The Invention of Jay Gatsby

The Invention of Jay Gatsby

Mckenzie Hart

03.03.05

"It was a testimony to the romantic speculation that he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that is was necessary to whisper about in this world." (48)

States the narrator, illustrating the attractiveness to attention and gossip of a party host. The quote comments on a conversation of two woman gossiping about the mysterious host named Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's book The Great Gatsby, a young man's life and character is invented by his peers and colleagues, and by his own personal dream.

When the reader first meets Jay Gatsby, he is portrayed as a private man who frequently threw lavish parties. Many of these parties consisted of people who were unaware of who Gatsby was. Because of his private nature many of his guests began to make assumptions about his past. The rumors created established an outlandish persona of Gatsby. Each rumor accumulated and grew until a rumor of Gatsby being a murder accrued. Rumors and stories alone created an exciting yet still mysterious character. A few of his guest become suspicious of his profligate but enigmatic style. Describing how unusual Gatsby's kindness was for replacing a gown that a woman had ripped at one of this parties, a guest states; "There is something funny about a fellow that'll do something like that. He doesn't want any trouble with anybody." (48) Though it was not Gatsby who had ripped the dress, he felt permitted to replacing it. Gatsby might not know all this guests, but he is committed to insuring they have a good time. This uncommon benevolence brings a sense of conspiracy and suspicion. However this guise of Gatsby was created through rumors and gossip but not without the aid of the character Gatsby portrayed for himself.

Gatsby's world appeared to resemble the ideal life. With a large house, expensive cars, and outlandish parties, Gatsby depicted the American dream. This life of luxury and the man known as Jay Gatsby was created from a dream of a young man named James Gats. Elucidating Gatsby's dream the narrator states:

"The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God-a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that-and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end." (104)

Even as a seventeen year old boy James Gats was persistent at accomplishing something great. But only at a seminal moment when he was seventeen did the creation of Mr. Gatsby instigate. A chance event with a wealthy man named Dan Cody