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The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

693 Words3 Pages

"Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can" (Fitzgerald, 116). Jay Gatsby goes from seemingly mysterious and suave to a nervous, love driven boy who can't let go of the past, the past was a dream that haunted for all his days. In that, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the theme of the broken american dream through Gatsby’s delusional way of being and disturbing, ruthless drive. Within the first three chapters Fitzgerald alludes the reader to Gatsby, makes them feel the same awe as Nick feels for him, and estranges Gatsby from the reader, he’s an almost magical mysterious being, whom you'll never truly know all the secrets of. From Nick's first curious encounter with him he’s an enigma, “ he gave a sudden intimation that …show more content…

Meeting Meyer Wolfsheim and learning of Gatsby's true past helps the reader start to see who Gatsby truly is. As Jordan réveils the truth of Gatsby's first taste of riches Nick explains his past to the reader saying “James Gatz – that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career – when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior” (98) helps the reader over together what Gatsby is hiding. The use of the word “insidious” is meant to give the reader an eerie feeling and foreshadow later events in Gatsby's life. Within the middle chapters readers get the sense not to trust Gatsby, especially during an interaction when Nick asks about Gatsby's fortune “I think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what business he was in he answered, "That's my affair," before he realized that it wasn't the appropriate reply. "Oh, I've been in several things," he corrected himself. "I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I'm not in either one now.”, this new darkness Nick has discovered paves the way for the

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In the captivating novel The Great Gatsby, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald, Chapters three and four have many differences that arise within the pages. The main contrast is Nick and Gatsby’s relationship. To begin, in chapter three Nick Carraway hears more rumors about Gatsby and gets to see his appearance. In chapter 4 however, he gets to observe his personality. In chapter three when Nick finally sees’s Gatsby, he says “ I could see nothing sinister about him.

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“You can’t repeat the past” but Gatsby was so sure and replied “Why of course you can!” (110). this allows the reader to believe in hopes which is later introduces Gatsby dreams of hope of reconnecting with Daisy. Fitzgerald is saying that

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1368 Words | 6 Pages

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