Gatsby Illusion vs. Reality

A detailed Summary of Gatsby Illusion vs. Reality

The Great Gatsby: Illusion Vs. Reality

Things are not always what they seem. Constantly in life we can be fooled by the metaphorical masks people wear. The appearance of many of the characters in The Great Gatsby differs greatly from their actual selves. The use of illusion in the novel The Great Gatsby is used effectively to portray the nature of people in the 1920's, and the artificial life that is lived in this modern age. There are many incidences in which the appearance of characters is far different than what lurks inside them. Several of these incidences are shown in the appearances of Daisy, Gatsby, and Gatsby's perception of Daisy.

Fitzgerald tried to portray that in the 1920's people attempted to maintain the air of purity and innocence, however deep inside themselves they are still materialistic and corrupt. This can be seen with Daisy, as she tries throughout the novel to maintain her innocence and tries to believe that she is not to blame for anything that has happened. Daisy's appearance can be summed up in one color: white. White is symbolic of purity and innocence which is believable for the beginning of the novel. She primarily wears white in the novel and there are several references made to her 'w

Sometimes in life we can delude ourselves into thinking things are different or better than they truly are. This is seen with Gatsby and his dream of life with Daisy. In the first chapter we see Gatsby staring out across the water at the green light. This light is symbolic of Gatsby's dream to be with Daisy. It is obvious to me that Gatsby has fooled himself into thinking that somehow if you have enough money you can go back in time and change the past to get what you want as can be seen with the conversation Gatsby has with Nick when he states "Can't change the past? Of course you can.". Gatsby constantly tries to deny the truth to himself, this is seen when the reality of Daisy's daughter hits him. When Gatsby first sees her he simply stares at her, he is baffled because his mind didn't want to accept her existence and glazed over the fact that Daisy had a child with Tom. He also tried to convince himself that if Daisy renounces her love for Tom that it will somehow undo all their years of marriage and he can be with her. It's my opinion that the reason Gatsby kept delaying actually seeing Daisy again is because living the dream of her is so much better, she can't reject him and in his mind she is exactly who he wants her to be. It had been so long since he last saw Daisy that his mind washed away any imperfections over time so he was also looking upon her memory with rose colored glasses and thus she became a better and better person as his obsession grew. The ironic thing is how much Gatsby has worked and obsessed all these years for someone who didn't even truly exist. The only place this innocent flower of Daisy exists is in Gatsby's mind, in reality she is nowhere near the woman whom he has held higher than anyone in his life. Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy and as readers we draw the conclusion that Daisy is certainly not good enough for him as we see her a

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Approximate Word count = 1273
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English