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Examples Of Jay Gatsby Phony

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What defines a person’s true identity? Is it a birth name? Is it family and upbringing? Is it a set of personality traits? Is it the values and intentions of the person? Is it honors, degrees, or accomplishments of some kind? Is it the person’s DNA? I think a person’s true Identity is defined by who they are and how they act around people. Phony, a term used to describe a person who acts like a person who they are really not, is opposite of a person’s true identity. After reading the book “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I think the main character Jay Gatsby is a phony and fakes his true identity around other people in the story.

First reason why I think Jay Gatsby is a phony is because he lied to everyone about the source of his money. In the story Jay Gatsby tells everyone that he inherited his wealth from his family when his parents died, but later this is proven false when it is revealed that Gastby’s money is made in an illegal way which was bootlegging alcohol. The extent of Gatsby's criminal activities is confirmed by Tom Buchanan t when he shares that Gatsby and “Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores…and sold grain alcohol over the counter,” (133) an illegal venture during prohibition. Which proves that Gatsby’s money was made through illegal ways. …show more content…

Quote from the story, “I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors had been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition'” (pg. 65). Shows that he did say such things to Daisy. The true past of Jay Gatsby is revealed in chapter 4 when it is revealed that Gatsby's real name is James Gatz and he is from a poor family from North Dakota. It is also revealed that he changed his name to Jay Gatsby after he was separated from

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This all makes the life of Gatsby appear to be an entire facade. One way in which Jay Gatsby puts on a false front is when he is talking about his money and how he has come to gain all of his wealth. He tells Nick that he inherited all of his money from his family in the Midwest. In the novel, Gatsby says, “My family all died and I came into a great deal of money.” (Fitzgerald 70)

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He tried to cover up his past life by giving them a false name. “ Jay Gatz - that was really, or at least legally his name” (75). This shows that Gatsby lied about his name and told them something totally different to make other people think otherwise about his name. “ The idea was that they were lying to someone that they could potentially deceive” ( The lying game). It also shows that Gatsby can somewhat not be trusted because if he will lie about his name he would lie about anything else.

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Jay Gatsby was living the American dream high on life and loaded with money that is until he was killed. Jay Gatsby was Originally an incredibly secretive man was shrouded in mystery. For example, during Jay Gatsby’s summer party within his mansion in West Egg, an immeasurable amount of rumors about him were floating around such as “he killed a man once” (Fitzgerald 48). This is one rumor of many but this anonymity allowed Jay Gatsby to operate in secret and allow him to rapidly grow financially. Gatsby had originally set himself up good and had nothing to worry about to the fact that “he doesn’t want trouble with anybody” (Fitzgerald 48).

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This given piece of information makes it clear that Jay Gatsby has created a series of lies in order for him to be someone he is truly not. Which places Gatsby in a network of lies, as everyone is in a constant question about who he really is. It gets to the point where people start to rumour and create lies about Gatsby themselves for example, “I don’t think it’s so much that,” argued Lucille skeptically; “it’s more that he was a German spy during the war. Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once... It’s more that he was a German spy during the war..

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Lying is a part of human nature, many want to seem more interesting than they truly are. People will lie and go out of their way to achieve this goal. Many, like the characters in The Great Gatsby, put up a front to gain respect and attention; when really they are nothing more than deceitful liars. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the actions of the main characters to expose their real, blundered personalities. Jay Gatsby stands for the new money side of the American Dream, as well as how deceiving it can be.

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Jay Gatsby born James Gatz was born into a poor family from North Dakota. When he was 17 James changed his name from Gatz to Gatsby while working for Dan Cody on Lake Superior. Cody inspired young Gatsby to become wealthy and chase his luxuries, when Cody died Gatsby was determined to find his way of wealth. Gatsby’s way of wealth was bootlegging, which is a corrupt and greedy way of making money. During the 1920s prohibition was active and since alcohol was not legal, Gatsby decided that he should bootleg alcohol.

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The eponymous character was born the day he met Dan Cody and invented himself a new life. Ultimately, Gatsby created and fabricated his own ideal ‘identity’ to meet his expectations: “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself […] so he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year- old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.” Two identities therefore arise: Jay Gatsby and James Gatz. Yet one can almost see the threads of James Gatz behind the Gatsby facade. With Daisy, Gatsby loses the carefully constructed identity: he reverts to the young soul seeking for his place in the world, with “a touch of panic” in his voice when he realises that Daisy has “slipped away [and become something] no longer tangible”.

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The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island sprang from his platonic conception of himself ” (98). The implication that Gatsby already had the name picked out shows his dissatisfaction for the simple life that he lived and his desire to become someone else, someone who could pull off the guise of a gentleman who was born of old money. Nick stating that the new name was because of Gatsby’s “platonic conception of himself” indicates that Gatsby believed that he understood his values enough to know that throughout his life, he will try to aim for that goal of becoming a wealthy man who has a sphere of influence, basically, the American dream. These conceptions of Gatsby and his ideals about wealth are tools that the author uses to demonstrate the reasons that

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