Gatsby's True Identity

Within The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s true self is identified as each chapter progresses. In the beginning, he is a character met with intrigue and wonder; everyone that meets Mr. Gatsby is impressed by the air of sophistication and aristocracy that he upholds. When Nick finally decides to tell the reader about Gatsby’s past, the reader has come to pity Gatsby a little because of the bits and pieces of Gatsby’s life that the reader has put together, such as that he was forced to leave Daisy and that he isn’t telling the whole truth about his life. Nick exposes that Gatsby grew up poor despite how he makes himself appear as if he were always wealthy, and he tells of how Gatsby dissembled his past, even his real name – James Gatz. Nick tells the reader that Gatsby created the man that he is today. Gatsby, Nick says, “sprang from his Platonic conception of himself” and “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” (Fitzgerald 98). Gatsby does this to seem stronger and to achieve more than he feels the poor 17-year-old James Gatz ever was or could. Because of Gatsby’s false pretenses, many of the characters doubt him as the story presses on. Tom and Jordan both question whether or not he actually went to Oxford, and Tom questions whether or not he is a worthy man when Gatsby avoids questions or blatantly answers them with lies – he definitely questions Gatsby’s character when he discovers Gatsby is adulterating with his wife. Gatsby’s lies lead to Daisy having doubts about both men in her life and he becomes the most pitiable character in the