FREE ESSAY ON GATSBY'S REVELATION

GATSBY'S REVELATION

Gatsby's Revelation
When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel The Great Gatsby, he used a unique writing
technique. It used a first-person point of view in the form of a narrator, Nick Carraway,
who was also involved in the story. This style allowed the author to withhold any
information that he did not present to the narrator in the story, causing the reader to
learn things the same way the narrator did. The protagonist in The Great Gatsby, Jay
Gatsby, was revealed to the narrator, Nick, gradually throughout the course of the
novel.
On the surface, Jay Gatsby appeared to be extremely wealthy and generally happy with his
place in life, and this is how he appears to Nick at the beginning of the novel. Gatsby
threw big parties and people were not invited; they just showed up, as explained by Nick
on page 45: I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not
invited-they went there(45). As Nick began to know Gatsby better, he began to realize
there was something wrong with Gatsby. Gatsby was obviously unhappy, but the reader was
not told why. When Nick goes to New York with Gatsby and meets Meyer Wolfshiem, the
reader is given some suspicion that Jay is involved in illegal dealings, because of the
hints that Meyer Wolfshiem drops and the things Jay tells Nick about Meyer. The reader is
finally told why Gatsby is unhappy at the end of chapter four, when Jordan Baker tells
Nick about Gatsby's love for Daisy.
The next major revelation about Gatsby does not happen to Nick until much later, but the
author decided to place it earlier in the novel so the reader could understand what was
going on more easily. Jay Gatsby tells Nick about where he came from, how he got there,
and why he got there. Nick realizes that Gatsby is so in love with Daisy that he is crazy
and will do anything to get her. It has consumed his life so much that he spent five
years leading an illegal life just because of her. The final thing the reader learns
about Gatsby is that no one really cared about him. He had alienated himself so much from
the rest of the world because of his love for Daisy, he never made friends. In fact, the
only people who attended his funeral were Nick, Gatsby's father, and the minister, as
displayed in the quote: ….wait for half an hour. But it wasn't any use. Nobody came
(182).
The style Fitzgerald used in writing The Great Gatsby was unique and interesting, because
the reader learns about things at the same time the narrator learns them. It forces the
reader to piece information together and then try to draw a complete meaning from the
pieces of information. This way of learning about Gatsby was particularly appropriate,
because of the nature of Gatsby's character and how he became that way. There would be no
suspense if the reader knew everything about Gatsby before the story took place. It is
the purpose of the entire novel. All in all, Fitzgerald's style is very interesting and
suspenseful to read.
Bibliography
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald