His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people – his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.(1) The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself.(2) He was a son of god – a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that – and he must be about His father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old-boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. (3)’ – Nick (pg 99)

 

  1. He didn’t like the idea of belonging to people who were poor an unsuccessful to be what people thought of him as he grew up over time. So his mind/ imagination decided not to accept it anymore.
  2. Plato was a greek philosopher who was concerned with the real world vs. the ideal world. Gatz is a real person. He creates his ‘ideal self’ and names it Gatsby.
  3. He needed to create a person that people would love or want to be like and someone who people would more likely want to be or be like at the age of 17.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Category

Writing