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Names In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby puts a lot of hidden meanings behind his characters' names. Specifically, Jay Gatsby. Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan's names also hold significant meaning. Fitzgerald holds a lot of ironic interpretations as well when it comes to naming his characters. Their names often reflect their traits, while also symbolizing a broader theme. Jay Gatsbys first name by definition means “to rejoice”. This reflects on the huge, extravagant parties that he has every night in which “Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word” (34). It can be said that Jay created this happiness to spark some form of eye drawing experience. Everything about Gatsby flows and brings joy with the simplest of smiles (40). As for his last name, “Gatsby” is a slang term for a womans dress worn in the Roaring Twenties. This adds to Gatsby's mysterious, self-made persona, created to fit into high society. This also hints at the fact the Jay Gatsby is a faux name, where his real name is referenced on page 79 as James Gatz. …show more content…

The name “Nick” is often associated with victory and success. His name also suggests loyalty and trustworthiness, which are Nick Carraways most evident traits. Shown specifically when Nick stood by Gatsby's side during the fight between Tom and Jay in Chapter 7. His last name “Carraway” is a plant, known for its distinct scent, which hints at Nicks keen ability at observation and how he perceives the way a certain situation might

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610 Words | 3 Pages

He has gone through serious lengths to remove himself from certain parts of his past so as to keep up an image that will afford him the future he wants in a world of little opportunity to him. He changes his name from James Gatz to differentiate himself and give himself a more white name “at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career,”(98). Another prime piece of evidence is the method through which Gatsby achieved his fortune. The bootlegging business he was involved with under the facade of a pharmaceutical business can easily be interpreted as symbolic as him having a facade to hide who he truly is. His business with Wolfshiem made him rich as much as hiding his race

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644 Words | 3 Pages

He tried to cover up his past life by giving them a false name. “ Jay Gatz - that was really, or at least legally his name” (75). This shows that Gatsby lied about his name and told them something totally different to make other people think otherwise about his name. “ The idea was that they were lying to someone that they could potentially deceive” ( The lying game). It also shows that Gatsby can somewhat not be trusted because if he will lie about his name he would lie about anything else.

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507 Words | 3 Pages

It is also revealed that he changed his name to Jay Gatsby after he was separated from

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165 Words | 1 Pages

James Gatz changed his name, to Jay Gatsby, shortly after meeting Dan Cody. Dan Cody was a very wealthy man who earned his fortune while mining in a Nevada gold rush. After the death of Cody, Gatsby was supposed to inherit a piece of Cody’s fortune. That did not work as planned so Gatsby earned all

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224 Words | 1 Pages

The author of this biography, Michael Hollington, about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s French life talks a whole lot about how Fitzgerald had a sort of fetish for French names. The author begins by saying how Fitzgerald’s family gets started in St. Paul, Minnesota. This was early during the early 1900s so this city was just getting upon its feet. Growing up in St. Paul, which was a French-Canadian settlement, Fitzgerald began to become fascinated of French names. He was surrounded by the culture.

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691 Words | 3 Pages

What's in a name? is a common phrase, the title of this work makes you kind of curious right off the bat, "The Great Gatsby". It gives a lot to the imagination, before you start reading, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his books during the roaring twenties, a time of oppulence, great opportunities, and abundance. A society that is exaggerating freedom as a way to cope, and rebound from the devastation endured during the First World War. Seemingly he writes his own American dream story disguised as Jay Gatzby. At least two witnesses in the story could testify that his humble beginnings could have thwarted Jay Gatzby's dream, however, with their support and his hard work, and determination he advanced in his desires, Dan Cody related: "First time I saw him was when he came into Winebrenner's pool room 43rd Street and asked for a job he hadn't eat for a couple of days, come on have some lunch with me

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621 Words | 3 Pages

Nick faces many conflicts in the book that he had to witness and had to help with that he forgot about his own birthday. Tom Buchanan, Meyer Wolfsheim, George Wilson are all bad guys in The Great Gatsby as they all have done very bad things. First, Tom Buchanan's character is arrogant, hypocritical and a bully. Tom Buchanan was also cheating on his wife Daisy with multiple people in the book and the show. Tom also told George that his car ran over his wife.

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1014 Words | 5 Pages

“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.

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1372 Words | 6 Pages

Fitzgerald models his characters Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom after real people in his life. These influences deepen the character's complexity and strengthen the connection between the characters and the reader. Nick Carraway is the narrator of the story. Fitzgerald based Nick’s character off

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803 Words | 4 Pages

, you will notice that the letters “J.G.” are located on almost every single furniture. Gatsby is a bootlegger, but if he was born into the wealth, why would he have to bootleg. After the police found out about Gatsby’s past, it all started to make sense. He was born to a poor family with a name “James Gatz”, he then left his parents and lived with a sailor who taught him everything he needed to know. That is how he became such a charming man.

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1837 Words | 8 Pages

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.

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1042 Words | 5 Pages

Nick Carraway is the narrator of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This novel is a story about the love triangle of Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby, told from the perspective of Nick. Nick moves to Long Island, New York, where he encounters the lives of his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom, as well as his wealthy neighbor Jay. Throughout the story, Nick shows that he is judgmental, dishonest, and passive. Nick is an extremely judgmental person throughout his life.

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1037 Words | 5 Pages

The eponymous character was born the day he met Dan Cody and invented himself a new life. Ultimately, Gatsby created and fabricated his own ideal ‘identity’ to meet his expectations: “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself […] 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.” Two identities therefore arise: Jay Gatsby and James Gatz. Yet one can almost see the threads of James Gatz behind the Gatsby facade. With Daisy, Gatsby loses the carefully constructed identity: he reverts to the young soul seeking for his place in the world, with “a touch of panic” in his voice when he realises that Daisy has “slipped away [and become something] no longer tangible”.

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808 Words | 4 Pages

He helped a wealth named Dan Cody who took him in. The name Jay Gatsby came from when Gatz “invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby” (Fitzgerald, 98) meaning that Jay Gatsby was an enhanced reiteration of himself. Overall, Gatsby appears to be this wealthy mogul that had a great past but, in reality, Gatsby is really a man who was fed up with his unsuccessful life and wanted to be more than a

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1862 Words | 8 Pages

The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island sprang from his platonic conception of himself ” (98). The implication that Gatsby already had the name picked out shows his dissatisfaction for the simple life that he lived and his desire to become someone else, someone who could pull off the guise of a gentleman who was born of old money. Nick stating that the new name was because of Gatsby’s “platonic conception of himself” indicates that Gatsby believed that he understood his values enough to know that throughout his life, he will try to aim for that goal of becoming a wealthy man who has a sphere of influence, basically, the American dream. These conceptions of Gatsby and his ideals about wealth are tools that the author uses to demonstrate the reasons that

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