...identify Jay Gatsby as a tragic hero. Some of the characteristics of that a tragic hero must have; include greatness, a weakness or a flaw, an undeserved fate and a fates’ that are not deserved and the punishment exceeding they get exceeds the crime. they committed. Jay Gatsby encompasses has all of these the characteristics of a tragic hero. Although, the author tries to portray Gatsby as a perfect person, there are still some flaws that are still noticeable. Gatsby's great life unwinds with the death of the Furthermore, even Gatsby’s ending shows that he was tragic hero. We know that Jay Gatsby was esteemed has greatness by the way others spoke of him. Nick describes him as a . He was very well mannered person and everyone who knew knows him looked up to him (pg. 53-54). He wasn’t one of the rubbish people who got recklessly get drunk, and he also didn’t doesn’t act careless like the rich (pg. 54, 188). Meyer Wolfshiem said of him, “fine fellow isn’t he”,” which shows that even Wolfshiem liked Jay Gatsby (pg. 76). In addition, even the title of the book is called, “The “Great Gatsby”,” which shows that the author Nick thought that Gatsby was a great person. Also, when Nick was leaving for his train, he told Gatsby that he's “worth he worth’s the whole bunch”, which includes Daisy, Tom and Jordan, and that shows, that Nick thought that he is exceptionally extremely great as a person and is better than most ((pg. 162). Even though Gatsby was rich, that...
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...F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story, The Great Gatsby, is a rags to riches story of a man named Jay Gatsby, born in 1892. Raised in North Dakota as a squandering farmer’s son, Gatsby later became a millionaire living in West Egg, where all the new money lived. Jay Gatsby was an iconic figure of a tragic hero because he came from great mental stature, endured great physical and emotional suffering, and had a tragic flaw that inevitably resulted in his downfall. Jay Gatsby had many attributes of a tragic hero including being born into a family of high stature. He felt as if he was born a son of God. When he was a young child, his parents were poor farm workers in North Dakota, but Gatsby knew he was destined for greatness. As he grew, he received his...
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...The Colourful World of The Great Gatsby In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes colour symbolism to enhance each character’s personality flaws and convey a symbolic meaning behind everything the characters do. Throughout the novel, the colours that highlight these flaws are Green, Yellow, White, and Silver. Each colour conveys important symbolic meanings, which ultimately highlight each character’s tainted personalities. Fitzgerald magnifies these clearly identifiable flaws in Gatsby, Daisy, and Myrtle through the use of colour symbolism throughout his novel. The first colour, which F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces to the reader, is the colour green. Green embodies the hope in which Gatsby clings on to and the limitless dream...
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...The Tragic Flaws of Hamlet and The Great Gatsby In Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the main characters both go through tragic flaws. Their love does not end up the way they want but they keep on trying to make it perfect. Hamlet and Gatsby both have a job they want to do but cannot pursue that goal because they have men that are standing in their way. They also have secrets that they keep from their fellow friends and family and no one knows the actual reason for their misbehavior. Hamlet and Gatsby both suffer tragedies as they try to live their perfect, dream life. Hamlet and Jay Gatsby are both in love with the women that means everything to them. Hamlets love for Ophelia is so insane that her father Polonius thinks that he is mad and lovesick. While Polonius and Claudius spy on Hamlet and see what the real problem is, they see Hamlet being violent with Ophelia after she tries to return his gifts. “The origin and commencement of his grief sprung from neglected love” (3.1.179-180). Polonius still believes that the reason behind Hamlets behavior is still crazy and caused by his love for Ophelia. Hamlet never really admits that he is in love with Ophelia until he sees her being buried at her funeral. “I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum” (5.1.263-265). Hamlet goes into deep sorrow when he sees Ophelia is dead and says that his love for Ophelia is greater than the love of forty...
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...Though love provides many great things and still does to this day, it has also caused obsession, depravity and destruction. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, shows that love can be an awful influence on a person. Through the novel the main character Jay Gatsby was born into a dirt-poor farming family. And since his birth Gatsby felt the he was, “A son of God”(p.6.6-7). This ambitious feeling Gatsby was born with ultimately leads him to doing anything and everything to get what he wants. And when Gatsby falls in love with a girl named Daisy, who tells Gatsby that he cannot be with her unless he becomes rich, leads him to ordain a life of wealth. As Gatsby pursues his life of wealth, Daisy marries a rich man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby dream of winning Daisy’s love becomes less realistic. But nevertheless Gatsby does everything he can to...
