Who Is Jay Gatsby Anti Hero

Imagine a desolate wasteland filled with forgotten hopes and dreams, where the grey ash has suffocated everything in its path. At the end of the road stands Jay Gatsby, shimmering like a hero, but through the hidden depths, his true anti-hero archetype is shown. Literature includes various types of anti-heroes such as in The Great Gatsby, who are most commonly driven by their own self-interest avoiding any chance of confrontation and conflict. Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby is portrayed as an anti-hero due to his questionable actions, his manipulative relationships, and his tragic fate, exposing the truth about his character. Every hero’s action has meaning and true intent; however, Jay Gatsby, an anti-hero constantly creates questionable

To start, Gatsby has grown fond of his manipulative behaviour, using it on each character he comes across. His tendency to lie to people to attain his own interests implies a lack of moral character turning Gatsby into the anti-hero of the novel especially when he is avoiding every conflict even when Nick caught one of his lies that he “‘inherited your money.’ ‘I did, old sport’ he said automatically, ‘but I lost most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war” (Fitzgerald 90) proving his anti-heroism by shunning the truth for his own benefit. Additionally, the tool of deception is abused by Gatsby exposing his dark nature as an anti-hero in his character relationships. He used his false identity to exert control over others around him and his influence has a huge impact Nick believes Gatsby is “worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgerald 154) showing the idolization beginning and the scepticism disappearing. This highlights the stereotype of anti-heroes being unable to form genuine relationships and how Gatsby’s manipulative charm can win over anyone. Finally, Gatsby's manipulation of everyone around him, especially in his pursuit of Daisy, indicates a desire to use others for his own gain through exploitation. Gatsby was able to exploit Nick’s relationships with Tom and Daisy to arrange a meeting where he can confess his love and

To begin with, Gatsby is a self-made man and the embodiment of the American Dream yet this exposes his flaws even more. He blindly ran towards his goal of Daisy, accepting any challenge along the way without considering how it may affect his future even when he was “despising the janitor’s work with which he was to pay his way through” (Fitzgerald 99) just to be able to spend two weeks in college and brag about it later on. Gatsby’s anti-heroism is driven by bragging which is the complete opposite of a hero as they do not need to brag since their efforts are taken positively by the public. Likewise, wealth and power has the ability to corrupt one with even the highest morality and Gatsby used to be a young kid trying to become rich to win back a girl. Once he tasted the tiniest bit of money and status he got addicted engaging in illegal activities damaging his moral compass just like an anti hero. Loud, and lavish parties were one of the activities he has done, although it was not illegal it ruined the peace of both eggs as a new sense of chaos was introduced and this was only “one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him” (Fitzgerald 133) showing how he illegally became a bootlegger as well along with every other stunt he did in his corrupted past. Lastly, Gatsby is a passive character yet he was