Compare And Contrast Essay On The Great Gatsby

In the novel The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator Nick Carraway, a young man from a wealthy family in the West, moves out to the East to live on his own, renting a small house in West Egg near Manhattan. Nick’s tiny house is surrounded by the mansions of newly rich millionaires, and the biggest, grandest mansion of them all belongs to Nick’s neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. Across the bay in the more fashionable West Egg, populated by millionaires from rich families, lives Nick’s second cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom. Nick, who prides himself on being honest and non-judgemental, initially keeps busy with his own life, besides a few visits to the Buchanans. Soon he finds himself invited to one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties and he meets the great Gatsby himself, who
As Daisy drives home from the confrontation with Gatsby, she sees Tom’s mistress Myrtle Wilson and runs her over with the car, killing her, and Gatsby is blamed for it. Myrtle’s husband murders Gatsby, and Tom and Daisy stay together. Tom and Gatsby, who seem to contrast greatly in their backgrounds, personalities, and dreams, represent two different aspects of the American Dream; Tom has in all outward respects achieved his dreams and yet is still unhappy, while Gatsby is constantly striving to achieve his dreams, believing it will lead to happiness. While Tom and Gatsby are both incredibly rich, they have very different backgrounds. Tom is from an exceedingly wealthy family, and has always been able to spend money wastefully, while Gatsby is the son of dirt-poor farmers, and he made his money by bootlegging and other illicit activities. Gatsby was originally named James Gatz, but he changed his name, partly because he was ashamed of his past and his parents, since “[Gatsby’s] imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all” (98). Gatsby