The Great Gatsby Is Great Essay

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Gatsby is Great Great is defined as an outstandingly superior or skillful person in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. The Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about a wealthy man and his quest for love and status, and it is told by a man named Nick who is trying to navigate his life that summer. Set in New York City, there is a huge rivalry between New Money and Old Money. Jay Gatsby, a new money man, throws extravagant and enormous parties in order to lure his past love, a married Daisy Buchanan, to his house. Daisy and her husband, Tom, both come from old money. Every walk of life from New York shows up to his house but Daisy never does. There are very few of these people that know the real Gatsby, and there are …show more content…

Jordan Baker is one of the people that know Gatsby, and she is Daisy’s friend. Together, Jordan, Gatsby, and Nick construct a plan that involves Daisy to come to Nick’s house, just so Gatsby can pass by. This leads them all down a tragic path that does not end well. One of the key problems is how Nick notices that the wealthy people have less remorse about the bad things they have done. Their money helps them get out of consequences. Jay Gatsby is considered great by the definition above because of his opulent wealth, and his enormous motivating dreams. First, Jay Gatsby is a very wealthy man and that helps distinguish himself from others. Throughout the book, Gatsby tries to hide the fact that he is not born with tons of money. In society of New York, a person is heavily stereotyped by the amount of money that they have and where they live. West egg is where Gatsby and Nick live, and it is known to be home as the “new money” folks. These people are seen to be social climbers and wannabe old money people. East egg is where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live, and where the old money resides. Gatsby comes from humble beginnings on a farm in North Dakota. He knew he would be destined for greatness and he leads a very ambitious life. Jay Gatsby finds his way …show more content…

His one goal in life is to become wealthy and worthy enough of Daisy’s love. She is his motivator for almost everything in his life. He buys a home right acros the bay from Daisy’s, he hosts marvelous parties in the hopes she wanders in, and he grew his wealth in order to obtain the feeling of being worthy enough for her. Nick is highly aware of this and often talks about how he admire’s Gatsby for this. One of the last things that Nick says to Gatsby is, “‘They’re a rotten crowd, I shouted, across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.’ I’ve always been glad I said that” (Fitzgerald 162). Gatsby had the distinguishing quality and extraordinary gift of hope. He was always hopeful of his future… hopeful that Daisy would eventually come back to him. Gatsby always focuses on how he can better himself for his future with Daisy. He essentially wants to repeat his past with Daisy. This is controversial and leads Nick to explain that the past cannot be repeated. In the novel, Gatsby shoots back, “‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incdredulously, ‘Why of course you can?’ He looked around widely, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand” (Fitzgerald 116). Gatsby waits five entire years for Daisy to enter his life. Gatsby is great because of his dreams of being wealthy and living with Daisy. On the other hand, this could make Gatsby seem