Archetypes In The Great Gatsby

An archetype is a type of story that can be copied and used in the future. The archetype that is described by Horatio Alger would be rising from nothing and becoming successful. This structure of having a goal about becoming successful and achieving this goal is called The American Dream. Horatio Alger created the first pattern of having a character go through tough situations. This character was named Rick. He was modest and dependable. Fitzgerald changes the original characteristics of Horatio Alger’s archetype by having Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby contain different traits in order to have the American Dream viewed differently.
Horatio Alger uses his character Rick from Ragged Rick to provide an example of the American Dream. Rick was put in multiple situations that were extremely challenging. These challenges also represented the beginning of The American Dream. The harsh conditions would be the non-successful part. The American Dream connects back to Rick by having
He is not similar to Horatio Alger’s character because he wasn’t trustworthy like Rick. People trusted Rick due to his honesty, but Gatsby lied about his past identity. This led to guests at Gatsby’s parties coming up with rumors such as “... he killed a man once”(44). Since Gatsby wasn’t honest with others, other people would start to try and figure out who he really was. Gatsby doesn’t possess a trait that Horatio Alger’s character has which is being humble. Gatsby was a man who would do anything to impress another person. Instead of being humble, Gatsby had, “ took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel…”(92). Gatsby was the bragging type. Despite his reasoning, he knew he had money and he wanted to show it off. Whereas Rick would keep his accomplishments to himself and be bashful towards a