The Great Gatsby Essay
Uploaded by mariahtooheyyy on Apr 18, 2013
Mariah Toohey
Austin
CP English 11-5
4 February 2013
The Great Gatsby Essay
In F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the book’s narrator, Nick is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, easygoing, and motivated to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a close friend for those with troubling secrets. After moving to West Egg, a place home to the newly rich people, Nick quickly becomes friends his next-door neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is told through Nick's eyes by his thoughts and observations shape and color the story.
The main character in the book, is Gatsby who is a wealthy young man living in a West Egg mansion. He is famous for the huge parties he throws almost every weekend, but no one knows where he is really from, what he does, or how he got his money. As the book goes on, Nick learns that Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain the social position that he thought was needed to win back Daisy. When he met Daisy while training to be an officer in Louisville, he fell in love with her. Nick and Jay Gatsby have many similar qualities such as being similar in their morals, are very intelligent, and wanted the American Dream.
Nick and Gatsby to show that they are kind of the same character. They both are almost the same age, both characters were raised in the mid west, both characters fought in the war, both characters were somewhat committed to their respective girlfriends, both characters somehow ended up losing their relationship with their girlfriends, and both characters had a desire to move out East.
Also both characters have hardly had any experiences with alcohol, and both men seem to be more intelligent, much more intelligent than any of the other characters that appear in the book. The only thing that seems to be different between Gatsby and Nick is that Nick was willing to leave his days with his nameless fiancé well forgotten, while Gatsby kept chasing the old days with Daisy. Gatsby never stopped trying to have a future with Daisy, while Nick was able to leave the woman that he loved behind. Gatsby was willing to be part of some very...