Examples Of Masks In The Great Gatsby

The Great Deception For a multitude of people in this generation, the concept of a “mask” has become an integral part of their lives. Whether that mask be in the form of layers of makeup, an anonymous name on a message board online, a fake social media account; it doesn’t matter. A mask is simply a mask, in the end; a false front used to conceal imperfections. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, a fair accumulation of characters don “masks” throughout the course of the plot to do just this, including the likes of Myrtle Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Jordan Baker. Myrtle Wilson, the unsatisfied wife of George Wilson, a poor auto-mechanic who lives in the Valley of the Ashes, wishes to be removed from her current social standing and skyrocketed straight

He sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season, spring and fall.’ He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one before us…Suddenly with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. ‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed.” (97)

This shows Daisy’s shallowness and how Gatsby flaunts his money to impress her, instead of using more traditional methods of building a relationship. Gatsby’s mask got him far, but was in the end the cause of his demise. An amateur golf player, Jordan Baker is an acquaintance of both the Buchanan’s and Gatsby’s. Almost the near opposite of Daisy, Jordan is a very cynical, very direct woman who Nick eventually starts dating. However, as time goes on, Nick discovers that Jordan hides behind a mask of deceit, and is not really who she says she is. “She was incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world…” (64). Jordan also happens to be dishonest, that is, cheat, with her career, as well. Her dishonesty doesn’t bring about her downfall, but it does eventually cause Nick to unceremoniously dump her before leaving the tainted streets of New York for