Critical Lens Essay On The Great Gatsby

Jeaniene Frost once said, “People can perfect whatever facade they want, but everyone holds their sins close to their skin”. This quote relates to The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. They both talk about the action of putting out to the world that you are someone else different than who you actually are, but your secrets always stay lurking in the background. The Great Gatsby is trying to show that putting out a facade of someone who you aren’t can have dire consequences. One character who puts up a facade is Jay Gatsby. He tries to act like he is a very elated successful man that throws all these lively parties to share his wealth with others. While in reality he feels incredibly isolated. Nick, the narrator, says while talking about Gatsby, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself”(95). This quote talks about how Gatsby came up with an idea of who he wanted to be and put his entire life purpose into becoming this conception of himself. He would put his success before everything else, even his own happiness.

While she is in a marriage with Tom she has to fake that she is content with the relationship to put up with social normalities. She acts happy around everyone but getting deeper into the novel we find out that she actually is not satisfied with her life. When Nick shows up to the Buchana household Daisy says, “I’m p-paralyzed with happiness”(9). This is a very strange thing to say to Nick because she hardly even knows him. It goes to show that Daisy would say anything to make people think she's pleased with them and to keep up her false