Gatsby

James Gatz to Jay Gatsby

A man was shot dead for loving a woman. This is how Jay Gatsby’s life ended in the novel, Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the 1920’s, American’s powerful optimism, vitality, and individualism were subordinated to the amoral pursuit of wealth and materialism. Fitzgerald portrayed many of these prominent characteristics of Americans in the character, Gatsby, who despising poverty and longing for wealth and sophistication, rose from an impoverished childhood to become fabulously rich.
Gatsby was introduced as an innocent, hopeful man, who staked everything for his dream, Daisy. He literally created his own character, changing his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby in effort to transform his hopes and dreams of becoming rich and being reunited with his love. However, his passionate zeal blinded him to the fact that he has fallen in love with Daisy’s aura of luxury, grace and charm that her economic background has molded her into, not Daisy ...