Analyze the Character of the Great Gatsby (Is he really great?)
Analyze the Character of the Great Gatsby (Is he really great?)
If you are stuck and need some more information on the book this essay will give you some ideas that could save you on the test.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, there is much confusion as to who is the real main character. Nick is the narrator, but as apparently obvious as it is, there is yet another character that fights for the position of being the main character. Jay Gatsby is the man of greatness as the title of the book states. Throughout the story he changes in many ways. He is a man of dreams and achievements; no matter what anyone had or would tell him, he would never give up on his dreams.
Jay Gatsby is originally a poor, young man living with his family. Leaving them behind, he pursues his dreams of wealth and riches. He never really recognizes his parents as family and throughout his young manhood he is always on the lookout for a way to become rich. From a young age Gatsby believes that he can control his outcome and circumstances. Just because he was born poor doesn't mean he must remain that way. This desire mirrors the American dream. The American dream is an idea that represents the freedom to break free of any past conditions into prosperity. This is why Gatsby succeeds; because he whole-heartedly believes in the ability to control ones destiny.
Jay Gatsby, although prosperous, has many flaws that later send him to ruin. As a young child his belief of control creates a curiosity in time that perplexes many, including Nick. He believes that if a person can control personal life events, he can also control time itself. This backfires on him throughout the story as he spends the entirety of his last years trying to get back his lost lover. The green light shining out from Daisy’s house across the bay is unreachable, but he refuses to give up until his future is totally destroyed. Another flaw is his willingness to achieve his dreams through illegal means. Even though Gatsby has more morals than the rest of the surrounding corrupted land owners, he is still a part of the corruption. He is also flawed by thinking that he is completely and ultimately safe from any disaster. He goes through life paying off cops, flashing a white card to be released from a speeding ticket and generally using his wealth to keep many people connected to him. These flaws eventually lead to his untimely death.
Even with all the flaws, Nick has an interesting fascination with Gatsby. Nick is intrigued by Gatsby’s moral code. Gatsby believes that he is better than the rest of the East and West Egg inhabitants. He sets up huge, exciting parties on his property, but never attends them. He orders alcoholic beverages during prohibition, but never drinks a drop. It seems that something is plaguing Gatsby that leads him to forgo the typical pleasures of the wealthy of that time period--an unending hope in a past dream which would need time itself to reverse in order for it to be made possible. This ability to dream, to thoroughly fixate is what caught Nick’s attention. As the story progresses, Gatsby gains Nick’s trust and friendship. Nick admires him, considering him, “The Great Gatsby.”
This great admiration or exaltation might be what confuses the reader to wonder if the main character of the book is Gatsby or Nick. Fitzgerald intertwines the character development of both. The reader learns all about Gatsby, but also sees Nick grow and change as a character in his friendship with Gatsby. Nick is constantly evaluating Gatsby’s choices and making shifts in his own thinking in relation to what he learns from observing Gatsby and having conversations with him. Nick admires Gatsby, but also feels sorry for him. The emotion of pity for another and the observed fatal flaws inevitably changes people.
At the end of the book Nick sees Gatsby as a great man with noble intentions. Gatsby has a likable personality that influences others around him. There is something different about him, and it isn’t simply his flaws, but that in essence he is good man with altruistic intentions. Not once does Gatsby give up on Daisy. He waits for her to come back even though he begins realizing that she will never be a part of his life ever again. It is too late, and time is continuing to move. In the end Nick shows the readers that although time can not be controlled, Gatsby does a damn good job trying, making him one of the best men in the world. Nick explains the flaw in Gatsby’s beliefs. The problem that leads to his downfall is he lets one event rule his life and can never shift his attention, only to realize later that the dream is already dead. He dies, along with his great personality, and the reader sees the last hint of the green light fade when Daisy moves away with her cheating husband Tom. The Great Gatsby, ignored in the end by his supposed friends, is really the great person and the supposed friends are seen in their true light--shallow.
But all great things end somewhere and Gatsby’s ends in his quest for a lost, forgotten dream. He has been deceived by an illusion and is destroyed by the destructive aftermath of his lost dream. The great one has perished with the rest.
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