The Great Gatsby Title Analysis

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has a title that ensures the full attention and wonder of incoming readers. The title instantly makes readers ponder about who is Gatsby, and what makes him so great. This makes them start the book with a mindset that Gatsby is also a character that never does any wrong to others. This title makes readers have false assumptions about Gatsby’s character and makes readers lean towards Gatsby’s side on future conflicts, which will ultimately bring the general mystery and facade of this character to life.

Coming into the story readers wonder who Gatsby is, and what makes him great. Fitzgerald uses the title and the first several chapters to do so. In chapter 3, page 39, Nick describes the great amounts

Because the readers imply that Gatsby is a great character, they are likely to chose Gatsby’s side during any conflicts. Several conflicts occur with Tom Buchanan, as well as conflicts with other characters rumors. Such as when he was rumored to be an oxford man and a bootlegger. “About Gatsby! No, I haven’t. I said I’d been making a small investigation of his past.” “And you found he was an Oxford man,” said Jordan helpfully. “An Oxford man!” He was incredulous. “Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.” (pg122) Eventually, readers found out that he wasn’t really an Oxford man. He went to college there for only 5 months, a time that could not consider him an oxford man. These conflicts test the general image that Fitzgerald portrays with the title The Great Gatsby. When Tom Buchanan and Gatsby argue over Daisy, Tom accuses Gatsby of being a bootlegger and proclaims that Gatsby can’t have Daisy because he is a common swindler. Readers are so blinded by the great and rich lifestyle that Gatsby lives that they can’t see past it to truly judge what kind of character he is. “She’s not leaving me!” Tom’s words suddenly leaned down over Gatsby. “Certainly not for common swindler who’d have to steal the ring he put on her finger.” (pg133). This is how greatly the title can affect the

Most of this mystery starts when the reader reads the title of the novel. For several chapters before the reader meets Gatsby, the elegance of his and lifestyle are mentioned. Fitzgerald begins to make the facade of Gatsby come to life by doing so. Readers begin to make false assumptions on his character even before they meet him. They begin to think that he is a complex yet friendly, honest person. “The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard-it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden.” (pg5) Nick describes Gatsby’s mansion and parties as a colossal affair. To the reader, his extravagance makes him seem powerful and great, much like the title states. The title of the novel and the first few chapters build up Gatsby’s facade. However, once we meet Gatsby the facade slowly dies away through the book. Readers begin to learn he became rich by selling alcohol grains, and the only reason he lived in a huge mansion was to impress Daisy. The title developed false characteristics of Gatsby that we find out in the future.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel whose title plays a great role in the development of characters, especially in Gatsby. It leads us to false assumptions about his character, lean towards his side