Why Is Gatsby Such A Loved Character?

The Great Gatsby is known as a classic novel; I wonder how this is the title and character (Jay Gatsby) do not appear to match up. Gatsby is not great, despite everyone’s apparent admiration for him.
The narrator, Nick, states at the end of the book, “When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction-- Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.” This quote implies that everyone Nick met over the year was essentially a terrible human being. First of all, these people (Daisy, Tom, Myrtle, and George) were just people, and people make mistakes. Tom made the mistake of cheating on Daisy with Myrtle, who made the mistake of cheating on George; Daisy made the mistake of cheating on Tom with Gatsby , and George made the mistake of murder and suicide. Though I do not agree with any of their actions, they don’t strike me as purely evil or terrible people, as Nick thought of them. Poor George was obviously mentally ill, driven mad by the death of his wife; he shot Gatsby and himself, which is horrible, but this does not make him a terrible person. And while cheating is wrong and there is no reason for it to happen, people do make mistakes and Nick should see that.
Secondly, Nick then says that Gatsby is an “exception to his reaction”. This truly strikes me as baffling because Gatsby is just as “bad” as the others whom Nick felt such scorn for, if not worse. Gatsby was a con artist who scammed people out of their money and found a way to get alcohol to alcoholics during prohibition. Not only that, but he didn’t even work to get all the money and luxuries he had, he collected it from all the businesses he owned. He was simply a reckless teenager who ran away from home. Is this why Nick had “an unaffected scorn” for Gatsby? Because of his past? Even if that were the case, I don’t understand. His past was not horrible. He just made poor decisions, just as Tom, Daisy, George, and Myrtle did.
Supposedly, Nick loves Gatsby for “following his dream”. I find several flaws with this opinion. Firstly, Gatsby was about 18 or 19 years old when he came up with his “dream”, and the fact that he actually carried it out just shows how immature he truly is. Add in the fact that his “dream” was one he had when he was so young: having a big mansion with lots of money and throwing fancy parties. Second, achieving this “dream” of his required him to do many despicable things (such as creating a chain of pharmaceutical companies that would prescribe alcohol to desperate alcoholics). How is that really achieving your dream? I don’t think it’s an amazing thing that he reached his goals by cheating and lying.
Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of people agree with Nick, thus why the book is considered a classic work of literature. I just don’t understand how people don’t see past Gatsby’s “amazing smile”. Truly, their hero of a character is not as he seems.

I love Gatsby because he doesn't attend his parties. He's painfully shy, but desperate to fit in. He loves a problematic girl. Sometimes flawed characters are beautiful. I'm surprised you hate him.

you are conflating the novel with the character, this is problematic. You do not have to think that Gatsby is a "great" man to think this is a great novel - in fact, the novel is great because everyone in it (including Gatsby) is flawed.

As for Jay himself. The way I view Nick's epithet of "great" to describe Gatsby is the same way we use "great" to describe Alexander of Macedonia, or Peter of Russia. Were these wonderful men who never did anything unethical? Absolutely not. But the title of greatness comes from the larger-than-life nature of their character.

Taking this view of "great" the question still remains: "was Gatsby great?" He did not fulfill his dream and despite the fact that the was revered in his small community (and in Montenegro) he did not accomplish much. But he still manged to be larger-than-life: the mystique that he created around himself, his past, his storybook dream - in Nick's view he superseded manhood and attained greatness.

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Originally Posted by sheheldthemoon

Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of people agree with Nick, thus why the book is considered a classic work of literature. I just don’t understand how people don’t see past Gatsby’s “amazing smile”. Truly, their hero of a character is not as he seems.

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But a lot of people didn't agree with Nick. Hardly anyone went to Gatsby's funeral, and Nick was appalled by that. Nick was conflicted about Jay Gatsby. He was Gatsby's only friend- but Nick, as the voyeur and observer in the novel, saw Gatsby for what he was; it didn't matter, he identified with him. The title of the novel is the trick of the book, and it's great that you noticed it did not fit. I was conflicted also, like Nick. Gatsby is very three dimensional, and one can feel sympathy, distaste, uneasiness and even loathing towards him- but his charm is there, and his wealth.
In the end, almost no one cared about Gatsby- that makes him even more sympathetic.
I love this book, and Fitzgerald managed to show beautifully how phoniness of the wealthy is despicable. I don't think the book is considered a classic work of literature because readers think Gatsby is great at all, on the contrary.
Many readers of the novel see Gatsby as great, but they have been fooled, and when they read it a second time they change their view, I did.

