The Great Gatsby Title Meaning
The Fake Gatsby
Titles come to be one of the most important parts of a book; it is the first thing we read and what gives us an overall sense of what the book will be about. Though the title of the book reads The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character Gatsby is the opposite. As we view Gatsby through the eyes of Nick Carraway, the narrator, we understand that he masks himself to be a “great” character. In reality he spends his time chasing one single dream and wasting away his life. Although he starts from not being so rich and built himself up, he deceitfully poses to be someone else and even changes his name. So Gatsby’s “greatness” is only a mask people see. All the elaborate parties, the mansion, and his whole character, only hides a very desperate version of himself yearning to reach a high status. Along with this we know that Gatsby creates lies and is involved in sketchy business. Throughout the book Gatsby lies about his identity and caters his life …show more content…
One of the countless lies is that Gatsby claimed to have been schooled at Oxford, “I was … educated at Oxford because all of my family members have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition” (Fitzgerald 65). Later, it is revealed that Gatsby lied about this and countless other things. In chapter four, when Nick asks Gatsby what part of the Midwest he comes from, Gatsby answers, “San Francisco” (Fitzgerald 65), however San Francisco is not apart of the Midwest. Gatsby even changes his own name to be more appealing, “James Gatz – that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career – when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior” (Chapter 6). Gatsby uses all of these lies to fabricate his own story. He made himself seem so interesting that it was hard not to believe
Titles come to be one of the most important parts of a book; it is the first thing we read and what gives us an overall sense of what the book will be about. Though the title of the book reads The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character Gatsby is the opposite. As we view Gatsby through the eyes of Nick Carraway, the narrator, we understand that he masks himself to be a “great” character. In reality he spends his time chasing one single dream and wasting away his life. Although he starts from not being so rich and built himself up, he deceitfully poses to be someone else and even changes his name. So Gatsby’s “greatness” is only a mask people see. All the elaborate parties, the mansion, and his whole character, only hides a very desperate version of himself yearning to reach a high status. Along with this we know that Gatsby creates lies and is involved in sketchy business. Throughout the book Gatsby lies about his identity and caters his life …show more content…
One of the countless lies is that Gatsby claimed to have been schooled at Oxford, “I was … educated at Oxford because all of my family members have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition” (Fitzgerald 65). Later, it is revealed that Gatsby lied about this and countless other things. In chapter four, when Nick asks Gatsby what part of the Midwest he comes from, Gatsby answers, “San Francisco” (Fitzgerald 65), however San Francisco is not apart of the Midwest. Gatsby even changes his own name to be more appealing, “James Gatz – that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career – when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior” (Chapter 6). Gatsby uses all of these lies to fabricate his own story. He made himself seem so interesting that it was hard not to believe