product of his enigmatic imagination. It is revealed that he was born as James Gatz in North Dakota, contradicting his claims of been raised in the European cities of Rome, Moscow, and Venice. As stated, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island sprang from his Platonic conception of himself” (Fitzgerald 98). Gatsby despised poverty and longed for wealth. He was going to inherit $25,000 from Dan Cody, but “what remained of the millions went intact to Ella Kaye” (Fitzgerald 100).
The novel,The Great Gatsby, calls the character Jay Gatsby ‘Great’. As the story proceeds, Nick Carroway explains Gatsby as only wanting one thing, Nick’s cousin Daisy. Gatsby met his flame five years prior, and has since been away at war and Daisy has since gotten married. With Daisy marrying up to ‘Old Money’ Tom Buchanan, Gatsby must do everything in his power to impress Daisy. Gatsby deals in shady businesses in order to gain as much fortune and spend that fortune on his obsession.
This Jay Gatsby is great because he is a wondrous exciting person, at least to the outside world. But behind this bold rich exterior, he’s hiding that almost all of his stories and accomplishments are lies. Gatsby is a crook who made his fortune by bootlegging and most likely illegal mob activity with Meyer Wolfsheim. Calling Gatsby great in this sense is strongly ironic. Behind closed doors, he is nothing but a sham.
He helped a wealth named Dan Cody who took him in. The name Jay Gatsby came from when Gatz “invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby” (Fitzgerald, 98) meaning that Jay Gatsby was an enhanced reiteration of himself. Overall, Gatsby appears to be this wealthy mogul that had a great past but, in reality, Gatsby is really a man who was fed up with his unsuccessful life and wanted to be more than a
From the image he projected out to the public, to his wealth, to even his name was fake. This is stated in text 4, “The fact that he is hiding a secret accentuates this differentiation, and while some aspects of his new life make him appear great, these are somewhat overshadowed by the parts of his personality that lead him to create this façade… The fact that the book is called ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a satirical choice by the author, as the title itself shows off the void beneath Jay Gatsby’s sparkling exterior. .” To add on, text 2 states, “Gatsby’s money comes from crime. His parties, house, and material wealth don’t make him happy.
Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby is the deception he goes to length to wrap around himself. When we become acquainted with Mr. Jay Gatsby we learn that there is more than seems to the eye and although he may not have meant to mean any harm. Jay Gatsby formerly known as Jay Gatz opens up to us through a given introduction into his background as one of an American dream, in which he has built himself up without regard for morals behind how he came by his wealth. Even then with the righteous intention of proclaiming his love for his one sweetheart he outs himself as a person he is not, which would come back to haunt him in unexpected ways. Deception regardless of intention is still deceit and therefore warrants no reason for anyone to respond positively to an event when one is willing to stoop to deception to reach an advantage.
Despite the fact he receives everything he desires in life, he is still missing his Holy Grail; Daisy Buchanan. The bottom line of Jay Gatsby’s greatness is he will work and constantly to acquire what he yearns for. Despite all of this, if any circumstances arise attempting to halt him from his journey, Jay Gatsby stays true to his self. This truly reveals why Jay Gatsby is a great
In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is deceitful. He is deceitful when he lies about his past and his money to falsely attract Daisy’s attention. This leads to Daisy’s changed opinion of Gatsby once she learns the truth and an entangled mayhem between Gatsby, Tom and Daisy. Most importantly, in the end it ultimately leads to Gatsby’s death.
Jay Gatsby was a man who supposedly created his own success, but did he really? When Jay Gatsby was still established as James Gatz, he lived in a worn down place, with no money, and the mere dream to become someone his parents weren’t. “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people -- his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all,” (Fitzgerald 98). Gatsby wanted to become “a son of God,” (Fitzgerald 98). Which is what he ultimately became.
Jay Gatsby was head over heels for Daisy Buchanan. However, he came from a poor family and Daisy from a rich one, and Daisy’s parents would not allow her to be with a poor man. After fighting in the war for about a year, he spent the next four years working to get his money so that he could be with Daisy. Not a day went by for those five long years that Gatsby did not think about Daisy. Gatsby said that he was, “‘way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute’”
On a scale from 1 to 10, how “great” are you? Can someone judge whether a person is great or not great? If there is a standard for this notion, one could list some steps to reach the state of greatness. Possessing a great personality, being wealthy, being honorable, being admired can all add up to the idea of success and being “great.” There is a rife of details in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby where the author tries to convey to the readers how great Gatsby is or, simply, not great.
Throughout the novel and the movie, the reader/viewer becomes more and more skeptical of Jay Gatsby’s true identity. Jay Gatsby could be described as a man with unrealistic dreams, and a con man which leads him into an ultimate destruction of the town around him. Jay Gatsby had a very unrealistic dream, which was that he wanted to continue his life with Daisy how it was in the previous five years. Jay Gatsby, before going off to war, met a beautiful young lady named Daisy. They were madly in love, however when Jay had to go off to war, Daisy
