Motivation In The Great Gatsby

Motivation is the force that influences a person to pursue a goal. During the Jazz era that influence was the purse of fortune. Coming out of a minor depression, the American dream motivated people to do unspeakable things. The time period is marked through tragedies, such as The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which gave a strong description of the filth that took place at that time. Fitzgerald gave the American people a glimpse into human behavior through his description of Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby was an average man that fell in love with a beauty that left him for money. In the pursuit of Daisy, Gatsby mutates into a strange man with ambition to make as much money as he can to with Daisy’s attention. On his road to wealth Gatsby

At the beginning of the novel Jay Gatsby’s wealth and identity are a great conundrum. Since Gatsby’s identity and history were a mystery, many speculated his involvement in World War I as a spy or assassin. Other hypothesized Gatsby was a man of oxford who inherited all of his wealth from inheritance. As Nick Carraway meets Gatsby for the first time, the readers receive the first true glimpse of Gatsby’s character. At first, Jay Gatsby presents himself during one of his parties when Nick was searching for him. When Nick sees Gatsby, he described him as “ an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd” (Fitzgerald 49). This is the first honest description about Gatsby. From this description an assumption arises as to Gatsby only acting to impress someone. While Gatsby slowly reveals more about his identity and history, more atrocious scandals surfaced running Gatsby’s name. Some of the rumors described Gatsby as a drug dealer, who is associated with the wrong crowd. As the novel continues the puzzle which is Gatsby starts to assemble as a self absorbing man with a goal to win back Daisy’s