Great Gatsby Archetype

782 Words4 Pages

Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is “great” because of his ability to dream. This ability to dream contributes to a few things about Gatsby’s character: his gift, his tragic flaw, and his archetype as the hero.

Gatsby’s ability to dream is a characteristic that acts as a gift to him. This ability to dream is one factor that keeps him loyal to his journey to greatness. Over the span of five years, Gatsby never forgets his sights on Daisy, the whole purpose of his exploits. He will do whatever it takes to accumulate power, and will do anything to capture Daisy’s attention. Gatsby even rose to where he is through dishonest means. Gatsby’s visions and dreams helped him escalate to where he is. His extraordinary gift for hope …show more content…

The Great Gatsby features Gatsby in the title for good reason; because Jay Gatsby is great. Gatsby fits the characteristics of the archetypical hero. He is larger than life, searching for self-fulfillment resulting in his destruction and the destruction of others, and some progress is made after he is killed. Starting with Gatsby being larger than life, he really catches the attention of everyone. Gatsby is always throwing huge parties, and he know by practically everyone. There is no way Gatsby is not larger than life. Additionally, Gatsby’s main goal in his life is to find self-fulfillment with Daisy. She’s the reason he became wealthy in the first place. She is also the reason he throws so many parties and bought a house across from her. Everything Gatsby does is driven by Daisy. Unfortunately, this results in his demise. Once he meets up with her again, he gets carried away from there, wanting her all to himself. At the Hotel in New York, Gatsby stands up to Tom and tries to convince him Daisy never loved him, and he so desperately wants to hear it. From this point on, events go downhill quickly. Daisy hits Myrtle on the way back home, and Wilson, assuming the driver was Gatsby, sneaks off to Gatsby’s mansion and shoots him. Gatsby isn’t the only one affected by this tragedy, though. This seemed to push Jordan and Nick apart further, and they broke it off. Daisy and Tom both left before they could even say anything. After everything was done, Nick had learned quite a bit, so there was some gain. Gatsby is most likely meant to be interpreted as the Hero when you compare the definition of the Hero archetype to his