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Originally Posted by Varenne Rodin

I love Gatsby because he doesn't attend his parties. He's painfully shy, but desperate to fit in. He loves a problematic girl. Sometimes flawed characters are beautiful. I'm surprised you hate him.

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I do understand that flawed people are beautiful, but I also think that everyone is flawed in their own way. No one can be perfect. It's just Nick's opinion that gets to me because Nick thinks al those people he met are terrible, when really, Gatsby was just as flawed. I do not hate Gatsby, I just do not understand the love for him (or the novel, honestly). Perhaps it is just because I'm not a huge Fitzgerald fan.

I hated The Great Gatsby, I loved Crime and Punishment, I hated Pride and Prejudice, I loved Jane Eyre, I hated Catch-22, I loved Slaughterhouse 5. For some reason I either hate a book or love it :skep:.

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Originally Posted by sheheldthemoon

I do understand that flawed people are beautiful, but I also think that everyone is flawed in their own way. No one can be perfect. It's just Nick's opinion that gets to me because Nick thinks al those people he met are terrible, when really, Gatsby was just as flawed. I do not hate Gatsby, I just do not understand the love for him (or the novel, honestly). Perhaps it is just because I'm not a huge Fitzgerald fan.

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That makes sense. I could understand not liking the book as a whole. I didn't like it the first time I read it. I had to read it in high school. After going through some strange experiences I came to appreciate it a lot more. For the same reason I like a lot of Martin Scorsese movies, probably.

I also want to mention that the book captures an era and a style very well. I haven't read it depicted in quite the same way in other books. If the era and style seem at all unpleasant, I don't think Fitzgerald should be faulted for that.

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Originally Posted by sheheldthemoon

I do understand that flawed people are beautiful, but I also think that everyone is flawed in their own way. No one can be perfect. It's just Nick's opinion that gets to me because Nick thinks al those people he met are terrible, when really, Gatsby was just as flawed. I do not hate Gatsby, I just do not understand the love for him (or the novel, honestly). Perhaps it is just because I'm not a huge Fitzgerald fan.

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Fitzgerald is my favorite author, but you just may have different tastes and therefore would connect more with other writers with other styles-nothing wrong with that.

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Originally Posted by Varenne Rodin

I also want to mention that the book captures an era and a style very well. I haven't read it depicted in quite the same way in other books. If the era and style seem at all unpleasant, I don't think Fitzgerald should be faulted for that.

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Very true, I think you have to appreciate and like the time period, which I do. I also love the clothes, the promiscuity, the hair! To have to read it in HS can be difficult, a later re-read is often good.

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Originally Posted by KCurtis

Very true, I think you have to appreciate and like the time period, which I do. I also love the clothes, the promiscuity, the hair! To have to read it in HS can be difficult, a later re-read is often good.

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I do agree it shows a good idea of what living in that particular era would have been like. However, like I said before, I just don't really like Fitzgerald's writing too much. I enjoyed his "The Crack Up" quite a bit because it was like he was writing as himself, not as a writer.

The Great Gatsby is widely regarded as a paragon of the Great American Novel, and a literary classic as well. Gatsby is a tragic character actually，his story may happen to many of us，a solo runner of one's dream.

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Originally Posted by Kingbob

The Great Gatsby is widely regarded as a paragon of the Great American Novel, and a literary classic as well. Gatsby is a tragic character actually，his story may happen to many of us，a solo runner of one's dream.

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yes, well said. And people love and feel sorry for tragic characters, that is the trick of the novel. Fitzgerald actually did not want to use that title, I can't exactly remember the title he wanted (too lazy to look it up), but I think it is perfect.

I believe Gatsby is so loved is because he waits for Daisy and still loves her after such a long period of time. Also, I think that since Gatsby is so reckless, his story is appealing to men. His whole bravado and the way he acts is also appealing. I think Gatsby is such a loved character because he has faults that we all can relate to. Gatsby did whatever he needed to get his way and he never gave up on Daisy. Gatsby was relentless. He tried to show Daisy he still loved her by throwing huge parties and trying to impress her by driving around in fancy sports cars. He showed that you shouldn't give up on your dreams.