Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Is Jay Gatsby truly great?

I think it depends who you ask. If you ask Tom Buchanan, then no. Tom sees Gatsby only as a criminal who tries to break up his marriage. He also sees Gatsby as the man who cruelly hits his girlfriend, Myrtle Wilson, with his car without bothering to stop. Gatsby is a bad man and a bad person to Tom, not great at all.


By the end of the novel, I don't think Daisy Buchanan would say Gatsby is great either. Although she may truly have loved him once, it seems as though it's been a long time since Daisy learned to rank her wealth and status above anything having to do with her heart. When she learns Gatsby achieved his fortune illegally and is actually a criminal who can never replicate for her the elegant life she currently enjoys, she dumps him. 


To Nick Carraway, Gatsby is great. Nick sees Gatsby hold onto hope until the end; Gatsby always seems to believe that he might, one day, be able to have everything he's ever wanted—"It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as [Nick had] never found in any other person and which it is not likely [he] shall ever find again."  Gatsby has a kind of faith in his dreams that few adults have, and this makes him great to Nick.

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