Exploring Gatsby's "Greatness" as Illustrated in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
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People will do anything for love and some of those behaviors may not be approved by other individuals. The Great Gatsby is a great example of that statement. The book’s title is ironic in a way too. The man whom the book is about is named James Gatz, not Jay Gatsby as said in the earlier chapters of the book. Moreover, this man, whatever one would call him, was not a great man. He lied and got his money in an unorthodox way. He did however overcome a significant obstacle in life, poverty. Gatsby was one of the few who went go from “Rags to Riches” and to live the “American Dream.” In the eyes of Nick, the narrator, Gatsby was a great man, despite the fact that he lied and got wealthy in an immoral method.
Nick adored Gatsby’s exceptional quality of hope. Gatsby had created a new identity to change his life around. He was born into a poor farmer’s family in Minnesota. He had obtained his money by bootlegging and working with a man named Wolfsheim. Gatsby had become part of the “New Rich” and lived in West Egg, New York. He never lost the desire to be rich and become a new person. He was not the only person acquiring money by illegal means, it was the 1920’s after all, and many others were doing what he was. Gatsby had decided he would need money to be with Daisy, since she was accustomed to it. In his opinion, his propose in life was to be with Daisy. Gatsby would throw lavish parties and have other events to get the attention and approval of Daisy. When he had finally been reacquainted Daisy, he realized she still had feelings for him. Gatsby would reach towards the green light at Daisy’s East Egg dock would symbolize Gatsby’s hope and dreams for being with her again. Gatsby cared about Daisy very much and wo...
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...have Daisy live than; he did not want Daisy to suffer and that is how much he loved Daisy.
Gatsby was a man who yearned for Daisy to be back in his life and was in the minority of whom went from “Rags to Riches.” The many things that made Gatsby “great’ were his immense quality of hope, his unrealistic dream of being with Daisy, and his friendship with Nick. Many people went to Gatsby’s parties, but only a few went to his funeral. He was a popular man, but not a loved one. He was a great man, but the ways he became great were not ordinary. He did all he could to win back Daisy and be a respectable person. Nick thought highly of Gatsby and wanted to be more like him in some ways. Jay Gatsby or James Gatz was a smart sophisticated man whose love for Daisy was greater than anything else in his life and therefore, died for what she had done, kill another woman.