How Does Fitzgerald Present Death In The Great Gatsby

Death, a taboo topic, the ending of one's life or even dreams. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story that is narrated by Nick Carraway and follows the life of Gatsby, an extremely wealthy man that is surrounded by rumors and mystery. Nick becomes friends with Gatsby and we learn his real story, his desires, and ultimate goal. While death is most prevalent or obvious towards the end of the novel, Fitzgerald carries the theme through the whole story. Through the use of a deathly ghost motif, Fitzgerald reveals that the American dream is, ultimately, an unrealistic dream that people work to achieve, and death shows that the idea of it is all a lie. Death was not on Myrtle, Wilson, nor Gatsby’s mind when trying to achieve their

Not many people truly knew him, Nick however, was his next door neighbor and got to know the real Gatsby. Nick reveals to the reader, “Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God — a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that — and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. 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." Gatsby was a self made wealthy man who desperately tried to escape his beginnings. His father’s business was “vast” and “vulgar” (63). Through Imagery, this word paints a picture that if Gatsby went down the path he was expected to, he would have a life that, to him, would not satisfy him and felt almost lifeless or like death. Gatsby’s ultimate dream was to achieve his version of the

To him this was extreme wealth and having a life with Daisy Buchanon. Gatsby hid his humble beginnings for his whole life because he resented them and was so obsessed with his image of wealth and success. Ultimately, his identity and pursuit of his idea of the American dream lead to his death. Myrtle and George Wilson live in the Valley of Ashes; it is described as a place “ where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys and rising smoke” (22). While they seemed to have a happy marriage, the novel reveals Myrtle wanted more. “I want to get one of those dogs," she said earnestly. "I want to get one for the apartment. They're nice to have — a dog" (24). Myrtle was a woman that even regarded the circumstances of where she lived always wanted to be seen as more wealthy. Her affair with Tom, I believe, helped herself believe that. Wilson was not a man of money and though he loved her she wanted more and though not as much as Daisy, cared about