Gatsby’s Quest
...the colour of promise and hope. The green light for Gatsby holds the promise the green land held for the original settler’s. The problem the light holds is that in America, dreams can only be achieved threw wealth, and it is often wealth that will corrupt the dream. At the end of the first half of the novel the reader still doesn’t know who Jay Gatsby really is. Is Gatsby a Phony? Throughout the first half of the novel, only certain information about Gatsby is revealed. You don’t really figure out if he is who he says he is. Different characters in the novel give the reader different opinions on who Gatsby is. What Gatsby reveals about himself is that he was born into great wealth but his entire family is now dead. He says, “I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford” (Fitzgerald pg. 64). Nick then says “He looked at me sideways – and I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying… educated at Oxford…or choked on it, as though it had bothered him” (Fitzgerald pg. 64). This gives the reader the impression that he might just be lying about his past. Gatsby’s mysteriousness grows in chapter 3 at one of his parties. Nick is at the party talking to some of the guests. They fire different opinions of Gatsby’s past back and fourth amongst each other. One says, “Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.” Another responds saying that, “It’s more that he was a German spy during the war.” Another women says, “it couldn’t be that, because he was in the American army during the war…you look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I’ll bet he killed a man.” (Fitzgerald pg. 46). These quotes make the reader wonder, who Gatsby is, its adds to the mystery of the man. Gatsby’s Parties Gatsby lavish parties are a large part of this novel. Fitzgerald uses excellent diction to give the reader a taste of the party atmosphere in a few short sentences. “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (Fitzgerald pg. 41) After a weekend party, eight servants work all week to repair the damages. Behind this beautiful illusion comes the truth of hard work, which is one of the novels main themes. The machine that turns crates of oranges into pulp at 200 per half an ...