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The Symbolism Of 'Jay Gatz In The Great Gatsby'

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Jay Gatsby or James Gatz, as the readers learned his real name in chapter six, is a man of great delusions. Gatsby did not have the luxury of being born into a rich family, however, he desired that life and felt he was too good to be a meager farmer. Gatsby, plague by pride and delusions of grandeur, he went through life scraping to get by. He felt as if he was too good for anything that was not upper class, and sent his goal towards becoming the wealthy person he wanted to be. His obsessions in life drove him to make drastic decisions and his obsession with Daisy, once he realizes how impossible it is for him and Daisy to have the same life they did five years ago, will make Gatsby make drastic decisions just as he had done to become wealthy. …show more content…

Gatsby is supposed to be an ideal, and he is not the actual James Gatz. Jay Gatsby is a representation of how James Gatz believed rich people behaved, and it was to further himself away from his lineage. Gatz abandoned himself to become part of the elite and distance himself from anything from his beginnings in hopes of becoming wealthy. His persona becomes obvious when he speaks as it overly “elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd” and at first it just seems like Gatsby is possibly just awkward, but it makes sense that he acts like this because he is mimicking the rich (Fitzgerald 48). His speech is one of the factors that makes it very obvious that Jay Gatsby is nothing but a character and has been put in place of James Gatz. This persona allows Gatsby to pass off as a rich man and he wants people to like him. Gatsby is faking parts of himself, so he could reach and keep the appearance of wealth, no matter how odd it actually is. Gatsby learned all this from a rich man named Dan Cody, who he stuck with after informing the man of an incoming storm. After Cody died his mistress took most of

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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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The character James Gatz in the novel grows further away from his self-image which negatively impacted his relationship with other characters. In F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘The Great Gatsby’, James Gatz created this separate identity known as Jay Gatsby, forcing himself to adopt this new persona and straying away from his original self. This is apparent when Jay regularly uses the phrase “Old sport,” which communicates the adoption of his new identity. Nick Carraway, the protagonist, characterises Gatsby as a mysterious individual, stating that ‘it is preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of man.’ Commenting on Gatsby’s unknown identity

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On the contrary, he was just a kid from North Dakota without connections, no money, no education. We can see the original James Gatz and his alter ego as the other part of a magic mirror; on one side is the Gatz, the ordinary citizen, and the other, Gatsby, fabulously decorated, the impossibly perfect reflection of the dreams and fantasies of a poor child. So who was the real James Gatz (Jimmy) and how he became Jay Gatsby? Apparently, even before they have the means, Jimmy Gatz had a plan; their desire to escape their circumstances and make a name for themselves. This early motivation shows the same determination and passion that we see in its new incarnation, Gatsby.

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They dedicated their whole lives to trying to recreate something they once had. Jay Gatsby, Bosco, and Willy Loman are all guilty of such ideas. Each character relies on their past to fix their future, and yet none of them achieve the goal they set out to catch; all three of them are stuck in an endless rut of disappoint, and comparing their lives to what they once had. When someone hears the name Jay Gatsby they think of lavish parties, expensive decor, and amazing stories told by a handsome, charming man; Gatsby is man of riches, stories, and ambition. He wants one thing in life and that one thing is Daisy

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Gatsby stirs up drama and acts like he is the innocent one. Jay Gatz is not the man he appears to be, he is a compulsive liar, dishonest, and egotistical Jay Gatz's educational background was an impact in the novel “The Great Gatsby”. He had lied about his education to every making himself seen cool or smart. When he was talking with everyone at the hotel when he said “ it was in nineteen-nineteen.

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Through the Facade The America dream, once rife with assurance and affluence, consumes the innocuous dreamers into greed and corruption. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, James Gatz is captivated by the empty promises of the 1920s American dream and love story, especially that of Daisy Fay. To pursue his ambitions, Gatz sacrifices his values, as a means of personifying his idyllic rendition of Jay Gatsby. Through the failures and successes of Gatsby, James Gatz persists underneath the façade with no success in embodying Gatsby. As such, Gatz’s representation of his idealistic self falls short of the expectations of the West Eggers and the East Eggers, failing to assimilate in his new lifestyle.

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In order to impress Daisy and gain her attention, Gatsby created an entirely different image of himself through an exceedingly large amount of lies. The personality of Jay Gatsby was taught to him by a well known, rich man by the name of James Gatz. Who showed him the ways of taking on the roll as a well- educated and respectful gentleman, in order for him to look acceptable for the love of his life Daisy. When the truth is that in reality, Jay Gatsby was born into a family of poor, low-life farmers in North Dakota. Jay Gatsby took on the persona of James Gatz because he felt as if he deserved a lot more out of life than what his poor family could provide for him.

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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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Unfortunately, he had to leave Daisy to go to war. After the war, he was determined to find Daisy but five years later, his feelings are not reciprocated; Daisy toys with him, uses Gatsby to make her husband jealous, and allows Gatsby to take the blame for the murder of her husband’s mistress. The most tragic of the three protagonists studied is Jay Gatsby because he demoralizes himself in a futile attempt at expired love, he has few genuine companions, and he cannot let go of the past. Throughout the novel, the contrast between Gatsby's pure past and corrupt future illustrates the degree to which he changes to impress his love, Daisy.

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Jay Gatz, also known as Gatsby, is one of the main characters of the book The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the book, Gatsby is portrayed as a noble, with a subtle change in attitude and emotion, while in the movie adaptation of the book, Gatsby is portrayed as a commonerl-ike beast with a significant shift in emotions and attitude in similar situations. In the book, Gatsby is represented as the royalty of society, with wealth and respect that is unbounded. But when Gatsby is confronted by Tom, Gatsby gets shocked when he sees that Daisy is terrified of him.

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In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is rejected by Daisy for not meeting her standards, so he does business with Dan Cody. Jay inherits riches that fast-track him to Daisy and wealth, “‘Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay’” (Fitzgerald 83). Jay creates a life for himself in hopes of reconnecting with Daisy; he needed Daisy’s rejection as a source of motivation to settle comfortably, and Nick gives Jay credit for remaining pure in the upper class, “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (164). Jay’s growth from a poor boy into a humble man is critical to the development of Jay as a character and the novel.

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Due to his less than wealthy past, Jay Gatsby was unable to provide Daisy with the life she wanted. Daisy was born into a rich family, and Gatsby believed the only way to win her back is to make a fortune for himself. In the novel, Gatsby becomes obsessed with achieving the American

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Wealth and greed can easily change a person’s lives. One of the major changes is that you can destroy your life in a way that can affect your decisions in the future. Just like how Tom and Daisy are, in The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that follows Jay Gatsby, a man who orders his life around one desire: to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. Gatsby's quest leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved, and eventually to death.

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Dan Cody taught him many things about being rich. “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people…the truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself…so he invented the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent...” (Fitzgerald 104). What this quote is mainly talking about is that Gatsby didn’t come from the most well off family, nor did he think he was going to go anywhere as James Gatz so, he reinvented his whole being. He changed his image, his backstory, and even his name.

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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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