Examples Of Deception In The Great Gatsby

The Fake Persona of Gatsby: Deception for Self-protection as well as Naïve Love in The Great Gatsby

Deception is common in many stories as well as real life. There may be various purpose for people to hide their real persona when socializing with others. In F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby deceives everyone he meets about his past. He makes a fake persona regarding his education, business as well as family background by pretending himself to be a well-educated gentle man despite actually coming from a poor family in Mid-west and becoming rich through illegal affairs such as distributing illegal alcohol and trading stolen securities. Such deception does not aim to help or harm other people, but rather aims to match his

One of them is the narration of Gatsby watching the green light: “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of a dock, ” in which Nick describes Gatsby standing on the lawn, reaching toward the green light that he later learns is located at the end of Daisy’s dock (24). Nick has not yet know Gatsby but is quite aware of his lavish mansion and extravagant parties. Here Nick notes that, despite his material possessions, there is still something that Gatsby is longing and is beyond his capability, which turns out to be his idealism point of view and naïve love towards Daisy. Throughout the novel, Gatsby holds the wrong belief that Daisy is still the girl he met in the past, loving him deeply. However, this belief is all his self-deception. At the middle of the novel, when Gatsby and Daisy have embarked on their affair, Nick describes Gatsby as “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy,” in which Nick confesses that Gatsby’s affection towards Daisy originate not only from the current form of Daisy but also his nostalgic feeling toward their past

At that moment, he should be quite aware of the fact that Daisy is no longer in love with him anymore, and it is irrational for him to protect Daisy. However, he still persists such naïve view on the Daisy, which reflects the limitations of human rationality. In real life, someone may be aware of the fact that it is rational for them to do something; however, their affections or emotions may drive them to go the opposite way. For example, almost everyone understand that taking drug will damage their health, but there are still large number of people taking drugs because of their addiction and irrational seek of short-lasting