Jay Gatsby

Jay Gatsby is a man blinded by his own greed and imagination. He wants only money
and love and must work hard to achieve both. The American Dream by definition is
the idea that everyone in the United States has the chance to achieve success and
prosperity. This includes wealth, love, material things, and happiness. Gatsby
represents the American Dream and the state of America at the time people resort
to crime and exploit the prohibition laws to prosper.
Jay Gatsby wants so deeply to experience love that he puts his faith completely into
someone that could never fulfill his expectations. After he reunites with Daisy, the
narrator describes Gatsbys expression saying, I saw the expression of bewilderment
had come back into Gatsbys face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to
the quality of his present happiness. Gatsbys expression describes a feeling of
emptiness and realization that the woman of his dreams may not amount to his high
expectations. For five years, Gatsby lived the dream that Daisy and him would soon
reunite. Now that he has her, there is nothing more he must work for in life. He
experiences the empty feeling of Daisy not amounting to the illusion he created.
Even after Gatsby experienced an empty dream, he still cannot admit to himself that
this woman is not the love of his life. Gatsby is so invested in an unattainable dream
that he cannot bring himself to face the reality. Gatsby knows that Daisy cannot leave
her husband, yet is completely blinded by his love for the dream of her. He convinces
himself that she will leave her husband, and they will somehow end up together. This
love and devotion for Daisy depicts Gatsby as a man of tremendous imagination, who
has an ability to transform his hopes and dreams into reality.
Jay Gatsbys motivation of love drives him achieve a life of luxury, wealth, and
popularity to win over Daisy. The narrator says, He had deliberately given Daisy a
sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same
stratum as herself that he was fully able to take care of her. As a matter of fact, he
had no such facilities.. Gatsby feels that the only way to win Daisy over is by
creating a lavish life full of money and beautiful people. He believes that by attaining
this lifestyle, he is worthy of her love. Gatsby dedicated himself to winning Daisy,
which leads him to gain millions of dollars, buy an ostentatious mansion, and hold
weekly parties. The love for his own illusion of Daisy motivates him in many ways.
Gatsby even felt it necessary to fabricate his entire identity: So he invented just the
sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this
conception he was faithful to the end. Gatsby reinvents himself to conform to his
own ideas of how he should live and how people should perceive him. He lies about
countless things, so he can portray a man of wealth with sophistication and class. He
goes to this extreme to fit into the same stature as Daisy, the love of his life. He uses
his wealth to satisfy his love for Daisy buying a house across the bay so he would
be opposite her and buying a hydroplane so that he could move closer to her dock
are just two examples of this. However, we must note that he bought the house with
a distance between them, rather than the house next door this acts as a metaphor
for his relationship with her (distance and obstacles) and as a metaphor for Gatsbys

character he is protected by a space and it acts as a wall between the two former
lovers.
The faade that Gatsby has created, largely in order to impress and trick Daisy, is
highlighted through the initial description of his mansion: a factual imitation of some
Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin
beard of raw ivy. The factual imitation and thin beard are suggestive of Gatsbys
decision to mask his real identity, or cover reality. No one knows who the real Gatsby
is and he is plagued by controversy: "Somebody told me they thought he killed a man
once." A thrill passed over all of us. The three Mr. Mumbles bent forward and listened
eagerly. "I don't think it's so much that," argued Lucille sceptically; "it's more that he
was a German spy during the war." One of the men nodded in confirmation. "I heard
that from a man who knew all about him, grew up with him in Germany," he assured
us positively.
In his first direct contact with Gatsby, Nick notices his extraordinary smileone of
those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it. Nicks impression of
Gatsby emphasizes his optimism and vitalitysomething about him seems
remarkably hopeful, and this belief in the brilliance of the future impresses Nick, even
before he knows what future Gatsby envisions. However, the notion of him being
false is apparent his elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some
time before he introduced himself Id got a strong impression he was picking his
words with care. Furthermore, Jordan not believing that he is an Oxford man, for no
other reason than she doesnt think it, highlights how he has certain characteristics
that suggest a background other than the one he likes to promote.

Isolation
The world Fitzgerald lived in, and the world his characters inhabit, is one without
connections, friends, or family. People may come together in The Great Gatsby, but
they always end up falling apart in the end. Only Daisy and Tom stay together in the
end, and their togetherness is a fallacy.
Daisy is isolated she gives birth to her daughter alone the nurse is there, however
Tom is not. The baby is born into a world of loneliness.
Gatsby is the main symbol of isolation. He throws these huge parties with hundreds
of guests yet he's miserable. All his actions are attempts to bring others closer, but
he remains isolated by his previous choices. He still wants Daisy, even knowing her
feelings are fickle and questionable. We can argue that Gatsby uses isolation as a
method of protection against rejection and embarrassment.
In the end, Gatsby dies and hardly anyone goes to his funeral. Only Nick, his father,
and a handful of servants go to the funeral so Gatsby dies as isolated as he lived. The

people who were supposed to be his friends prove that they are nothing more than
self-serving as do the other characters in the novel while dealing with Nick. Nick
begins to lose his hope for people and walks away from everyone who he's interacted
with over the course of the novel because their actions are all selfish.
In The Great Gatsby, Nick and Gatsby isolate themselves from society out of fear that
they wont fit in. Isolation can be seen as a form of defence for characters. Despite
his wealth, Gatsby actively isolates himself from society and people at his parties
because he grew up poor he feels that he does not belong with rich people. At his
parties, many people do not know him and he is usually alone or in small groups at
them. Similarly, Nick isolates himself as he feels that he does not belong with the
upper class his role also makes this trait ideal as he is the narrator and detaching
himself from the emotion and activity of those he is narrating about allows him to be
more objective. However, this wavers as we see with his reaction to meeting Gatsby
for the first time, he has a strong passion and infatuation with the man.

Education
Education, namely higher education, is a must for the socially elite. For the most part,
characters in The Great Gatsby are well educated reflected in their speech and
dialogue that provides a distinction between the rich and the lower classes. Gatsby
however, is placed in a pretty awkward middle, where he claims to be educated at
Oxford. But Nick notes that his speech seems forced and carefully selected. This
suggests that it does not come naturally to him. As we know, Gatsby is not actually
an Oxford man, but the fact that he stresses that he is an Oxford man shows the
importance of it within society as it plays a pivotal role in his faade. Mr Wolfsheim
speaks in a dialect that indicates his lack of education, lack of class and general lack
of what wealthy people in the 1920s referred to as good breeding.