Gatsby’s desperate longing for something more than what he had at such a young age urged him to create the persona of “Jay Gatsby” from the ordinary James Gatz. Comparably, the young Gatz spent much
Jay Gatz's educational background was an impact in the novel “The Great Gatsby”. He had lied about his education to make himself seen cool or smart. When he was talking with everyone at the hotel when he said “ it was in nineteen-nineteen. I only stayed for five months, that's why I can't call myself an Oxford man”(Fitzgerald ) Before he told them he showed the medals he got from school making it seem like he had graduated from oxford.
In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is in love with Daisy. Jay Gatsby, first known as “James Gatz” (103) comes from the Midwest and he did not start as wealthy, he was born into a poor family, his parents were farmers but he felt he did not belong as he was deeply ambitious and determined to be successful. In the other hand, Daisy Buchanan, born as Daisy Fay, is from a wealthy family in Louisville, according to Gatsby “her voice is full of money” (127) and she is a manipulative, selfish, and confused woman who only cares for her own well
Skylar Placek Ms. Anderson English III Honors 8 March 2023 The Great Gatsby Essay Throughout the novel, “The Great Gatsby”, the character Jay Gatsby puts on a false front on many occasions. He continuously tries to deceive many of the characters in the book and lies about numerous things. These fabrications of his brought about many negative repercussions and even resulted in his own death.
He tried to cover up his past life by giving them a false name. “ Jay Gatz - that was really, or at least legally his name” (75). This shows that Gatsby lied about his name and told them something totally different to make other people think otherwise about his name. “ The idea was that they were lying to someone that they could potentially deceive” ( The lying game). It also shows that Gatsby can somewhat not be trusted because if he will lie about his name he would lie about anything else.
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.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby tries to find Daisy Buchanan. Daisy, is a women who fell in love with jay, but ended up marrying Tom Buchanan. There are a lot of mixed feelings with who loves who, and a massive indecisiveness throughout the whole book. The way Jay pursued love, was the same was he pursued wealth. Love and wealth play big parts in The Great Gatsby.
World War I started on July 28, 1914 in Europe. It began with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. Although the assassination did prompt World War I, it still would have materialized. Other factors such as, nationalism, imperialism, and the systems of alliances, were already provoking of the war; the assassination just stopped the prolonging of the war. World War I caused great damage to the world; some constructive and others destructive.
The girl that Gatsby has once loved has been “short of his dreams- not through her own fault, but because of the constant vitality of his illusions,” and it is James Gatz who has gone into loving Daisy, but the high expectations of Jay Gatsby which ruins that love for her (Fitzgerald 95). As such, Gatsby’s hope to salvage her love proves to be meaningless as "his gift for hope, as it turns out, is Gatsby’s curse as well as his blessing," and so "it insulates him from the rational and experiential restraints" which causes him to be blinded by any form of rejection in his conscious when it comes to Daisy (Steinbrink). Gatz’s love for Daisy encompasses the basic foundation that makes James Gatz more genuine than Jay
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.
As said by other critics, “Jay Gatsby's determination to establish a new identity for himself sets him apart from the other characters in the text” (Verderame). Gatsby grew up as a poor farmer boy. Born into poverty from the beginning, Gatsby cared little for his family and was determined to leave them behind for a new life. This tragic past encourages Gatsby to entirely start a new life by changing his identity and personality before the reader is even introduced to the character. “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” (98).Critics say, “In doing so, Gatsby has proven to himself that he can successfully change the story of his past” (Scisco).
“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.
The eponymous character was born the day he met Dan Cody and invented himself a new life. Ultimately, Gatsby created and fabricated his own ideal ‘identity’ to meet his expectations: “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself […] 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.” Two identities therefore arise: Jay Gatsby and James Gatz. Yet one can almost see the threads of James Gatz behind the Gatsby facade. With Daisy, Gatsby loses the carefully constructed identity: he reverts to the young soul seeking for his place in the world, with “a touch of panic” in his voice when he realises that Daisy has “slipped away [and become something] no longer tangible”.
Dreaming is Nice, Until You Wake Up The novel Foreign Gods, Inc., by Okey Ndibe tells a story of a man, Ike, who harbors many idealistic aspirations for his life, but faces the obstacles of reality that force him to lead a life different than his expectations; however, he falls into the trap of chasing increasingly unrealistic dreams, which leaves him worse off than ever before. The first example of how reality differs from Ike’s dreams is when the author explains how Ike is forced to work as a cab drive for many years, instead of pursuing his true aspirations with his outstanding college degree, “He’d worked as a driver for thirteen years, ever since graduating from Amherst College, cum laude, in economics” (Ndibe 13). As can be seen, Ike is oddly employed in a job for which he is greatly overqualified.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays the themes of love, lust and obsession, through the character of Jay Gatsby, who confuses lust and obsession with love. The character of Jay Gatsby was a wealthy business man, who the author developed as arrogant and tasteless. Gatsby 's love interest, Daisy Buchanan, was a subdued socialite who was married to the dim witted Tom Buchanan. She is the perfect example of how women of her level of society were supposed to act in her day. The circumstances surrounding Gatsby and Daisy 's relationship kept them eternally apart.