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...spite of a basic goodness, has a tragic flaw which eventually leads to his downfall. Gatsby might not seem to be the everyday man, in reality he actually is. At one point Gatsby's past is being examined and his parents are described as "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" which shows the readers that he came from humble roots and was just like everyone else (Fitzgerald 95). He was not born into wealth and privilege and did not have any special background that gave him an advantage over others. Another instance in which Gatsby is portrayed as the average man is when Nick is discussing Gatsby's past and he says, "So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent"(Fitzgerald 95). This shows that the identity that Gatsby has created for himself is that of any average, immature boy. As the novel progresses further you find Nick recounting Gatsby's past and describing him as being a "penniless young man" which again shows the reader that Gatsby is really just the common man with a big dream (Fitzgerald 141). This statement helps take away some of the disguise of wealth and overwhelming power, and brings him into a more human perspective. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is a tragic hero because he displays the fundamental characteristics of modern tragic hero. Gatsby's tragic flaw is that his view of the world is obstructed by his own naive idealism. It is very clear to the reader that Gatsby is idealistic when, while Nick is over...
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...forever. It is human nature to regret that which is lost, therefore, one feels the need to recreate the past and is a common theme in everyday life. These attempts at trying to repeat the past, however, are usually in vain. The novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a great example of this, as the plot focuses on the concept of recapturing the past. The plot of this story revolves around the growth and press of this concept and is told relative to the main character in the story, Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s usage of this character effectively conveys this idea throughout the novel. The story about how and why Gatsby is unsuccessful in recapturing his past, how his actions hurt himself and others around him and how he ultimately fails while achieving nothing. Throughout the story, we learn that Jay Gatsby is a man who depends and dwells upon his past to reach his dream. Through the narrator, Nick Carraway, we can see that Gatsby’s bad habit of holding on the past does not help him get anywhere with his goal. He believes that the past could be repeated, “'Can't repeat the past?' he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!'” (Fitzgerald, 85). This shows Gatsby’s inability to move on from the past. This obsession with the past inspires Gatsby to do everything he does in order to win back Daisy. He gets into the business of bootleg alcohol selling. To get Daisy’s attention, he throws lavish parties every week and he buys a mansion across the bay in front of Daisy’s mansion...
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...Corruption The statement, “I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions”, was made by Augusten Burroughs. He might have been talking about himself but this quote applies to the character Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. Many historians believe that Mr. Gatsby was inspired by F. Scott himself. They both were romantics who fell in love with the heartbreaking wild girl. They were both guys who were willing to break the rules in order to get to the top. And most diffidently they were just two guys trying to make to greener pastor. F. Scott wrote The Great Gatsby threw the eyes of Nick Carraway. Originally in awe of him, Nick uncovers the truth and grows an inner hatred for Gatsby; until he opens his eyes to see his sad life in which he feels nothing put pity and empathy for Mr. Gatsby. After being formally invited to one of Gatsby party, Nick excitedly waits to meet his interesting neighbor. Mr. Gatsby is the man, which everyone gossips about around. Whether he has killed a man or is being a spy for the American government, he is always being talked about. The first time Nick meets the fellow war veteran, he describes him as having “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it”; that is the first thing which attracts Nick most about Gatsby(53). The smile along with the parties, and the many phone calls causes nick to be intrigued his next-door neighbor. Public Gatsby seems to be a man with “hospitality” and “nothing sinister”...
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...The Great Gatsby’s main theme is definitely the American dream. American Dream is loosely based on the concept of a home, family, and a car. Success, and wealth combine to create an alter ego for the wealthy, and the less fortunate are just neglected. Fitzgerald clearly uses satire to critique chasing the American Dream, because in the end it’s just a dream. This “dream” is the motives behind what Gatsby does, and the same motives that ended him. Gatsby can often be signified for his “colossal dream” that Nick mentions halfway through the book. Gatsby creates an illusion that correlates with his dream, abandoning his old self, his wealth makes a new persona of himself. Almost to the point as if Gatsby is just a detriment, that will end up...
