More than anything else, The Great Gatsby centers on the colossal vitality of his illusion The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is largely based on the bias views of Daisy Buchanan, Nick Carraway, and Jay Gatsby.

Authors Avatar

Daniel Sanchez

“More than anything else, The Great Gatsby centers on the colossal vitality of his illusion”

The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is largely based on the bias views of Daisy Buchanan, Nick Carraway, and Jay Gatsby. The entirety of the “colossal vitality of his illusion” is seen throughout the novel. This can be seen in a variety of passages but the passage which links these two together is when Gatsby tells Nick Carraway about his time in the war and the “souvenir of Oxford,” of which he always carries around.  Another example of this is when Carraway says “You can’t repeat the past,” in which Gatsby replied to him “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!” This shows that the novel The Great Gatsby is placed in a land of illusion for Daisy, Nick, and most of all Gatsby.

Daisy Buchanan is a beautiful young woman who was extremely popular with the military officers stationed near her home. This included Jay Gatsby. In order to convince Daisy that he was a man who was worthy of her, he lied and told her that he was from a wealthy family. Eventually Gatsby wins Daisy over but fate would not have it this way and war separates the two lovers. Daisy promises to wait for him but as time went on; she decided to marry Tom Buchanan who was wealthy enough to support her lifestyle. She is beautiful and charming, but also fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic. She wants people to support the way she lives no matter how it may be. An example of this is when Gatsby tries to persuade her to break her ties with Tom but instead she asks Gatsby for more time. Another example of this is when she chose Tom over Gatsby. She states that Gatsby asks for “too much,” and that she “did love,” Tom “once,” but she loved Gatsby too. Daisy is trapped in a fictional world where everything she wants, she obtains or so she thinks. When life gets tough for her or if she smashes things up, she’ll retreat behind her money. This is apparent at Gatsby’s funeral as she did not attend even though she was the one to blame for it instead she moves away running from her problems and running from reality.

Join now!

Nick Carraway is a quiet, reflective Midwesterner adrift in the lurid East. As he lives next door to Gatsby whom he befriends and is the cousin of Daisy, he is the perfect observer or overseer of the love affair that is happening between Gatsby and Daisy. This enables him to be the perfect character to narrate the story. Because of his ideals Nick is thrown off his feet with new life. His life in New York is fun, alluring, and fast-paced or so he thought. This type of lifestyle had a secret hidden within it, a special sort of charm ...

This is a preview of the whole essay