Jay Gatsby, hero or villain?

Most people have heard of the book The Great Gatsby. Lots of people have read it, though I guess most of them were meant to be read in school. Be that as it may, if you have read it you will have wondered about the title. Wasn’t Gatsby a materialistic gangster who made millions selling moonshine and then tried to steal someone’s wife? Doesn’t sound very ‘great’.

Everything is supposed to be fine because he was only doing it so he could win back Daisy’s love, but Daisy is married with a child and some people, myself included, think he doesn’t even really love her, he just loves her like a status symbol to show off like your new car. Why should we like this guy again?

It’s because of how pure it is. When he was younger he thought he would never succeed like James Gatz, so he destroyed that identity and became a new man, free from all the vices that hold others back. He became the ideal candidate to achieve the American Dream.

Since then, he has had one goal in life: to overcome all the obstacles that stood between him and his dream. Since he had already created a completely new identity, why not go one step further? If he needed to be educated, cultured, and rich to impress Daisy, he would do it. It’s like watching a pitcher throw a perfect game, it’s something you could never do yourself, but you really want the guy to be successful because you want to see something special. That’s why the reader should take heart, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to prove everyone wrong and show that the American Dream is possible.

If we look at some quotes from the Great Gatsby, you will see that everything bad he did was due to the corruption of others. He had to lie about his past due to the upper classes’ notion that they were the ‘dominant race’ and had to ‘defeat’ all challengers to his title. ‘Daisy wouldn’t marry’ him if she was poor, but if she wasn’t so shallow, she would never have had to start her illegal business. He doesn’t even want material possessions from him, the only value he sees in them comes from ‘the measure of response he got from [Daisy’s] beloved eyes.

You feel sorry for him because he had such a clear and noble goal. He thought that if he worked hard enough to be able to live the life of his dreams, but everyone else couldn’t accept that, they had to drag him down to their level and sink him into dust and corruption, Gatsby’s dream died, and so did he.

So maybe he was a gangster, and maybe he lied about his past, but he only did it because it was the only way to survive in the broken and corrupt world he lived in.