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Jay Gatsby Selfish

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The Great Gatsby The loquacious Azar Nafisi once said, “The negative side of the American dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.” In the captivating novel “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald tells a story of the romance between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, which at one point in time ceased to exist. As the story progresses, Fitzgerald gives the characters attributes such as drive and motivation to succeed. Consequently, these attributes are associated with many of the characters’ hopes to live out the American dream. Jay Gatsby is the perfect example of somebody who lived the American dream. As a young man, Gatsby crossed paths with Dan Cody, who starts Gatsby up in the business …show more content…

Unfortunately, Gatz was not born into wealth of any kind, and as he grew up, he realized that he craved to be successful and escape the image that he held for himself. In 1907 at the age of 17, James Gatz life is changed forever when he meets Dan Cody on Lake Superior. Correspondingly, James Gatz decides to become somebody else by changing his name to what will eventually become a household name in his area; Jay Gatsby. Following this event, Gatsby sails the seas with Dan Cody for five years where they smuggled alcohol and the men made a small fortune doing so. When Cody dies he leaves Gatsby with an inheritance of $25,000, but this is stripped from Gatsby and he finds himself once again …show more content…

At this point in time, alcohol is illegal, so the smuggling and trading of alcohol becomes Gatsby’s trade once again. Together, Wolfsheim and Gatsby make a fortune working this underground business, and this is what brings Gatsby to being the wealthy man that the people of Manhattan know. Along with this turn of luck, Gatsby is able to spark his romance with Daisy once again. In anyone’s eyes, Gatsby seems to be living the American dream, even though he has experienced great pain and suffering throughout his life to achieve

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How Is Jay Gatsby Selfish

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While Tom brought Jay Gatsby's murderer to him, Gatsby inevitably caused his own death by making poor decisions and lying to the people he loved most. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby was an over the top, rich, mysterious, selfish, and cocky person with many flaws while Tom Buchanan was an upper class man, arrogant, and short tempered person. Throughout the story Jay Gatsby showed that he was selfish and was in his own world most of the book, he was in a one way relationship with Daisy and thought she would leave Tom for him and wanted Daisy for only himself. Jay Gatbsy held onto love that died 5 years ago and thought if he rekindled it he would have the “love of his life” (101 Fitzgerald) back, but he’s so far into his own world that he thinks

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815 Words | 4 Pages

Author Zig Ziglar once said, “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” His words perfectly embody what Jay Gatsby ignores in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The author spends the whole novel setting up and describing the American Dream and their effect on the characters, especially Gatsby’s corrupted version of that dream. Fitzgerald, however, writes his opinions of this idea from a pessimistic point of view. These negative ideals have led to his powerful message of his novel which is that attempting to achieve one’s unrealistic goals will lead to failure in life because it causes them to forget about the reality of their lives.

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Dan Cody, a mogul who attained incredible wealth, inspired the identity change in Gatz by presenting him with luxury. After accumulating a significant amount of capital, Gatsby fabricated a flamboyant and mysterious persona for himself, complete with a lavish estate and a group of faux friends. Jay described the contents of his estate: “I keep it always full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things. Celebrated people.”

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297 Words | 2 Pages

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2947 Words | 12 Pages

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976 Words | 4 Pages

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1373 Words | 6 Pages

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