FREE ESSAY ON GREAT GATSBY

GREAT GATSBY

Doesn't it always seem as though rich and famous people are larger- 
than-life and virtually impossible to touch, almost as if they were a 
fantasy? In The Great Gatsby, set in two wealthy communities, East 
Egg and West Egg, Fitzgerald describes Gatsby as a Romantic, larger- 
than-life, figure by setting him apart from the common person. 
Fitzgerald sets Gatsby in a fantasy world that, based on 
illusion, is of his own making. Gatsby's possessions start to this 
illusion. He lives in an extremely lavish mansion. "It is a factual 
imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, 
spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, 
and more than forty acres of lawn and garden." It models an extravagant 
castle with a European style. Indoors it has "Marie Antoinette music- 
rooms and restoration salons." There is even a "Merton College Library, 
paneled with imported carved English oak and thousands of volumes of 
books." There is even a private beach on his property. He also has his 
own personal hydroplane. Gatsby also drives a highly imaginative, 
"circus wagon", car that "everybody had seen. It is a rich cream color 
with nickel and has a three-noted horn." It has a "monstrous length 
with triumphant hat-boxes, supper-boxes, tool-boxes, and terraced with a 
labyrinth of windshields and a green leather conservatory." 
Other than Gatsby's possessions, he develops his personal self. 
His physical self appearance sets him apart form the other characters. 
His smile is the type "that comes across four or five times in life. One 
of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it." He 
has a collection of tailored shirts from England. They are described as 
"shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel." He has shirts 
with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and la- 
vender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue." Gatsby wears a 
unique "gorgeous pink rag of a suit" that sets him apart as a "bright 
spot." Gatsby's mannerisms are different too. He gives the "strong im- 
pression that he picks his words with care." Gatsby is an "elegant 
young roughneck whose elaborate formality of speech just misses being 
absurd." Gatsby also has a particularly distinct phrase which is "old 
sport." Further, at his parties he stands apart from the other people. 
Unlike everyone else, he does not drink any alcohol. Also, there are no 
young ladies that lay their head on his shoulder and he doesn't dance. 
During his parties he either sits alone or stands on his balcony alone, 
apart from everyone else. Gatsby even creates himself a false personal 
history that is unlike anyone else's in order to give him the appearance 
of having old money. He says that he is the son of a wealthy family in 
the Middle West, San Francisco, and he was educated at Oxford. Sup- 
posedly after his family had all died he "lived like a young rajah in 
all the capitals of Europe collecting jewels, hunting big game, painting 
and doing things for himself." During the war he was apparently a 
promoted major that every Allied government gave a decoration to." 
However, the medal he received looked to be either fake or borrowed. 
The fantasy world that Fitzgerald gives Gatsby also ends with 
parties that are practically like movie-like productions. These parties 
are so fantastic that they last from Friday nights to Monday mornings. 
His house and garden is decorated with thousands of colored lights, 
"enough to make a Christmas tree of his enormous garden." "Buffet tables 
are garnished with glistening hors-d'oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded 
against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys be- 
witched to a dark gold." He has famous singers that entertain his guests 
whom are the most well known and richest people. There is an orchestra 
with "oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and pic- 
colos and low and high drums." People do not even have to be invited to 
come to his parties. Car loads of people arrive at his celebrations. 
Movie directors, actresses and many celebrities attend his extravagan- 
zas. All these things make his parties well known by everyone. As I 
said in the beginning , he is portrayed by Fitzgerald as a larger-than- 
life figure. 
Apart from the fantasy world of Gatsby, Fitzgerald also invest 
his quest with a religious motif. The author describes him as a wor- 
shipper of his "holy" love, Daisy Buchanan. The promise is that he will 
be with her again. He devotes his life to trying to get Daisy back into 
his life by first becoming rich and then by getting her attention with 
his possessions and parties. He even builds his house directly across 
the bay and facing the Buchanan's house. Gatsby is also likened to a 
chivalric knight. His outrageous car may be paralleled to a great white 
horse of a knight. His quest for Daisy is identical to the quest of 
medieval knights who sought the Holy Grail. At night he stands out in 
front of his house with his "arms Stretched out" toward Daisy's green 
dock light. Comparable to a knight's watchfulness, Gatsby also stays at 
Daisy's window all night staring at the light trying to protect her from 
Tom and watching over her. 
Bibliography
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