Book review
Was the Great Gatsby Really Great?
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This is a high-school essay arguing how Jay Gatsby, the Great Gatsby, was great or not great.
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Great Gatsby (Timed Writing)Rachel D
Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby challenges the ideal American life through the protagonist, Jay Gatsby.
Gatsby’s life serves as an example of the detrimental effects the “ideal life” can have on one’s
character and quality of life. F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests that the American dream is not as great as it is
made out to be.
The title, Great Gatsby, gives the impression that Gatsby was a admirable character, but a look
into his inner life proves otherwise. Gatsby’s greatest flaw is idealism which causes him to act on his
strong desire to repeat the past and his amoral strategies for success. ‘“Can’t repeat the past?” he
cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”’ (p. 128) ‘“I’m going to fix everything just the way it was
before,” he said, nodding determinedly. “She’ll see.”’ (p. 131) This major flaw had caused him to take
action on his aspirations for wealth and then to work towards a new life with Daisy. Gatsby’s vision
was focused on money, greed, and carelessness, and centered around Daisy leaving him vulnerable to
a juvenile fantasy. Jay Gatsby had developed an obsession that had taken over his life by waiting for
her for years. “After his embarrassment and his unresounding joy he was consumed with the wonder
of her presence. He had been full of the idea for so long, dreamed it right through the end, waited
until his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in a reaction, he was
running down like an overwound clock.” (p. 114) This juvenile fantasy was his hopeless illusion of life
forever with Daisy and moved him further away from reality each time he chased his goal. Gradually,
a false idea of Daisy began to shape in his mind that he loved, thus Gatsby does not love Daisy but an
idealized version of her. In the last chapter Gatsby shows he has lost all ability to discern fact from
fiction by waiting for a sign from Daisy. Eventually his affair with Daisy led to bitterness ending with
his assassination. The same people who had attended his parties were absent at his funeral, including
Daisy. Pursuing the American Dream, in the end, only resulted in him losing his life, friends, and
family. The only greatness in the Great Gatsby was the extremeness of the tragedy that was his life.
The Great Gatsby, is a criticism of the American Dream through an ironic title. F. Scott Fitzgerald
wants Americans to rethink their ideals on American progress. Though Gatsby gained wealth it did not
make him happy, but made him desperate. Jay Gatsby was not great, but he thought he was.
Works Cited
Greenberg, Nicki, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. Allen & Unwin, 2009.
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