Character Analysis Of Jay Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, Jay Gatsby, is a rich man originally from North Dakota. Before fighting in World War I, he meets a young girl named Daisy, and the two fall in love. Daisy says she will wait for him, but marries Tom Buchanan and moves to Long Island, New York. This prompts Gatsby to relocate to West Egg in Long Island to be close to Daisy. The narrator, Nick Carraway, reveals that Gatsby acquired his wealth dishonestly and harbors an unhealthy obsession for Daisy. Gatsby’s upbringing as a poor Midwesterner, along with his teenage love for Daisy, motivates his future actions and shapes his character. Gatsby grew up as James Gatz in rural North Dakota. When he met his first boss, Dan Cody, he immediately took on the persona of Jay Gatsby. “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to his conception he was faithful to the end,” (Fitzgerald 98). He was determined to become this image of a man he had fabricated. In pursuit of wealth and achievement, Gatsby attended college in southern Minnesota. He was forced to work as a janitor to pay his tuition. “He stayed there two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny,” (Fitzgerald 99). Gatsby’s pride rendered him incapable of continuing to work his way through school,
Gatsby’s actions are provoked by money, or Daisy, or a combination of the two. The conquest of these two concepts prove to be shallow. Gatsby’s early life as a poor farmer caused him to hate a life of disadvantage; which lead to his thirst for riches. When he fell for Daisy in Louisville it changed the course of his life. From then on, his ambitions for money and Daisy consumed his life. Previous actions inspired a sense of longing in Gatsby; which caused him to lead a meaningless life and die alone with only his