Greatness In The Great Gatsby

Greatness is the objective that all humans strive to achieve. And Gatsby is no exception in F.Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby. Although a mysterious character, Gatsby’s character and actions unfold as the novel progresses. Gatsby’s attributes are asserted to be great by the novel’s biased narrator, Nick Carraway, as a result of his exponential wealth. However, greatness is not only achieved by excessiveness, the literal interpretation, but also greatness is achieved through good morals, values and furthermore, success. This criteria will be a guide to assessing Gatsby’s magnificence. Moreover, the criteria of the qualities of greatness are what society agrees upon as the meaning of a great person. This is the most relevant as …show more content…
Gatsby has traits that are not only bad, but they also lead to his failures. As Gatsby pursues Daisy, he tries to change the present situation by changing the past to create a utopia for him and Daisy without Tom, as Gatsby asserts “‘Can’t repeat the past...Why of course you can’”(106). Gatsby shows irrationality and stubbornness as he is trying to change the past, which is impossible. This mentality leads Gatsby to confront Tom, so he can have Daisy and erase the consequences of his past poor life. Which miserably fails as he is exposed, which causes many other defeats as stated previously. Therefore, stubbornness and irrationality lead to defeat, which establishes his traits as not magnificent. Traits are what define people, which these bad traits make Gatsby himself not great. Moreover, irrationality and stubbornness are also the traits of a child, which Gatsby also acts like. When Gatsby has his first date with Daisy he is nervous, however; he is more than nervous. As Nick criticizes Gatsby “‘You’re acting like a little boy… Not only that, but you’re rude. Daisy’s sitting there all alone’”(85). This shows that Gatsby is not just nervous, but childish. Furthermore, he previously broke a clock and wildly left the room for the kitchen. These are all the actions of a child. However, his date with Daisy also implies that Gatsby is nervous and insecure, which have evidences throughout the novel. These traits and actions lead to skepticism from other characters about his real past, which eventually leads him to becoming exposed. This leads to again, failure which makes his actions and traits lack greatness which creates a character that is not great. Therefore, Gatsby is not great because of his traits and actions make him unsuccessful in keeping his name clean and unsuccessful in