What Is The Responsibility In The Great Gatsby

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With great wealth comes great responsibility; in The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald tries to illustrate how untrue this statement really can be. Scott yearns to show, in a fast paced and money driven world, that fortune does not necessarily define a person. At the heart of this life is the complex character Jay Gatsby – who doesn’t seem to fit anywhere. Growing up poor and gaining a vast wealth: it seems he can pay homage to both sides but fits nowhere. The character of Gatsby seems to match the gray ash ridden area between West and East Egg. Gatsby is an illustrious character who tries to reinvent and make himself up to be something he’s not and this leads to dire consequences. In the 1920’s where one lived suggested a lot about whom they …show more content…
There were two motivations for his new personality. Firstly he wanted to be the complete opposite of his deprived family. He knew great wealth was his destiny – even though he wasn’t born into it. Unfortunately he would have to switch from innocence to dishonesty to gain his new identity; so he turned to bootlegging. Ironically Gatsby steers toward using illegal actions shortly after he was denied his inheritance from his mentors’ mistress; that rejection essentially pushed the final button for his switch in personality. (Pinsker, Sanfor. “Seeing The Great Gatsby Eye to Eye.” College Literature, Winter 1976.) The other reason for his personality switch was to become rich to win Daisy back by "deliberately giving Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe he was a person from much the same stratum as herself.”(Callahan, John F. F. Scott Fitzgerald 's Evolving American Dream: The ‘Pursuit of Happiness.’ Twentieth Century Literature, 1996. Print.) Daisy came from a healthy background of wealth and it was rare to have a marriage between the middle class and the rich. Gatsby has a personality struggle during his time he is trying to win Daisy back. He is so tied up with how great it was in the past and how far he has come that he is oblivious to the impossibility of a future with Daisy because they are really two very different

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