Personal Essay: The Great Gatsby

Loyalty is the heart of all virtues. A loyal person remains committed even when it can be costly to do so. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, observer Nick Carraway arrives to New York and moves in next-door to millionaire Jay Gatsby, who he became aligned to. Because Nick Carraway remained loyal to Gatsby, he found himself dealing with the immorality of those around him, leading him to pack his bags and head home.

F. Scott Fitzgerald presents many themes in his novel, The Great Gatsby. Gatsby’s fame has

People have different life styles and different characteristics as their identities in the society. A man who owns a company may be considered rich; a girl who smiles all the time may be considered kind. Everyone has unique identity to be distinguished from others. Some people’s characters may be very alike, and some may be completely opposite. Identity is addressed significantly in the book “The Great Gatsby” and the movie “Forest Gump”. Gatsby is a man who organizes parties for everyone; Forest Gump is a low-intelligent man who does things depending on others’ will. Both of them have struggled at wealth, friendship, and love. Both of them are considered not ordinary in others’ thought. Although both Gatsby and Forest agrees that they are different from the majority of people, Gatsby argues that he think of himself is different from what others think of him, while Forest Gump argues that he is the man who everyone else sees.

Trust is very important in relationships. It is the basis for relationships. It influences what you think about others. When just beginning a relationship there is a lot of initial trust. In The Great Gatsby the beginning tells of Gatsby, and how he is shrouded in mystery and gossip. “ ‘I don’t think it’s so much that,’ argued Lucille sceptically; ‘it’s more that he was a German spy during the war.’ ” This is just one example that people give about what they think about Gatsby. The initial trust that a character like Nick puts into these ideas effects his view of Gatsby and his initial distant relationship with him.

In the novel The Great Gatsby, Nick has a bias over certain people and gives his initial impression on those people by examining their physical presence. Although Nick accepts all people, he still has his own impression towards people. When Nick first meets Tom Buchanan, he thinks of Tom as a selfish person. Nick describes Tom’s physical traits to input his first impression: “Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward” (Fitzgerald 7). The physical traits that Nick points out about Tom reveals Tom’s character. Nick believes that Tom is someone who believes

Gold and money, a light in the dark, or a warning on the road; the color yellow has many diverse meanings in society and these are just a few. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald colors represent several aspects of the characters as they are swept through rollicking emotions powered by the mystery shrouding the enigmatic Jay Gatsby in the height of the Roaring Twenties. Yellow gives insight into Gatsby’s character, who he wants to be, who he is in truth, and who others think he is.

As a young child, my dream was to become a man of incredible wealth; a man who could not only provide for his family but a man boldly devoted to his job, a man so happy with no boundaries. Wasn’t this the American Dream?

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, there is no question that Jay Gatsby, West-Egg nouveau riche and mysterious host of frequent, extravagant parties, is wealthy; nevertheless, few of his guests understand how he became so. Preoccupied with the festivities, other newly-rich party-goers neither know much about their host nor appear interested in finding out. Nick’s sincere request to meet the man who sent him the invitation is met by amused replies that Gatsby does not exist. In large part, this statement is true; for Gatsby hardly exists beyond his guest’s fantasized perceptions of him. Because of Jay Gatsby’s ambiguous past, Rumors prevail as a common theme of conversation among Gatsby’s guests, as they speculate how he acquired such material wealth.

Characters throughout The Great Gatsby present themselves with mysterious and questionable morals. Affairs, dishonest morals, criminal professions, weak boundaries and hypocritical views are all examples of immorality portrayed in The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, lies and mischief fill the lives of many and significantly damage numerous relationships.

The Great Gatsby is a novel about a man named Nick Carraway. Nick is the narrator and is the neighbor of a very wealthy man who goes by the name, Gatsby. Throughout the novel, it is made clear that all of the men are womanizers, including Nick. But it is also inferred that Nick is a homosexual.

In the story "The Great Gatsby" Nick has a favorable opinion of Jay Gatsby. In the first chapter of the book Nick states "When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction- Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn." The book gives many examples of Nick thinking of Gatsby as the "Great" such as Gatsby 's smile, what Gatsby was willing to do for Daisy, and what Gatsby did for himself.

In the book The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald portrays and image of love versus infatuation. The relationships between the characters shows the struggle of an emotional connection in a world driven by societal pressures and money. Gatsby’s and Daisy’s relationship with each other is intertwined with each other’s love and lust, and is complicated with their other relationships, such as Daisy’s and Tom’s marriage. Gatsby is the “fool” in love throughout this whole endeavor and his week with Daisy, because of his constant search for love to fill the void in his life that no amount of success can.

Nick Carraway is man from a wealthy family in Minnesota moving to west egg to learn about the Bond business. Then he gets involved with Mr. Gatsby which then sparks the beginning of the novel. Gatsby then gets involved with the nightmare of the American Dream. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s perfectly as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. This novel shows the lack of social skills in newly made millionaires such as Gatsby that cannot even pick up on an invitation to lunch.

“They were careless people…” says Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby. In a story depicting the 1920s during a time of prosperity, growth, and the emergence of the America as a major global power, this statement may seem to be contrary. But in reality, Nick Carraway’s description of his friends and the people he knew, was not only true, but is an indication of those who were striving for the American dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests that the American Dream is foolish, the people who pursue it are immoral and reckless, and this pursuit is futile.

In the story Nick sees Gatsby as great. In a sense, the word “great” can be attributed to large and grand things such as Gatsby’s, house, his lavish parties, his wealth, and even his personality. All of these can be viewed as trophies of success or in a particular person’s eyes, greatness. Throughout the novel Nick is enamored by Gatsby's outstanding personality and ability to hold onto hope. He describes Gatsby as having, “..an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.”(2). Gatsby's actions such as buying a house right across from Daisy, throwing parties hoping she will show up, and holding onto her for five years all contribute to why Nicks thinks Gatsby is great.