The Great Gatsby- Jay Gatsby V Essay -- essays research papers

Jay Gatsby, the title character of The Great Gatsby, is really not all that the title might suggest. First of all, his real name is James Gatz. He changed it in an effort to leave behind his old life as a poor boy and create an entirely new identity. He is also a liar and a criminal, having accumulated his wealth and position by dishonest means. But he is still called ‘great,’ and in a sense he is. Gatsby is made great by his unfaltering hope, and his determination to live in a perfect world with Daisy and their perfect love. Gatsby has many visible flaws—his obvious lies, his mysterious way of avoiding straight answers. But they are shadowed over by his gentle smile and his visible hunger for an ideal future. The coarse and playful Jay Gatsby who throws wild parties and spends lavishly on friends and strangers doesn’t hold as much reality as the quiet Gatsby who dreams of happiness with Daisy and the relationship they once had. He also has the power to make his dreams reality. He dreamed as a boy of a luxurious life of riches and high society, and he got it. Later he dreams of Daisy and their future together, which he has in reach for a time before it falls away. He loses it because his love for Daisy is all in the relationship they used to have—he wants to recreate the past, not make a future. His love for her isn’t really based on her, he doesn’t even see her efforts to hide herself under an unfeeling shallowness. He is more in love with what she represents, and what he...