The analyze of the two main characters in the Great Gatsby

Together with Hemingway, Fitzgerald was considered the most typical writer of the first half of the 20th century. ‘’After his death, The New York Times said of him that ‘He was better than he knew, for in fact and in the literary sense he invented a generation …’’’ (https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/f-scott-fitzgerald). In 2007, in an election organized by Time magazine, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby novel made the list of the 10 greatest works of all time. I believe that one of the reasons for the success of this novel is the incarnation of Fitzgerald in the two main characters of the story, Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, that was shown by several similarities between their life and personality.
About Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September twenty-four, 1896, in the town of St. Paul, Minnesota. He was an American short-story writer and novelist, famous for his depictions of the Jazz Age (the 1920s), his most brilliant novel being The Great Gatsby (1925). His private life with his wife, Zelda, became almost as celebrated as his novels in both America and France. He was given the name Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald because he was distantly related to Francis Scott Key, the man who wrote: “The Star-Spangled Banner” which is the national anthem of the great country The United States Of America. Because of his relation to Francis, Fitzgerald's had an overwhelming sense of nationalistic pride for the United States. This is what also gave them so much pride in the father’s heritage. After whom he was named and half the time as “straight 1850 potato-famine Irish”, also known as the Great Hunger, leading him to often had vague American feelings about American life, which seemed to him at once vulgar and dazzlingly promising. He, in addition, had associate intensely romantic imagination, what he once referred to as “a heightened sensitivity to the promises of life,” and he charged into expertise determined to understand those promises. ‘’I’m a slave to my emotions, to my likes, to my hatred of boredom, to most of my desires.’’, said Fitzgerald. (https://www.britannica.com/biography/F-Scott-Fitzgerald)

The reason for The Great Gatsby’s success is basically because of the influence that Fitzgerald’s personal life had on it. The Great Gatsby contains several similarities between Fitzgerald life and his novel. Many components of the novel appear to reconstruct potential segments of Fitzgerald’s younger life, especially the two main characters. Fitzgerald seemed to re-embody himself into two of them, Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway.

There are clear parallels between Fitzgerald and Nick Carraway. Firstly, they both appeared to have similar circumstances. Fitzgerald and Nick were from the same hometown where they were from an upper-middle-class family and both of them attended Ivy League Universities. Nick went to Yale University and Fitzgerald went to Princeton University. They also wrote for their school paper while attending these universities (https://prezi.com/1jqfdayijgsz/parallels-between-f-scott-fitzgerald-and…). Furthermore, both of them enlisted in World War I. Secondly, they have similar personalities, that is an observer and an outsider. The reason I believe that Fitzgerald is a shrewd observer is because of the way he reflected the American Dream in The Great Gatsby. This concept is displayed in every chapter of the book. According to MA Sylwia Mazur (an author from Grin), he was the most famous chronicler of 1920s America, and The Great Gatsby is one of the most significant literary documents of this period. As a narrator, Nick observes and analyzes the actions of others in order to tell the story to the reader. He assembles all the pieces together for the reader to learn about Gatsby and the characters surround him. Moreover, Nick’s mid-western values and non-judgmental nature not only make him the perfect foil and observer but also make him the perfect outsider, which is how Fitzgerald always felt in the society of rich people. ‘’He (Fitzgerald) is poor but he attends preparatory schools which make him feel like an outsider.’’ (https://slideplayer.com/slide/13217939/). Likewise, Nick comes from the Midwest, hence he does not belong to the same social and economic class as the other characters. Nick does not behave like the others, either. When Gatsby dies, he is the only main character who seems to truly sorrow over Gatsby’s death and attends his funeral. That clearly proved Nick as an outsider. Nick represents how Fitzgerald sees himself, the honest man in a society of liars. “‘Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.’” (Fitzgerald 81). And of course, he is the only one who understands Jay Gatsby, the third version of the author. For all of these reasons, Nick Carraway is the incarnation of Fitzgerald.

