ipl-logo

Examples Of Masks In The Great Gatsby

742 Words3 Pages

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 …show more content…

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

Show More
Related
1457 Words | 6 Pages

“Narrator Nick Carraway tells the story of a summer among the wealthy and privileged; a stockbroker of limited means, Nick socializes with his cousin Daisy and her wealthy husband Tom Buchanan (with whom Nick graduated from Yale); Daisy’s girlhood friend, professional golfer Jordan Baker; and his Long Island neighbor, Jay Gatsby, a host of raucous parties in the fictitious “West Egg.” Nick, Jordan, Gatsby, and Daisy plot to have Daisy leave Tom for Gatsby. The plan is thwarted when Tom’s mistress Myrtle is killed by Gatsby’s car (driven, Nick believes, by Daisy), an event that leads her husband, Tom’s mechanic, George, to murder Gatsby. As narrator, Nick is less focused on this romance plot than on Gatsby himself and what Gatsby can teach him about his own situation. Nick has come East, he tells us at the start of the novel, to learn the bond business; later he indicates that he’s also in New York so that he may enjoy the company of men and to escape the increasing social expectations back in the Midwest, where he is being cajoled to marry.

Read More
2158 Words | 9 Pages

He also described him as a bad husband and did certain things to his wife. Jordan Baker is Daisy's friend. Nick found a couple of things appealing about her. Her slender body and grey eyes were those things. Gatsby is standing on his balcony and is stretching his arms out to the green light.

Read More
655 Words | 3 Pages

1. The point I find to be the most crucial to the plot in Chapter 1 is the Buchanan’s blatant unhappiness. Tom is obviously unhappy in his married life because, not only is he restless in the sense that he moves frequently, but he also is having an open affair. Daisy is also obviously unhappy because of the way she so readily opened up to Nick, whom she did not know well despite their familial relation, and in the way she interacted with Tom. Even if I had not read this story before, I would have picked up on the fact that this singular point would be a catalyst to the rest of the plot.

Read More
652 Words | 3 Pages

The Great Gatsby: Immorality in the Eye of the Beholder Delving into F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best-selling novel, The Great Gatsby, one meets a plethora of well-to-do characters. From the very beginning the protagonist, Nick Carraway, depicts how immorality and betrayal shape his newfound life in West Egg. The first scent of true betrayal comes when Nick is offered to visit his cousin Daisy’s house. Nick is hastily introduced to Jordan Baker, who later tells him that Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, has “another woman” in New York. Instead of this being a shocking, broad, or unheard of statement, Jordan says it as if it were yesterday’s news.

Read More
1201 Words | 5 Pages

Introduction The Great Gatsby is written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald who is the most famous chronicler of America in 1920s, an era that he dubbed “the Jazz Age.” The book reveals the disillusion of American dream through the love story between Gatsby and Daisy. In this book, what Gatsby cared about was only Daisy, and even he died for Daisy. It seems that Gatsby loves Daisy very much.

Read More
918 Words | 4 Pages

Scott Fitzgerald’s work, “The Great Gatsby”, Jordan Baker is developed as a female character who undergoes self realization in the face of societal oppression through her independent characterization and through the overall theme of social rankings in the novel. She was born into money and she will accept nothing less than what life owes her. She also is ready to defy societal norms as most of the women Jordan’s age have husbands and children while she shows the world that she can be completely fine on her own. Jordan Baker perseveres through this novel as a wealthy pro-golfer living in the “old money” East Egg side of town and yet she fights for her right to be an individual and defies social traditions. These contradicting characteristics make Ms. Baker the complex character she is and Fitzgerald does this to allow her to truly define herself and her role in the

Read More
696 Words | 3 Pages

Hiding behind a mask Have you ever had a day when you are too embarrassed of yourself that you wanted to hide by wearing a mask? Masks are used in various ways, they can be used for a Halloween costume or a stage play. The astonishing thing is that those masks are visible to others. In the Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the characters such as Myrtle Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan use masks that cannot be seen with the naked eye, they used them as a way to hide their flaws to others. Jay Gatsby is one of the major characters of the novel, Gatsby is a tremendously rich young guy living in a mansion located known as West Egg.

Read More
1042 Words | 5 Pages

This decision has consequences as well. Nick has information that could be useful to police as well as protect Jay, but he prefers to lie. Jordan Baker suspects Nick to be a liar as well. When Nick and Jordan talk a while after the car accident, she tells Nick she believed he was an honest person, but after most of his behavior, she has changed her mind. “‘... I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person.

Read More
951 Words | 4 Pages

Nick on the other hand has a strong attraction for Jordan Baker. Both of them are on the same social status but, Jordan cannot make her own decisions and is controlled financially by her Aunt. Nick seems to altogether disregard her passion of cheating lying and being uninterested in other people and gets disappointed when she could care less about Myrtle 's death. Although Nick is attracted to Jordan, he doesn 't love her.

Read More
1659 Words | 7 Pages

Nick and Daisy experienced a closeness when they were reunited with each other, but people change and choices in their pasts were uncovered and led Daisy to abandon a true friend. After losing Daisy in a miserable situation he also lost Jordan due to nearly the same issues. Jordan did not see Nick for who he truly was anymore and when she decided to give up on their relationship she did so and never looked back. “... Nick declares that after returning from the East he "wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever", he connects the war with cynical, guilty, disapproval of the New York...

Read More
1873 Words | 8 Pages

The characters in the novel pretend that they have their lives all figured out, but through their successes their downfalls and emptiness can be seen, to prove that money cannot buy happiness. Jay Gatsby is the newest and upcoming star in New York during the 1920’s. Through his business and inheritance he is one of the richest men of his time. One may think that his abundance of wealth would lead him to be eternally happy, but he is the opposite. Gatsby longs for his love of Daisy, which is his personal American Dream.

Read More
1738 Words | 7 Pages

When meeting someone for the first time a large part of an initial impression is their clothing. The color, quality and style of their clothing gives information about them as a person that may or may not be true. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby, utilizes clothing as an informer of each character’s lifestyle and their desires. Fitzgerald carefully depicts each character’s clothing using color, material, and quality to expose their insecurities. He uses clothing to show how each character wants to be perceived.

Read More
780 Words | 4 Pages

Set in the lavish era of the 1920’s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the wealthy, yet sinful life of Jay Gatsby. When describing his character, Fitzgerald touches upon the three deadly sins: greed, envy and gluttony. James Gatz, having grown up in a small town to farmers, wished to make more of himself. Disowning his parents at a young age, he went off in search for money, and a new identity. “And when the TUOLOMEE left for the West Indies and the Barbary Coast Gatsby left too” (Fitzgerald 107).

Read More
708 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, social class is a key theme, as seen by every character having their own distinct class. Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and even Nick are old money, Gatsby is new money, and the Wilson 's are no money. In short, the more money you have, the better off you will be. In the epigraph of the novel, there is a poem by Thomas Parke D 'Invilliers, who is a fictional character created by Fitzgerald himself. This poem is about using materialism to win over the affection of someone, which is exactly what Gatsby tries to do.

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

The 1920’s was a very interesting time in United States history. After all World War I had ended and many Americans did not realize that the Great Depression was in the near future, so the 1920’s fell between these two dramatic events. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby teaches many morals, but none more important than the duality of the 1920’s. Duality is evident in Gatsby's dreams, his death, his lover Daisy, his wealth, and his parties, which all reflect the duality of the 1920’s. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald makes the concept of achieving the American dream seem improbable.

Read More

More about Examples Of Masks In The Great Gatsby

Related Topics

Open Document