The Great Gatsby - 3

In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts Jay Gatsby’s dream of reliving the past and rekindling his love with Daisy Buchannan. This causes Gatsby to create a false identity; that of being a wealthy and prestigious man. Gatsby’s helpless love for Daisy blinds him from the responsibility he holds to himself. He has cast away his true character and personality only to become a shell of the person he once was.
Gatsby goes to great lengths to maintain an image of himself that he created with the belief that Daisy would come back to him. What makes Gatsby so “great” is that he dedicates his life to making his dreams reality. Gatsby spent years perfecting a portrait of society’s ideal wealthy man. Even the narrator, Nick Carraway, almost believed this act, “[Gatsby had] one of those rare smiles with a quality of reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.” The description of Gatsby’s smile envelopes the manner in which Gatsby appears to the outside world, an image that deteriorates throughout the novel until Gatsby’s death. Not only does Gatsby develop an alter ego that he sticks to until his murder, but he goes as far as obtaining wealth through shady means to purchase all that was necessary to keep up his façade. Such as the books in his library, which are “absolutely real – have pages and everything.” As Owl-Eyes points out in the novel, he did not believe that they would be real, showing how Gatsby bought the books for show, which implies that he is educated and came from old money.
Gatsby was not from old money, but was a country boy from North Dakota. Gatsby seemed to know that he was destined for something greater, practicing how to act like one who was wealthy at a young age. Gatsby had a desire to escape his circumstances and make a name for himself. The opportunity presented itself when he boarded Dan Cody’s yacht. It was a dream that he not only realized, but a dream that took him away from his responsibility...