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...In the The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the story's narrator, Nick Carraway is a young man who has just move to Long Island. Nick lives next door to Jay Gatsby. Gatsby intrigues Nick. He seems to be so fascinated with idea of Gatsby. Not by Gatsby himself, but the idea of Gatsby. He sees something in Gatsby and what he sees is how Gatsby is / has been trying to achieve getting Daisy to be his. He finds it warming how Gatsby has such a strong love for Daisy. Even though Nick finds Gatsby a little odd in the beginning, he finds him to be a pure person. Gatby is in love with Daisy and even talks about himself and how he sees Gatsby as a person. Nick is particularly taken with Gatsby and considers him a great figure. He sees both the...
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...The Great Gatsby is a novel that illustrates the rise and fall of an a magnificently rich but socially secluded man named Gatsby. Through the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway, F. Scott Fitzgerald plunges into the struggles and adversity that plagues Gatsby. The central conflict of the story is Gatsby’s troublesome endeavor at attempting to rebuild a long-lost relationship with Daisy. Despite the seemingly shallow plot, Fitzgerald not only succeeds in creating a rich and elegant tale, but he also manages to make a commentary on the society that he was living in as well. It is the way in which Fitzgerald makes Gatsby idealize Daisy that gives the plot its insightful message, both in the story and in Fitzgerald’s society. He writes Gatsby...
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...In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the title appears to be ironic to the readers, as Gatsby doesn't actually seem to be that “great” by the end of the book. At the beginning of the book outsiders see Gatsby as this glamorous, rich, and powerful man who throws extravagant parties. Also, when reading the title at first you have a preconceived notion of Gatsby being “great”. But, as the reader gets deeper into the book, Gatsby proves to be a very insecure man and readers start to perceive Gatsby as weak. In the book, The Great Gatsby, the title is meant to be ironic and reflects the contrast between how Gatsby appears to outsiders with how he truly is. At first sight, Jay Gatsby is shown as magnificent and dazzling, but towards the end of the book...
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...Molly Dadrugue December 13, 2014 Gatsby and the American Dream “I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream.” -Bruce Springsteen Through the use of metaphors and analogies, Fitzgerald creates a reflective and logical conclusion to The Great Gatsby. In this concluding passage, the narrator, Nick, provides an explanation regarding the extinction of the American Dream, the theme of the novel. The American Dream is not shown to be the American reality in this emotionally and figuratively colorful novel. Fitzgerald uses the analogy of the American Dream in comparison to the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. The green light represents Gatsby’s dream of being with Daisy. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” (Fitzgerald) This quote describes the metaphor of the green light being Gatsby’s glimpse of hope that he and Daisy will be together in the future. Gatsby’s ignorance caused him to lose touch with the reality that year by year Daisy is moving further and further from Gatsby. This is similar to the American Dream because the green light is being compared to the continent of America. The Dutch sailors mentioned in the passage see American as a glimpse of hope for mankind. With this the American Dream is created, but as time goes by the American Dream seems to fade into a fantasy, just as Daisy fades into an element of Gatsby’s fantasies. At the end of this...
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...The Greatness of Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel the Great Gatsby is a well-known classic and an extraordinary piece of literature but the title leaves little to the imagination with the exception of one question “why is Gatsby so great?” Jay Gatsby has everything at his disposal, money, success, good looks all of which are seen as his greatness to some but Gatsby is great for bigger reasons such as his hopefulness, relentlessness and the fact that he is flawed. Gatsby has many things going for him but it was not always like that. Gatsby was born James Gatz, a farm boy with little to no income or social stamina. His parents were unsuccessful and “his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all” (Gatsby, pg. 98). James...
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...things. Everyone sees things differently and will interpret it that way; to one person the American Dream is just that, a dream and when they wake up it will be a nightmare, and to another it is an ambition, that just makes them want it more. By definition the American Dream is: “a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.” So, the question remains, is it still alive today, and is this really how people are living their lives? As sad as this answer may be, the truth is, probably not, like all good things they must end. The American Dream is a great thing to wish for however, it has been lost in time with the unwillingness to pursue it. The saddest thing is that some people believe the American dream is something that exists today; whereas some people in society have no idea that this dream exists. What ever happened to the zeal that drove America to the top? What happened to the aspiration of striving for greatness and becoming that greatness? That may be a question no one knows the answer too or it is an answer that people are unwilling to give. George Carlin once said, “The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it.” Realistically the American Dream is the idea of working your average 9-5 blue or white-collar jobs just to provide for...
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