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Significance Of Facade In The Great Gatsby

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Fraudulent Personalities If a person has a facade for so long, for so many different people, do they turn into their facade? The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, takes place during the early 1920s and is narrated by the young bond salesman, Nick Carraway. The story follows Nick’s life on Long Island and his adventures with the mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby presents himself as a man who holds himself to a high standard and has an obsession with his old girlfriend, Daisy Buchanan. However, readers learn the truths and conspiracies about Gatsby throughout the story during his pursuit of getting with Daisy. Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby portrays himself as someone he is not when it concerns his creation of wealth, …show more content…

Furthermore, while Nick reflects on Gatsby’s past, he says Gatsby, “was a son of God- a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that- and he must be about his Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. 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,” (62). The quote implies the reason for Gatsby’s falsified persona of success is that he is insecure about where he comes from. It is also because money alone does not bring the same status that inherited wealth does. The novel only hints at Gatsby’s creation of wealth, but it never gives the truth, which leaves the reader questioning how he did it. In the affluent areas of West Egg and East Egg on Long Island, Gatsby lives in the ‘new money’, West Egg, where he tries to act like he has a greater social status than he does. He acts this way because he believes that status is the key to winning friends and bringing back his lost love, Daisy. While driving with Gatsby, he lies to Nick about his background. Gatsby says, “I’ll tell you God’s

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In chapters four through six of The Great Gatsby, the reader is introduced to the real Gatsby who was incredibly poor in his early life. At the beginning of chapter six, Nick explains to the reader Gatsby’s real upbringing. Nick explains, “James Gatz — that was really, or at least legally, his name… His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people — his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself” (Fitzgerald 62-63).

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In the exposition he describes that Gatsby had, “...one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across five or four times in life” (48). Nick created Gatsby as someone he can never be, someone who impresses women with just one glimpse. Nick wants to be dreamy and irresistible just like Gatsby seems to be. Other than his appearance and personality, Nick also envies Gatsby's wealth when he describes his parties with great detail, “ On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city…” (39). Nick is fascinated by Gatsby's wealth.

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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)

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He becomes obsessed with recapturing their past relationship, leading him to building himself a new life centered around Daisy. Wanting Daisy to believe that he is “in the same strata as herself” Gatsby turns to a life of crime and deceit, illegally earning money and becoming the ostensible epitome of wealth and success (149). This new Gatsby buys a magnificent mansion in West Egg “so that Daisy would be just across the bay”, the green light on her dock an infinite reminder of his ever so close yet far away goal (78). Everyday, people flow in and out of his “road house”, constantly attending his extravagant parties that’s sole purpose are to catch Daisy’s eye and perhaps draw her back to him one day (64). After years of this intricate display that becomes his reality, Gatsby expresses a want for Nick to invite Daisy over for tea.

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In the novel The Great Gatsby, Nick, the narrator, tries to climb in his economic standings by becoming a bonds man, while Gatsby tries to boost his social position and achieve a certain level of fame through throwing extravagant parties and flaunting his money. Gatsby’s money, however, is obtained through unethical, illegal means of bootlegging grain alcohol in a time when the laws of prohibition were in place. He is driven to the extent of crime because of his obsession with being accepted by Daisy, a member of high-class society. While in the process of trying to impress her, he becomes entangled with attempting to become welcomed by other East Egg aristocrats and transversing into the extremely exclusive social class, an impossible goal. Gatsby has two unattainable wishes, the first being a renewed relationship Daisy, who represents the unreachable American Dream, and the second being a rise in social status.

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In chapter six of The Great Gatsby, Nick discovers the reality about Gatsby’s past: his real name (James Gatz), deprived childhood in North Dakota, college at St. Olaf, and the beginning of yearning for money with Dan Cody as a role model. Gatsby equates himself to Jesus Christ, since he aspires to become a well-known figure in society and become of significant reputation. In addition to these traits, he craves capital to achieve this status and ultimately gain Daisy’s love. The biblical allusion to Jesus Christ depicts Gatsby’s optimisms to develop into excellence and possess superiority over people. Furthermore, F. Scott Fitzgerald vindicates the theme of how depravity may instill a façade in societal values and emotions, possibly engendering

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Masks are most often used to obscure one’s face: at a masquerade party, to anonymously commit crimes, etc. The idea of a person hiding their true identity is shown by most of the six main characters within F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. They all have their own characteristics and motivations, but some characters notably use a “mask” or facade to hide their true personalities and intentions. These characters are Jordan Baker, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan, who both have a significant influence on the plot of the story. They are all clear examples of characters using facades to fool others, but Daisy shows one of the most drastic illusions to those around her.

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Nick describes Gatsby “a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father 's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. 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” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 98). He compares Gatsby and Jesus Christ to show how he created his own identity. After he reinvented himself as a rich man, Gatsby had to maintain his image, so he went to the extremes to make as much money as he could. These extreme ways of making money worked very well for him, but the

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In chapter one of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway reminisces about a piece of advice told by his father, but considers its validity. The guidance offered to Nick signifies a correctness in moral principles since it lacks prejudice and portrays more humbling qualities. Moreover, the father of Nick attempts to make his son pragmatic and relatable to everyone, disregarding status and background, by exploiting the aphorism. Obviously, Nick Carraway became born into money and ‘advantages’, which his father credits to arrogance and superiority (in many others in the time); therefore, he efforts to assist his son circumvent this in future life.

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Gatsby’s obsessive journey for money and worldly prizes demonstrates his desire for achievement. Despite his lavish parties, Gatsby is far from flawless. His money and prestige are only a facade to conceal his nothingness. As Nick Carraway states in the novel, Gatsby “ came alive for me and suddenly delivered me from the womb of his absurd glory” (Fitzgerald 156). This remark expresses the profound emptiness that diffuses through Gatsby’s existence and his worldly wealth.

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Gatsby was a man who came up from essentially nothing by gaining his money through bootlegging and other illegal acts in order to gain a reputation in society. Gatsby’s constant desire to accomplish more in his life demonstrates the corruption of the American Dream. It is evident that Gatsby has had a thirst for the American dream since a young age, this is shown when Gatsby’s father says: “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind?

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Throughout the novel and the movie, the reader/viewer becomes more and more skeptical of Jay Gatsby’s true identity. Jay Gatsby could be described as a man with unrealistic dreams, and a con man which leads him into an ultimate destruction of the town around him. Jay Gatsby had a very unrealistic dream, which was that he wanted to continue his life with Daisy how it was in the previous five years. Jay Gatsby, before going off to war, met a beautiful young lady named Daisy. They were madly in love, however when Jay had to go off to war, Daisy

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From the beginning of the novel, Nick says that the richest people of the country live in East egg, but despite the fact that Gatsby has a lot of money, we know that he still lives in West egg. Nick, the narrator of the novel, paints the East egg as being for superior people, which have been rich since they

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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.

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I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years,” (Fitzgerald). Although Gatsby says he comes from wealthy parents and creates a false backstory about his life, he does this to win Nick Carroways trust. He began to reveal his true identity to Nick, however he still feels the need to lie about his story by claiming that he and Nick have similar backgrounds because they come from a similarity of a wealthy background. Gatsby not only lies about his background he sticks with it till the end.¨So he invented just the sort of the Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end,¨(Fitzgerald). This reveals that Gatsby's lies about his identity began as a little kid, when he first reinvented himself as a wealthy rich person in life.

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