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The Great Gatsby-Nick Fawcett-Chapter 6 Questions 1. What is revealed about Jay Gatsby aka “James Gatz”? James Gatz is Jay Gatsby’s legal name, and he is originally from North Carolina. He was born to an unsuccessful farm family and didn't accept his parent’s to be family.
This all makes the life of Gatsby appear to be an entire facade. One way in which Jay Gatsby puts on a false front is when he is talking about his money and how he has come to gain all of his wealth. He tells Nick that he inherited all of his money from his family in the Midwest. In the novel, Gatsby says, “My family all died and I came into a great deal of money.” (Fitzgerald 70)
Born James Gatz, his economic turn began before the story even began; when Gatsby was 17. He was a poor, and ambitious boy, and a passing millionaire took notice of this, along with “James Gatz’s” first impression, he was hired. Gatsby’s tastes, and ideology remain fixed on his desires of wealth from here on out. Even as the modern Jay Gatsby, his ideology is ever present; to do whatever it takes to live lavishly. Of course, this dramatic change and ambition was met with a crushing defeat when his employer died, and his days of wealth were squandered.
In life, what is perceived tends to show misconception in how thoughts play out. One prime character in the novel is, Jay Gatsby, he was not capable to decide between the love he felt for Daisy and the illusion that he could recapture her love by inventing a false past. Jay believed he could repeat the past. In the novel, Jay Gatsby refuses to establish the differences in the reality of his life and his illusions for his love for Daisy. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic: “The Great Gatsby,” displays how deception effects when one falls in love and when one realizes reality.
“James Gatz — that was really, or at least legally, his name… The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God.... 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.” ( 99) Gatsby was just a ideal, a dream that was conceived from James Gatz , a poor boy. He changed everything, lied about his past and truly believed that he was Jay Gatsby.
2. Gatsby comes from a poor family in North Dakota, but he lied about his past and said that he came from a wealthy family in San Francisco. Gatsby had also claimed that he inherited his wealth, but the truth is that he acquired his money from bootlegging. At the beginning of the novel he said he went to Oxford to make others think of him highly, but the truth was that he only studied at Oxford for 5 months. In other words, Jay Gatsby lied about his past to cover up that he came from a poor family.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby, a man of high wealth in the 1920’s, is constantly questioned about his wealth and the means by which he attained it. Rumors are often spread regarding Gatsby and his wealth, however he never attempts to stop or correct them. This leads to the reader questioning if Gatsby is really telling the truth about his former life or if he is trying to hide something. Gatsby’s mysterious origins help to shape both his character and the relationships he has.
Throughout the novel, Gatsby displays his riches through his mansion, expensive car, and many other things. Nick even describes how extravagant Gatsby’s house is, saying, “The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 5). As Nick describes, Gatsby’s house is very large and modern, which shows his affluence. Before he became rich and privileged, Gatsby was James Gatz, a poor Midwestern boy who dreamed of becoming wealthy. This dream led Gatsby to do crazy things in order to make money, but it worked out for him in the end.
Everybody has to go through life, through ups and downs and everything. While going through life routines and shortcuts start to develop and the lines between illusion and reality become blurred. But, when a new struggle comes up, which can't be easily crossed then you might create a fake reality. Whether you yearn for the past and are remembering it to be better than it actually was or a whole different reality is what stays in the mind of many characters in the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. One of the most blatant illusion examples that is seen as reality in The Great Gatsby involves the main character actually; Mr. Gatsby himself.
Looks are deceiving when it comes to appearance versus reality. Things are not always as they appear to be in real life. To many human beings, wealth can be mistaken as happiness and happiness can be mistaken as wealth. People become obsessed with the idea that along with wealth brings carefree happiness. However, ironically this can lead to ones failure.
The deception of the characters in Fitzgerald’s novel signifies the emptiness and artificial lifestyle of people in the 1920s. From a young age, Gatsby has never accepted the life he was born into, always seeking a way to participate in the abstract customs of the rich, resulting in his lies to convince Daisy as well of others of his rich background. Gatsby is presented as a character that has not been able to transition his life to the present day time period, keeping his eyes shut from the realities of his dreams, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"(Fitzgerald 116). In Gatsby’s attempt to change all the features he was born with, including his name, James Gatz, he fails to realize that his dreams are not worthy of him and he will never be able to achieve them.
James Gatz, the son of poor farmers in North Dakota, who was in love with a girl from an old money, rich family. He was motivated by the American Dream and his love for the rich girl, Daisy. Gatz moved to New York City and achieved the American Dream but was not happy. He created a new name for himself, Jay Gatsby. He desperately wanted to be old money to impress Daisy so she would fall in love with him.
Illusion of Gatsby v. Allusion to Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald’s greatest work, The Great Gatsby, is seen as an image representative of opulence, deception, and the period of the Roaring 20’s in America. The common themes allowed the novel to relate to the average reader’s life while also casting shade on the average American’s life. The viewing of Jay Gatsby’s convoluted life, shrouded past, and love affairs through Nicks Carraway’s narration caused The Great Gatsby to become an instant classic in the twenties, and to this day is still viewed in this way, resulting in Fitzgerald’s work to be read by almost every high school student in the United States. Due to The Great Gatsby’s vast array of readers, other sources have been able to utilize
Imagination, it cures desires and provides satisfaction to some people who can not have everything they want. Although providing a temporary positive effect, it also can distort the reality. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby spends five years watching Daisy from across the lake, creating an imaginary future for them in his head. Gatsby ultimately dooms their relationship by creating this abstract world and standards that they simply can not meet. The world in which Gatsby believed in, required the past to be repeated, something in which Daisy had moved far away from.
Gatsby is a wealthy man who lives in West Egg. He tells Nick that he is “the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West” (Fitzgerald, 65). He later states, “I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition” (Fitzgerald, 65). This is what Gatsby wants Nick to believe but, in reality, Nick tells the reader that Gatsby was a man by the name of James Gatz and he was the son of unsuccessful farmers.
