The Great Gatsby: Tragic Hero

In our stereotype, a hero must have done something extraordinary, like saving the world, or have certain power that normal people do not have. However, in American culture, a hero can also just be “an ordinary individual who finds the strength to preserve and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles”, as Christopher Reeve says. By trying to step over barriers built by wealth and social status to pursue his dreams, as a middle-lower class man, Jay Gatsby absolutely qualifies to be a hero. Nevertheless, instead of successfully achieving his dreams, he fails tragically. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, the protagonist Gatsby suits to be a tragic hero because he lives in his own false reality and tries to make his unachievable …show more content…
When Nick prepares for Gatsby’s funeral, he says, “It grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interested, I mean, with that intense personal interest to which everyone has some vague right at the end” (104). At this point, Nick feels that all these news reporters, people comes to Gatsby parties, and even Gatsby’s so-called friends absolutely do not care about Gatsby as a person. They only maintain some kinds of relationship with Gatsby because they can get what they want from Gatsby, like writing materials, gossip, or substantial profit like money, so they entirely have no interest in knowing anything about him as a person or continue their relationships once he becomes invaluable to them. If Gatsby dies, they will just abound him and move on with their lives. Nick’s feeling turns out to be the reality. When Klipspringer, a friend of Gatsby, calls, he awkwardly refuses to come to Gatsby’s funeral and says that “what [he] called up about was a pair of shoes [he] left [in Gatsby’s house]” (108). Same as Klipspringer, Gatsby’s close friend Mr. Wolfsheim also excuses himself from going to the funeral by stating that “when a man gets killed, [he] never like to get mixed up in it any way”(109), and Daisy just disappears and never even calls. Although these people once admired Gatsby, …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald’s depictions, Jay Gatsby is a tragic hero who lives in his own idealistic fantasy, tries to reach his unachievable dreams, and gets forgotten by the world at the end. Ultimately, his tragic failure attributes to his strong intention to live in the dreamy world he builds for himself and firmly believes that is the reality. He is a hero because he makes endless effort to achieve his dream, but his life is a tragedy because all his dreams are only fantasies, and all his effort are in vain. Just like a skyscraper built on top of massive foam, a life built upon illusions instead of reality will collapse; it is just a matter of time. Accepting unchangeable imperfections in reality may cause misery and frustrations in a short period of time, but in the long term, building such solid foundations by holding on to the reality can open people’s eyes to their real circumstances and abilities, and therefore, take them much further in life. Having a life floating on the foam is never the way to