Free Great Gatsby Essays: The Truly Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Truly Great Gatsby Is his novel the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald creates Gatsby as a character who becomes great. He begins life as just an ordinary, lower-class, citizen. But Gatsby has a dream of becoming wealthy. After meeting Daisy, he has a reason to strive to become prominent. Throughout his life, Gatsby gains the title of truly being great. Even before Gatsby is introduced, he is hinted at being out of the ordinary. The first evidence of this is when Nick says, "Gatsby turned out all right at the end." (2) Nothing was known about Gatsby at the time and Nick is already saying Gatsby was okay. There's a air of mysteriousness surrounding Gatsby. Everyone knows of him, but no one knows who he really is or where he comes from. Even at our first glance of Gatsby, he's reaching out for something only he can see. There were many stories flying about Gatsby but no one knew what to really believe. In on instance Jordan made the comment, "I think he killed a man." (49) Even when Gatsby confessed about his past he didn't always tell the truth. He told Nick he inherited great wealth, but in reality, Gatsby gained his wealth on his own. Even though Gatsby lied, the fact that he made himself what he was makes him even that much greater. When Gatsby was still James Gatz, he had a dream of leaving his life on the farm behind and become part of the upper-class. Even Gatsby's father knew when he said, "If he'd lived, he'd of been a great man." (169) Little did his father know that Gatsby was already great. Gatsby didn't always do the right thing to gain his wealth but he was always good at heart. His first real break in the outside world was when he met his best friend Dan Cody. Gatsby was seventeen at the time and had just left his life on the farm. Cody was a wealthy man of fifty and he showed Gatsby the ways of the world. It was said that Cody found Gatsby to be " ... quick and extravagantly ambitious." (101) He took Gatsby in and treated him almost as a son. Gatsby was to inherit some of Cody's wealth after his death but was stripped of his inheritance by Ella Kaye.