Great Gatsby Essay
Gatsby is a tragic hero
By Xin.Li
The tragic hero must be a person of significance, whatever a particular time period defines as significant. He must have a tragic flaw that leads to his down fall and he must meet his fate with courage. According to these criteria Jay Gatsby is a tragic hero. Gatsby symbolizes the American Dream. We know the protagonist was not born into a wealthy family “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people.”(pg63). Gatsby dreamed of a better life when he was very young. Luckily he meets a rich man named Dan Cody and over the next five years learns the way of the wealthy. When Gatsby meets Daisy in 1917, he is poor again and a lieutenant in the army. They fell in love but Gatsby must go off to fight in Europe. When he returns after the war he become involved with a criminal named Meyer Wolfsheim and amasses a great fortune. However, he still does not have Daisy so he bugs a huge mansion opposite Daisy’s house and throws huge parties every weekend hoping that she will someday show up at one of them. Gatsby becomes one of the mast talked about people in New York City. Rumors about Gatsby begin to circulate “One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil.” (pg39). These rumors are not true of course but they add to the mystery of Jay Gatsby. Because Gatsby began from humble beginnings and became rich he symbolizes the American Dream. This makes him a person of significance in America of the 1920’s. Gatsby’s tragic flaw is his devotion to a woman who is unworthy of his dream and his inability to see Daisy realistically, both in the past and in the present. Giles Mitchell argues that Gatsby has “a capacity for idealizing himself and Daisy to an extreme degree.”(pg92) Sven Birkerts suggests that “Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing dreams intersect with realities.”(pg135) Both critics essentially make the same point. When
By Xin.Li
The tragic hero must be a person of significance, whatever a particular time period defines as significant. He must have a tragic flaw that leads to his down fall and he must meet his fate with courage. According to these criteria Jay Gatsby is a tragic hero. Gatsby symbolizes the American Dream. We know the protagonist was not born into a wealthy family “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people.”(pg63). Gatsby dreamed of a better life when he was very young. Luckily he meets a rich man named Dan Cody and over the next five years learns the way of the wealthy. When Gatsby meets Daisy in 1917, he is poor again and a lieutenant in the army. They fell in love but Gatsby must go off to fight in Europe. When he returns after the war he become involved with a criminal named Meyer Wolfsheim and amasses a great fortune. However, he still does not have Daisy so he bugs a huge mansion opposite Daisy’s house and throws huge parties every weekend hoping that she will someday show up at one of them. Gatsby becomes one of the mast talked about people in New York City. Rumors about Gatsby begin to circulate “One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil.” (pg39). These rumors are not true of course but they add to the mystery of Jay Gatsby. Because Gatsby began from humble beginnings and became rich he symbolizes the American Dream. This makes him a person of significance in America of the 1920’s. Gatsby’s tragic flaw is his devotion to a woman who is unworthy of his dream and his inability to see Daisy realistically, both in the past and in the present. Giles Mitchell argues that Gatsby has “a capacity for idealizing himself and Daisy to an extreme degree.”(pg92) Sven Birkerts suggests that “Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing dreams intersect with realities.”(pg135) Both critics essentially make the same point. When