The Romance in the Great Gatsby

Introduction

In The Great Gatsby, a military man in World War I named Jay Gatsby was left poor with the only clothes he had on his back. He met a man named Meyer Wolfshiem who started Gatsby out in the business world, where he became very wealthy making most of his earnings as a bootlegger. He did his illegal work in order to impress the woman he began to fall in love with named Daisy. While Gatsby was in the war, Daisy married a man named Tom Buchanan. Now, with his abundance of money, the greed began to change him into somebody totally different. Gatsby and Daisy snuck around Tom's back because of romance and money (Gale, 32-38).

Discussion

We find out from the novel that Jay Gatsby is not even a real person but someone that James Gatz invented. Gatsby has illusions that deal with romance, love, beauty, and ideals. Gatsby's illusions can be divided into four related categories: he came from a rich upper class family, a never-ending love between him and Daisy, money as the answer to every problem, and reversible time (Zhang, 41-47). Through the narrations we can really see who this Jay Gatsby is and the reality to his illusions, and from this we can make our own decision on who we think Jay Gatsby really is.

Meeting Dan Cody

In order for Gatsby to completely delete his background he would have to change his father. She continues by saying that he does this when he rejects his natural father and adopts Dan Cody as his father. Dan Cody and his romantic background provided Gatsby with everything that he needed to begin his fanaticizing about his future (Berman, 23-28). After being with Dan Cody, Gatsby learned what money could do and how it could affect ...