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Similarities Between Trimalchio And Jay Gatsby

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There are prevalent similarities between the Trimalchio and Jay Gatsby. An excerpt referring to Gatsby from Chapter VII of The Great Gatsby reads, “…and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over.” Fitzgerald intended to name the novel after Trimalchio. Trimalchio can be seen as an accurate or inaccurate comparison to Gatsby because the two figures represent the worst excesses of the nouveau riche, are renowned for throwing extravagant parties and continuously seek to impress the people they come across. Trimalchio is a character in the Roman work Satyricon by Petronius. He is introduced in the episode entitled, “Dinner with Trimalchio”. The segment is the longest of the surviving episodes. Trimalchio is a freedman, or …show more content…

Jay Gatsby’s name is a product of his enigmatic imagination. It is revealed that he was born as James Gatz in North Dakota, contradicting his claims of been raised in the European cities of Rome, Moscow, and Venice. As stated, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island sprang from his Platonic conception of himself” (Fitzgerald 98). Gatsby despised poverty and longed for wealth. He was going to inherit $25,000 from Dan Cody, but “what remained of the millions went intact to Ella Kaye” (Fitzgerald 100). He initially received his college education at St. Olaf College before dropping out two weeks later, as he was humiliated of his janitorial position. Gatsby later attended Oxford after serving in World War I. Gatsby is famous for throwing lavish, exuberant parties. There is speculation about Gatsby’s origins. Some have said that he is the cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm. Gatsby displays traits of loyalty, and he is good-hearted. His life is a created illusion to impress Daisy, much like how Trimalchio disguises his meals for his guests.The green light is representative of his desires. West Egg represents new money, with its residents recently acquiring vasts amounts of

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Trimalchio, an early version of The Great Gatsby gives more insight to how Fitzgerald intended to depict Gatsby. Gatsby reveals a “powerful need to unburden himself of the past”, which is displayed through his confession to Nick (Dubose 78). In Trimalchio, the discovery of his past is concretely told by Gatsby himself. Throughout the novel he is described as a “cloud of misunderstanding” because of his ambiguous past and source of wealth, which many consider to be disreputable (Sanders 113). At one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties Nick hears many descriptions of Gatsby, including a war hero, an Oxford man, a bootlegger, a murderer and a German spy (Dubose 75).

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Gatsby Essay: Resubmission Jay Gatsby, a character from the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is seldom compared to Trimalchio to develop a commentary on the mistaken perception and false, misleading performance of wealth and its importance. Both, Trimalchio and Gatsby, rose from a place of poverty and lower class through hard work and deduction to a dream. This dedication gave them the ability to accumulate wealth and eventually, a place in a higher social class. Although Trimalchio existed an extensive amount prior to the creation of the American Dream and its values, he and Gatsby both achieved what the general society believes the American Dream to be. Jay Gatsby enjoys throwing parties and showcasing his wealth, but all of his grand

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Zhe Xie Ms. Zylka English III April 20 2016 Both The Great Gatsby and the Of Mice and Man, are novels that represents authors’ lives, John Steinbeck’s George and Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, two outwardly different characters, are disillusioned with the American Dream, but for opposite reasons. George and Gatsby are both lonely, although the life they lived are completely different from each other, one is rich the other is poor.

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Hiding behind a mask Have you ever had a day when you are too embarrassed of yourself that you wanted to hide by wearing a mask? Masks are used in various ways, they can be used for a Halloween costume or a stage play. The astonishing thing is that those masks are visible to others. In the Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the characters such as Myrtle Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan use masks that cannot be seen with the naked eye, they used them as a way to hide their flaws to others. Jay Gatsby is one of the major characters of the novel, Gatsby is a tremendously rich young guy living in a mansion located known as West Egg.

