Platonic Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work of the same name, is an interesting character, in having effectively invented himself. In Chapter 6 of The Great Gatsby, we learn of the figurative birth of Jay Gatsby, as the brainchild of James Gatz, introduced with: “Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself” (Fitzgerald, 98). Gatsby as a “Platonic conception” gives a good deal of insight into the character of Gatsby — him seeming to be a very popular and successful man from a questionable background is revealed to have come into effect from being a calculated, perfected idea. Man, as German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche proposed, is something to be surpassed. Gatz had determined the concept for whom he would be, and this …show more content…
Gatsby had tried to conceive an ideal form in the physical world. Alongside this, while he serviced as the Übermensch, he still neglected life in failing to affirm it, additionally, while his values went directly against everything the traditional East Egg stood for, they were more focussed on himself. He hosted massive parties, but he was trying to accomplish what was always his dream for himself. Even when encountering Daisy, he cared more about him being with her than whatever she wished. In deviations from multiple proposed philosophies, Gatsby assured the massive destruction of ideas, as Fitzgerald described it, a “holocaust” (Fitzgerald, 162). And with the death of Gatsby, died the dream of the Übermensch. People had stopped caring about Gatsby or anything he stood for. As Nick said, “I found myself on Gatsby’s side, alone” (Fitzgerald, 164). And with that, Nick gives the reason for writing about Gatsby, to remind people of what his life meant, the kind of person he was and that he should be remembered in admiration. Nick, being the author in the story, works as an analogue of Zarathustra to Gatz’s