The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is more than a story about a mans love for a women, but rather a mans will to achieve greatness as he perceived. Jay Gatsby was a man driven by money and power. He was a man with a vision, a vision to succeed in life. As a child, Jay Gatsby grew up on a farm. He saw his parents as nothing but lethargic farmers. Gatsby knew on the dot what he didnt want to be and that was like his parents. They were people who were content with who they were. Gatsby, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. He wanted to move on. Jay Gatsby wanted to be someone special, someone with prestige and someone definitely with money. Gatsby developed a self improvement plan to help him flourish as a teen board man. His plan detailed dumbbell exercises, studying electricity, practicing elocution and studying needed inventions. Even his parents knew he was driven. His father said "Jimmy was bound to get ahead.. He continuously had some resolve like this or someth ing. Do you notice what hes got about improving his mind? He was always great for that" (182). The unified drive let Gatsby prevail in his endeavors. However, there are some things people just cant get away from. James Gatsby desperately wanted to achieve success in life. However, it is difficult to flourish with a background like Gatsbys. So to escape his past, he changed his name at the age of 17 from James Gats to Jay Gatsby. Nonetheless, changing his name only did so much for him. Gatsby ended up living a life of lies because of his hidden identity. Nobody sincerely knew Gatsby. So in the absence of peoples knowledge, they conjured up rumors. "One time he killed a man who found out he was a nephew of von Hindenburg and second to the reach"(65). These were just some of the rumors about Gatsby. Some believed he was a German spy, while others thought he was a war hero. These were things he had to go through with(predicate) to reach his ultimate goal in life, which was to succeed. After he left the farm, Gatsby went to work for a man named Dan Cody. Cody was a stable father figure for Gatsby. He looked up to Dan and saw what he really wanted to be. "Thats Dan Cody, old sport.