How Is Jay Gatsby Selfish

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Jay Gatsby is an enigmatic character with a lot of traumas and what seems obsessions connected with love and money. Through the book, we as readers were only able to know a small part of his thoughts and emotions since he was not the narrator, but that is enough to understand him and his deep desires. As the narrator, Nick Carraway said, Gatsby is different from all the other characters. He is not as cruel as Tom and Daisy, but he is not morally correct, a quality that our narrator Nick considers he has. Gatsby comes from a poor and not influential family; he did not study in prestigious universities like the other characters, nor did he receive a heritage from his family, which the wealthy “nobility” of America considers to be one of the few ways to be part of them. Gatsby felt ashamed of his origin and for that reason, he invented a different version of his life, a lie that he told to those he met. His desire for wealth and power took him to work in something illegal at that time, sealing alcohol, which in the end helped him to achieve his dream but still that did not make him a “real nobility” of American society. When Gatsby meets Tom, Daisy, and their friends, Tom mentions the origin of Gatsby and his money, and the reader could see how ashamed Gatsby felt, they made Gatsby feel that he would never be like them. …show more content…

Nick, the narrator, described this green light the first time he met and saw Gatsby with his arms opened at the start of the party. This green light did not only represent Gatsby’s desire for money, but it also represented his obsession with getting Daisy back, and after meeting her the light stopped appearing, which means that Gatsby finally fulfilled all his ambitions and