The Great Gatsby Selfish

As the story and life of Gatsby draws to a close, one of the last things Nick Carraway says to him is “They’re a rotten crowd… you’re worth the whole bunch put together” (Fitzgerald 164). With this, Nick affirms their friendship despite his many suspicions and disapprovals of Gatsby. Nick finds this statement more true than ever when George Wilson eventually kills Gatsby and leaves Nick to deal with the estate. None of this “whole bunch” that Nick refers to seems to care that Gatsby died. Despite the many people who indulged themselves on Gatsby’s hospitality, nobody bothered to come and say goodbye or even a final thank you to their generous host. Maybe it was because no one really knew who he was. The little that they did know was sloshed

That being said, it’s hard to define the kind of man Gatsby was. Was he a good man? Was he, in fact, better than his guests? There can be two rather contradictory answers to these questions. The first answer could be yes, he is a good man. He was generous in riches and quite the host. He fought long and hard for Daisy, working up to the top to become the kind of man she would want to be with. He knew his way around people, how to make them feel welcome and important. He had a smile “with a quality of eternal reassurance in it” (Fitzgerald 53). But what’s interesting is that this rare, enigmatic smile did more than just charm you. E.P. Shurbb said it best with regards to the first time Nick was blown away by that smile: “With that benedictive smile he does not transform Nick but confers identity on him, enables him to be – or imagine he is – his best self. But just for a moment” (Shurbb 101). Which leads us to the second answer: Gatsby was not a good man but he desperately wanted to be. He believed himself to be. James Gatz built Jay Gatsby up to become someone he was not. However, the process did not change James into Jay, it merely gave him a