Is Gatsby A Hero Essay Research Paper

Is Gatsby A Hero. Essay, Research Paper

In Fitzgerald s Gatsby, Gatsby is not great and not Gatsby (his real name is Gatz). He is a criminal who has involved himself with Wolfsheim. He has committed crimes in order to buy the possessions he feels he needs to win the woman he loves, who is another man’s wife. Thus a central question for us, as the reader is, why is Gatsby a hero. Why, does Fitzgerald invite us to cry out with Nick, “They’re a rotten crowd. You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” In Gatsby, Gatsby is a hero because of his dream, that dream is what separates Gatsby from what Nick calls the dust. It is not what is known as the Dream of success, the belief that every person can rise to success, no matter what his beginnings. It is a kind of idealism, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, Nick calls it. It is a belief in fairytales, that life can be beautiful. Gatsby is not interested in power for its own sake, or in money. What he wants is his dream, and that dream is embodied in Daisy. He must have her, and he will do anything that is required in order to win her. Gatsby, however, is not the typical hero. He is more tragic. The tragedy of Gatsby is his choice of Daisy as the person in whom to embody his dream. A tragic hero can best be defined as a person of significance, who has a tragic flaw and who meets his or her fate with courage and nobility of spirit. In Gatsby, Gatsby is a tragic hero.

The first time we, as the reader are introduced to Gatsby s dream is one June night when Gatsby is staring at a Green light at the end of Daisy s dock. That Green light represents Gatsby s dream. The color green is a traditional symbol of hope. As long as Gatsby gazes at the green light, his dream lives. Until now Gatsby s dream, however, is a mystery.

We, as the reader, are introduced further to Gatsby s dream through Jordan. She begins as though she were telling a fairytale. And indeed it is. The princess in this case is Daisy, a beauty, and the most popular girl in Louisville. All the officers from the nearby Camp are competing for the honor of her company. On this particular day, she is sitting in her white dress in her white roadster with a young lieutenant who is speaking to her with the kind of romantic intensity that princess s love. His name is Gatsby. Daisy apparently loves him as much as he adores her, for she’s ready to go to Manhattan to say bye to him when he’s sent overseas. And though she decides to marry Tom, she drinks herself into a stupor on the night of her marriage when she received a letter from Gatsby.

Jordan goes on to describe the marriage: Daisy’s devotion to Tom and Tom’s affairs. What is surprising is that Daisy seems to have been faithful. As Jordan describes it, Daisy has not given Gatsby a thought until the mention of his name stuck in her memory. It’s hard to say if she loves him.

In the case of Gatsby, it’s not hard to say. As Jordan explains, “‘Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.’” And Nick responds in a moment of powerful luminosity. “Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.”

What Nick realizes suddenly is that Gatsby’s possessions and his lavish life are not a showy display of wealth, but a necessary means to the fulfillment of his dream. Until now Gatsby s dream is a mystery. Now the truth is unveiled, and we can understand his desperate yearning for Daisy, and for everything that is symbolized by the Green light at the end of Daisy s dock.

Jordan tells Nick that Gatsby had taken her aside at one of his parties and had asked her to ask Nick to ask Daisy to Nick’s house for a meeting. This indirection is deliberate, for Gatsby is terrified of seeing Daisy again.

Though Gatsby loves Daisy with an unbearable intensity, he doesn’t want to offend her or Tom. He’s afraid to ask Nick directly, so he uses Jordan as a bridge. Afraid, also, that Daisy will refuse to come to see him, Gatsby arranges for Nick to ask Daisy to Nick s house for a meeting and makes sure Daisy doesn’t know he’ll be there, too. Gatsby’s elaborate plans show us just how long he has thought about this moment. Gatsby s plans also reveal the heart of a romantic, a novice at love, who is obviously unused to dealing with women or with situations such as this. Nick agrees to invite Daisy over.

The day arrives, and it is raining. Gatsby is so nervous that he can hardly function. He has not slept. He is as pale as a schoolboy on his first date. Life with Daisy in Louisville had been so wonderful years before; now he is terrified that even should Daisy agrees to renew their relationship, it won’t be the same.

Daisy arrives looking beautiful She is dying to know why Nick has invited her over. Both his paleness and the rain reinforce our sense of terrible insecurity. Gatsby says, “This is a terrible mistake.”

Nick then leaves Gatsby. When Nick returns, the rain has stopped, and Daisy and Gatsby are radiantly happy. Fitzgerald’s choice of the word – “radiated,” to describe Gatsby suggests that Gatsby has come alive again. He has rediscovered his dream. He walks Daisy and Nick over to his house and shows them his possessions.

Daisy admires his possessions and the colors of pink. She is astounded. Gatsby ove