James Gatz, from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, changed his name in hoping to emulate the personality of financier J.P. Morgan to ultimately change his future and success. For centuries dating back to Biblical times, names were not only a reflection personality but it drove a person’s destiny. In changing his name, Gatz decides to redefine himself as an offspring of the American Dream and a mirrored image of Morgan.
As a young boy, Gatz believed that he is as close to his goals and aspirations as the “star [is] to the moon” (Fitzgerald. 121). Gatz is described as a runner after the American Dream that seems so close but yet so far. In the words Thomas Jefferson, “If you want something you never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.” Gatz takes the words of President Thomas to heart; in becoming Gatsby, Gatz redirects his purpose and ultimately his destiny. Fitzgerald presents a riddle with the renowned name of the East, Jay Gatsby. One theory suggests Fitzgerald based the name on “gat”, slang term for a gatling gun. Another proposes that Fitzgerald developed from the phrase “God’s boy”. In a addition, the name is similar to the surname “Gadsby” used by Mark Twain in A Tramp Abroad and George Eliot in the Mill on the Floss has been noted. No doubt Fitzgerald enjoyed taking “advantage of
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Gatsby does mirror characteristics of Jacob with deception about his “side-street drug-stores” (Fitzgerald. 284). When Gatsby is caught lying about how he obtained his wealth, he doesn’t care because he sees that everyone is apart of some kind of lie including Tom and his friends. Gatsby also had a vision of “blocks [that] formed a ladder” (Fitzgerald. 110) correlates with Jacob’s vision of a ladder to heaven. In this point of Jacob’s life, he is given a new identity and renamed as Israel, and this is where Gatsby is given a new name and