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Jay Gatsby Tragic Hero

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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 …show more content…
It was a great relief and I tried very hard to die but I seemed to bear an enchanted life.” (Fitzgerald 70)
This shows how gatsby had a tortuous past and at one point even wanted to die. He had suffered emotionally and physically. All of these examples show a major role of how he is a tragic hero. Gatsby's greatest tragic flaw was him living in the past. One can get this information from when he was talking Daisy’s cousin, and his closest friend, Nick Carraway, at his pool after he threw one of his flashy, expensive parties that everyone came to. Hysterically trying to get Nick to understand, Gatsby said, “‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’ He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,” he said, nodding determinedly. ‘She’ll see.’” (Fitzgerald …show more content…
Many people say that James Gatz was born a poor boy, surviving by farming the lands of North Dakota. Nick Carraway gives detail on Gatsby’s background and states, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God‒ a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that‒ and he must be about His Father’s Business, the service of the vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty” (Fitzgerald 104). The text states that he was born poor which counterclaims a major trait in being a tragic hero. However, Jay Gatsby did come from high stature. He knew he was destined for greatness, his whole life was based on a routine, he worked being a gentleman with Dan Cody, and he worked his whole childhood knowing he would be rich and a somebody one day. Overall, even though James Gatz was not of noble birth does not mean he was not a tragic hero. He was born of high stature and knew from the day he was born he was destined for

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