The Great Gatsby's The Divided Self

Jay Gatsby from Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a complex character. He is shrouded by an aura of mystery from the beginning of the novel and certain aspects of his personality are unclear. Gatsby’s corrupt route to wealth and the fake front that he displays, both to win the love Daisy, make him an ambiguous character. His moral ambiguity expresses the corrupt American dream of the 1920’s, a fake concept that influenced people to obtain wealth and social status in illicit ways.

“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 a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end,” (98). James Gatz spends his days, until his last breath, attempting to win over Daisy’s affections by means of wealth and status. While on his journey, James loses himself to the idea of Daisy Buchanan. Becoming Jay Gatsby in full, his life, until his death, is void of love and true happiness, because he is so enthralled

“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 a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.”

Many books reveal many relationships between different characters, a character and nature, a character and society, or just simply a character and the relationship they have with them self. For this essay, I have chosen to write about a relationship I both admire and frown upon in the most absolute way. This is the relationship between Jay Gatsby and himself in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. When describing this book, not many people ponder of this relationship because when in relation to Jay Gatsby, one of the main characters of the book, people often look at his relationship with Daisy Buchanan. In this essay, I will be telling about the struggle of finding oneself between whom you are and who you want to be.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby may be perceived as a trustworthy and good man, but the complete opposite is true. Gatsby embellishes his best features, but hides his worst. He does everything he possibly can to give the illusion that he has a perfect life, but never addresses his personal issues. Gatsby’s true personality differs greatly from how he presents himself, as proven by his tendencies to be unrealistic, immoral, and dishonest.

After Gatsby had returned from the war he made an extreme effort to become a respectable man for Daisy to marry. Once he had accumulated his wealth, Jay built his mansion across the bay from the Buchanan’s house and he waited for Daisy to show up at one of his parties. She eventually came into Gatsby’s house with Nick and Jay where Nick narrated, “He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy and he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes” (Fitzgerald 96-97). Gatsby had done everything for Daisy; even after she had been married to another man he still waited for her. Once he had finally brought Daisy to his house, he would change anything to make it perfect for her.

This causes great conflict between characters, however Fitzgerald conveys that her attitude is really aimless and unfaithful and this is revealed in the text where Gatsby shows Daisy his house. During the war, Daisy leaves Gatsby because of his lack of money and social status, and when she meets him again she “[bends] her head into the shirts and [begins] to cry stormily”pg 89 in a way at which she regrets not staying with Gatsby. However Fitzgerald further exposes her unfaithfulness when she “Told [Gatsby] that she loved him”pg 113 yet is married and will not leave Tom due to his social class in society. Daisy’s is also revealed as a coward after Gatsby’s death when “she and Tom had gone away... and taken baggage with them”pg 156 with no intention of attending his funeral or recognising him has a lover of

“I suppose he’d had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people – his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. 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 vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s actions to show that Gatsby is, indeed, obsessed with Daisy. The things that Gatsby does to get closer to Daisy prove that his feelings for her have surpassed love, and he is now obsessed. One thing that Gatsby does that shows his obsession with Daisy is when he buys his house. Jordan tells Nick, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.” Gatsby spends so much money just to be able to see Daisy and to be able to impress her with her house if he ever gets the chance. He would go through all that even though he knows that she is married. He does not seem to care. That shows how obsessed he is. Another thing that Gatsby did was the way that he obtained his wealth. Nick says about Gatsby, “It was when curiosity was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night-and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over” (Fitzgerald 113). There are two main things in this

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales are considered a work of satire towards medieval society by many literary critics. Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath as a prime way to quip a key fourteenth century belief. During this era, medieval society is very hierarchal and hinders many people. One of the most notable groups that are restrained are women. The Wife of Bath is appalled by this. She is a progressive lady who implies that men are not in control of society. She infers that women are running everything from behind the curtain with men merely being used as puppets. As such, she narrates a tale that mocks male superiority and spouts a pro-women tale.

Long before Gatsby meets Daisy, it is clear that Gatsby’s real life dissatisfies him to the extent in which he creates a fake life, one that will edge him closer to accomplishing the American dream of the chances of great prosperity. For instance, as a boy, he had a schedule and general resolves, which included “practice elocution, poise and how to attain it” and “read one improving book or magazine per week” (173). This illustrates Gatsby’s early desire to improve himself as a person and transform into his ideal of a man with class and social grace, an ideal that he never lets go of. The reader sees that from the start Gatsby has never approved

Elvis Presley once said, “Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine”. There are many examples of ambitious people in the world today because of the hard work and dedication that we see in people to try to achieve their goals. Today ambition is a big thing in our world because most people have the drive and determination to reach what they want in life. Ambition has the strongest influence on human behavior driving people to work hard for what they want whether they are doing it in a good or bad way.

Gatsby creates an identity for himself as a wealthy man, who lives a glamorous life by throwing huge parties, and is known by the most prestigious figures in New York. What the partygoers don’t realize is that the parties and his wealth is all in the hopes of rekindling with his love from the past, Daisy. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of a young man named Jay Gatsby, who came from nothing, and built up to be everything that he had hoped and dreamed of being. However, his one dream did not become a reality due to misfortunate events. All the money in the world couldn’t make Gatsby happy, as he died as his true self, not the identity he created for himself.

The Great Gatsby is considered to be a great American novel full of hope, deceit, wealth, and love. Daisy Buchanan is a beautiful and charming young woman who can steal a man’s attention through a mere glance. Throughout the novel, she is placed on a pedestal, as if her every wish were Gatsby’s command. Her inner beauty and grace are short-lived, however, as Scott Fitzgerald reveals her materialistic character. Her reprehensible activities lead to devastating consequences that affect the lives of every character. I intend to show that Daisy, careless and self-absorbed, was never worthy of Jay Gatsby’s love, for she was the very cause of his death.

The developmental physiology is heavily affected by the culture, gender and the age of the subject. All three of these factors takes a huge role in developing an individual. Fist the age of the individual is very important. The age affects how much the individual is affected by the outside world, giving the nature and nature more effect on a younger individual then say an older individual. This reasoning has led to many of the theories in developmental phycology to be based around early adolescence, as this is the time of their lives that they can be most easily manipulated and changed depending on their surroundings. During this crucial time in the development of the individual, the gender and culture aspects of the child’s life has a large effect on the developmental phycology, the cultural aspect affect the development as different cultures have different parenting styles, which can either have a positive or negative effect on the child, as well as racial stereotypes possibly leading to detrimental effects of the child’s development.