The not so great gatsby
In the novel entitled The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is at times made out to be better than us. At first glance he is sophisticated, using big words and claiming that he is an "Oxford man." But when we look closer we can easily see that this man is a farce. Much of this man has been shrouded in mystery. We know very little about his past until later in the book. We don't know where he was born, who his parents are, or where all of his money came from. He frequently disappears form Nick's view seemingly without a trace. All of these things make him out to be somebody of real importance but by looking closely we can gather an abundance of evidence to the contrary. We see that he is just a man looking for the lost love of his life, Daisy. He is a man looking for the American dream and when he does not find it, we see at last that he is just like the rest of us. The word great is somewhat vague in meaning. Whether someone is great or not often times depends on the person judging them. My personal beliefs as far as greatness are concerned are not very complicated. When I think of someone who is or was great, I think of Jackie Robinson, Louis Armstrong, and Albert Einstein. These are al
Another part of being great is not having to hide your past. There are a lot of parts of the book in which we see the fake life he has made for himself. In chapter three when Nick is in the library with owl eyes we see that all of his books are still uncut. This leads me to believe that he has not really read any of them. Also he changed his name from Gatz to Gatsby. He buys things like his swimming pool that he never even uses. Almost every part of his life is a lie made up by him so he can lead the life of Jay Gatsby. All of this lying makes him out to more of a fraudulent character that a great one. All of it is a farce put on by him to impress a woman that he will never get. A really great person confronts their past, even if it is a bad one, and they come to terms with it. Jay Gatsby has not done that. He keeps his lie going to the very end. More than just lying, a big part of wanting to marry Daisy was to get at her money. That is one of the most despicable acts I can think of. But when he really thought that he could get at Daisy, he went after her and in the process changed some lives but not necessarily for the better. Daisy will never forget what Gatsby did for her in taking the blame for Myrtle's death. Nick found out that perhaps it is impossible to achieve that American dream. There are a lot of places where Gatsby could be considered a great man. In chapter three we find out that he throws parties for people he does not even know on a regular basis. He gives them food and wine and something that will make their lives a little more enjoyable if only for for one night. He also buys a girl he does not know well an evening dress to wear to his parties.He is for the most part a very kind person. It is a shame that he had a very shady past otherwise he might have had a real nice funeral with a lot of people instead of just his dad, Nick, and Owl eyes. He is just not great in my sense of the word.He touched the lives of a lot of people but not in the way people like Einstein or Robinson changed them. Where Einstein wrote the book on modern physics and Jackie Robins
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Approximate Word count = 1411
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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