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James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans which was published in 1826 was one of the most famous American early readings of all time, depicting the battle of the British and the French, best-known as the French and Indian War, with more dramatic actions, of course. The massacre at Fort William Henry was one of many contentious events in the said war. Survivors of the massacre believed their people lost around 1500 lives, when further studies showed that the number did not exceed 185. Without being said, the ruthless killings that took place in the upstate New York still happened, witnessing the fight between the British and French armies over the area of Lake George, Lake Champlain, and reach of the Hudson River. (Starbuck, 1999) (Starbuck, 2008)

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As said by other critics, “Jay Gatsby's determination to establish a new identity for himself sets him apart from the other characters in the text” (Verderame). Gatsby grew up as a poor farmer boy. Born into poverty from the beginning, Gatsby cared little for his family and was determined to leave them behind for a new life. This tragic past encourages Gatsby to entirely start a new life by changing his identity and personality before the reader is even introduced to the character. “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” (98).Critics say, “In doing so, Gatsby has proven to himself that he can successfully change the story of his past” (Scisco).

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“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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2. Gatsby comes from a poor family in North Dakota, but he lied about his past and said that he came from a wealthy family in San Francisco. Gatsby had also claimed that he inherited his wealth, but the truth is that he acquired his money from bootlegging. At the beginning of the novel he said he went to Oxford to make others think of him highly, but the truth was that he only studied at Oxford for 5 months. In other words, Jay Gatsby lied about his past to cover up that he came from a poor family.

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Jay Gatsby born James Gatz was born into a poor family from North Dakota. When he was 17 James changed his name from Gatz to Gatsby while working for Dan Cody on Lake Superior. Cody inspired young Gatsby to become wealthy and chase his luxuries, when Cody died Gatsby was determined to find his way of wealth. Gatsby’s way of wealth was bootlegging, which is a corrupt and greedy way of making money. During the 1920s prohibition was active and since alcohol was not legal, Gatsby decided that he should bootleg alcohol.

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The Connection of Wealth and Personality in Fitzgerald’s Works In our society, money is seen as the most important factor in decision making and in our overall lives. This is shown throughout all of Fitzgerald’s works and in many of his characters. His stories continually mention the effect that money has on the community. In one of her criticisms, Mary Jo Tate explains that “[Fitzgerald] was not a simple worshiper of wealth or the wealthy, but rather he valued wealth for the freedom and possibilities it provided, and he criticized the rich primarily for wasting those opportunities.

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James Gatz, the son of poor farmers in North Dakota, who was in love with a girl from an old money, rich family. He was motivated by the American Dream and his love for the rich girl, Daisy. Gatz moved to New York City and achieved the American Dream but was not happy. He created a new name for himself, Jay Gatsby. He desperately wanted to be old money to impress Daisy so she would fall in love with him.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway are among the most prominent exponents of literature of the twentieth century. Forming part of the Lost Generation, these authors not only develop similar themes throughout their works, but heavily influenced each other. The Great Gatsby being Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, serves as a prime illustration of the staples of contemporary literature. In the novel The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, the author depicts himself through a character, Nick Carraway, conforming to other self depiction common in the Lost Generation, such as Hemingway in the Nick Adams stories. Nick Carraway and Nick Adams represent Fitzgerald and Hemingway, both serving as apertures into Fitzgerald’s and Hemingway’s view of the world.

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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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He was a no body who made something of himself. Gatsby came from a poor family from North Dakota. At the age of 17, James Gatz, chose to change his life around. He changed his name to Jay Gatsby when he “witnessed the beginning of his career,” when the opportunity came up to be with Dan Cody on his yacht (Fitzgerald 104). This, is where and when Gatsby’s self-reinvention process began.

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While on the surface, Gatsby does have a ‘rags-to-riches’ story, it is not a virtuous one; he amasses his wealth through illegal channels by working with Meyer Wolfsheim, and never fulfills his dream, Daisy. Also, He changes his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby when he first encounters Dan Cody. Because Gatsby has to take on an entirely different persona to achieve success, disguising his poor upbringing and suggesting that James Gatz could never achieve the American dream. Gatsby first attempts to earn his financial success by performing menial labor for Cody, but when Cody’s ex-wife swindles Gatsby out of his inheritance, he turns to illegal means of getting rich. Not only does Gatsby illegally gain his wealth my selling grain liquor over the counter, but he also does so under the direction of Meyer Wolfsheim, breaking two essential qualities of the self-made man, virtue, and independence.

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