Jay Gatsby and the American Dr

The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. This dream is different for different people, but in The Great Gatsby, for Jay, the dream is that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness and lost love. To get this happiness Jay Gatsby must reach into the past and in order to relive an old dream of marrying Daisy, the foundation of his life. In order to do this, he must have wealth and power, and the easiest way of amassing money quickly is through crime and corruption. Jay Gatsby is a very unique character; he has an extreme illusionary image of himself, he is madly in love with Daisy Buchanan, and he was extremely loyal to his dream even after it had dissolved.

Jay Gatsby always wanted to become famous and wealthy, so he created an ideal image of himself for Nick and others he wanted to impress, especially Daisy. In this image he claims he is the son of some wealthy people in the Midwest but educated at Oxford; traveled to Paris, Venice, and Rome; collects rubies, hunts big game, and paints; and received many awards and medals for his outstanding effort in World War I. Gatsby created this "ideal image" in order to impress those people who were curious about his background such as Daisy and Nick, and to make sure no one thinks he was "just some nobody". This "ideal image" was a complete lie; his real name was Jay Gatz, which he changed when he was seventeen and witnessed the beginning of his career through Dan Cody. As Dan Cody pulled his yacht into the shore of Lake Superior, he saw a young Gatsby working as a clam-digger and a salmon-fisher doing whatever was necessary to put food on his plate. Dan Cody was an idol to Gatsby; he represented everything Gatsby wanted to become. When Cody offered Gatsby a job on his luxurious yacht, Gatsby immediately agreed to work for Dan Cody. He worked on Cody's yacht for five years until Cody had...