Jay Gatsby also has numerous parallels with the author. Firstly, both men have similar circumstances. Both Gatsby and Fitzgerald were born in the North, Fitzgerald came from Minnesota, and Gatsby was from North Dakota. They both attended universities but did not complete their education to join the United States Army in World War I. Throughout World War I, both of the men fell in love with a woman at the places they were stationed (https://medium.com/@gsouth/the-great-gatsby-the-similarities-of-fitzger…). Fitzgerald fell in love with Zelda, who was Daisy, Gatsby’s lover in the novel. After World War I, Zelda and Daisy break off the engagement because of their men lack financial success. In the end, both men lost their women, Zelda eventually was overcome by her mental illness and Daisy never left Tom to be with Gatsby. Secondly, they are similar in personalities, however, different from Nick, Gatsby expresses Fitzgerald’s enthusiastic and energetic. He had always been full of hope and optimize. These can be told by the way he shaped his own life, and the way he believed in his dream, despite the brutal reality of America in the 1920s. “‘I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,’ he said, nodding determinedly. ‘She’ll see.’’’ - Gatsby (Fitzgerald 149). Moreover, Gatsby had an impetuous enthusiasm for Daisy and strongly desire to be her only love, just like Fitzgerald when he first met Zelda. “Upon his (Fitzgerald) discharge, he moved to New York City hoping to launch a career in advertising lucrative enough to convince his girlfriend, Zelda, to marry him.’’ (https://www.biography.com/writer/f-scott-fitzgerald). The same as Fitzgerald, "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay."; “He wanted nothing less of Daisy that she should go to Tom and say, 'I never loved you.' … they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house - just as if it were five years ago." - Nick (Fitzgerald 149). In addition, Gatsby is how Fitzgerald thinks others see him. He is a playboy, wealthy and lavish, and seems carefree, but at his heart, he is a pretender and a phony. Last but not least, both Gatsby and Fitzgerald have strong opinions on alcohol. Though Fitzgerald was addicted to alcohol while Gatsby is the exact opposite, he is an anti-alcoholic. The reason for this setting was because Fitzgerald hated himself as an alcoholic, hence he decided to deal with the effects of alcohol in the novel. Therefore, Jay Gatsby is the second incarnation of Fitzgerald. (https://prezi.com/1jqfdayijgsz/parallels-between-f-scott-fitzgerald-and…)

There is evidence from the novel for the incarnation of Fitzgerald is ‘’Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter. Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther … And one fine morning …’’ - Nick Carraway (Fitzgerald 245), by using ‘’we’’, ‘’us’’, Fitzgerald proves that the story about Gatsby is also part of his story. In the end, not only the characters but also the author cannot forget the past and the choices they didn’t make. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” - Nick Carraway (Fitzgerald 245).

Nick and Gatsby were additionally created (as Fitzgerald's biography tells us) in a more dramatic way which was suitable for F. Scott’s intensely romantic imagination. They were built to comfort Fitzgerald himself. The narrator, Nick, an incarnation of the author, first blamed Gatsby, Fitzgerald's second incarnation, but then sympathized, agreed and defended him with mercy: ‘’No - Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams.’’ (Fitzgerald 4). ‘’I could see nothing sinister about him. I wondered if the fact that he was not drinking helped to set him off from his guests, for it seemed to me that he grew more correct as the fraternal hilarity increased. … girls were putting their heads on men’s shoulders in a puppyish, convivial way, girls were swooning backward playfully into men’s arms, even into groups, knowing that someone would arrest their falls - but no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no French bob touched Gatsby’s shoulder, and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby’s head for one link.’’ (Fitzgerald 68). And finally the evaluation ‘’They're a rotten crowd. You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together’’(Fitzgerald 208). Nick feels pity for Gatsby, just like Fitzgerald feel pity for himself, a man that disappointed on the lost promise of the American Dream and failed in love.

In conclusion, F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the greatest American authors in the world, and The Great Gatsby contributed the most for his success. Fitzgerald had a life as normal as anyone else, however, his desire of the American Dream and his love life made him special. He used the two main characters in The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, to reincarnate himself at many parts of the story. That was one of the reasons for this novel’s famousness and make the novel so realistic.