Reality In The Great Gatsby

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At the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explains that when Gatsby was looking at Daisy’s green light across the dock, his dream to be with Daisy had already long past.
Fitzgerald’s view of the past is centered on the idea that though one cannot permanently recreate the past, the past can still be used to understand the present and future if the person learns the right lessons. Although Gatsby's corruption and ultimate fatal ending symbolize Fitzgerald’s view that one cannot recreate the past, Nick’s move back home to the mid-west exemplifies that one can use the past as a helpful guide for moral choices in the present.
Jay Gatsby’s lower class background enabled his vulnerability to an obsession with gaudy displays of wealth, which caused corruption in his later life. When Gatsby was near Dan Cody’s extravagant yacht on Lake Superior, Dan Cody’s displays were to Gatsby only, …show more content…
At that time, Gatsby is so far from Dan Cody’s level of wealth, Cody’s reality can only be a dream for Gatsby. Furthermore, it is an “unreality of reality” for Gatsby, but a reality for Cody. Gatsby’s reality was instead doing blue collar work to get through life or in Fitzgerald's words: “despising the janitor’s work,” (99). Gatsby clearly does not have an infatuation with the current level of minimal wealth he has and the type of work he has to do along with that, instead, he is captured by the idea of Cody’s grandiose wealth. As time passes, Gatsby’s picture of wealth that he saw when he met Dan Cody is a shaping factor in Gatsby’s attempt to recreate his past perception of wealth and past identity. When Gatsby walks up to Cody’s yacht, Gatsby changed his name to Jay Gatsby from James Gatz in order to be perceived as a person with a different, more prosperous background. Though Gatsby’s attempt to change his

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby depicts how society was run during the roaring 20's, all while under the influence of the American dream. Life during this time period consists of indulgence- in one's self, in new styles of dancing, in dressing and throwing old everyday traditions out of the window. In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is concealed by the glamour of wealth and luxury, but in reality, the corruption and illusions within this dream entice Americans to be drawn into its web…

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Examples Of Appearance And Reality In The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald looked upon appearance and reality through the eyes of a great author. He saw that all authors live in reality, while everyone else lives in a sense of what is appeared, or not knowing the whole truth. He shows us that the author must question everything, breaking down the appearances that are set up by people and by our society. Fitzgerald shows that normal people don't question everything, and therefore are fooled by appearances many times. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald suggests many things…

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The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is considered a literary masterpiece by millions of readers in that the piece captures both the prosperity and despair of life during the 1920s. This novel exposes the hardships the main character, Jay Gatsby, endures while pursuing the American dream. Gatsby believes that having possession of materialistic objects such as a large house, fancy car, lavish clothing, and the woman of his dreams, will help him to obtain the American Dream. However, Gatsby…

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HenryGarcia RoughDraft Edit Essay

Fitzgerald looked upon appearance and reality through the eyes of a great author. He saw that all authors live in reality, while everyone else lives in a sense of what is appeared, or not knowing the whole truth. He shows us that the author must question everything, breaking down the appearances that are set up by people and by our society. Fitzgerald shows that normal people don't question everything, and therefore are fooled by appearances many times. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald suggests many things…

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