New Perspective
...he or she views his or her life. A major events like death of a loved one or a small incident like a night in jail can cause new meaning on how to live life. In a classical tale called, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator, Nick Carraway experiences some life changing events in his summer spent in West Egg, Long Island in 1922. In that summer Nick meets Jay Gatsby, a wealthy young man, who shares a part of his soul and heart with Nick as he tries to reclaim his long awaited love, Daisy. As Nick sees Gatsby's dreams unraveling he changes his perspective on Gatsby, Tom and Daisy, and the lifestyle of the East, ultimately changing himself.
Nick, while disliking Gatsby, views Gatsby as a symbol of greatness by the
hinting of the title, The Great Gatsby, and is affected by Gatsby's presence in his life. In the beginning of the novel, Nick states that he hated Gatsby for everything he stood for. "On Gatsby, the man who gives his name in the book, was exempt from my reaction-Gatsby, who represented everything for with I have an unaffected scorn. (2) Gatsby was rich, owning a beautiful, grand and gaudy mansion, a flashy yellow Rolls Royce automobile, and embracing an array of grace, assets that created an image of Gatsby that Nick didn't like. Nick realizes that Gatsby is not the man he seems to be, beaming a extraordinary rare smile that "understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey," (48) in one minute and then turning into an "elegant young roughneck," (48) the next minute. Gatsby is an illusionist, a bootlegger and criminal in disguise as wealthy young businessman. Despite all of Gatsby's faults, Nick also distinguishes Gatsby as a figure of endless hope and power to...
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