The Great Gatsby is a novel about a man who tries to win over a woman he had lost many years ago. Jay Gatsby is the hero in this novel because he stands out amongst the rich. Unlike the rest of the rich people in this novel Gatsby has moral values, and the rest of them can only grasp things of material value. Gatsby spends his whole life trying to hide the fact that he wasn’t like the others. Gatsby never fits in among them because what he perceives of them is all wrong, they were as uncivil as anyone else.
Through being less primitive than the rich, determination for love, being ruled by his emotions that erase any doubt, he is quiet tempered; which upholds his greatness, and he is protected by others that tell us of his importance. Gatsby is not as primitive as the rest of the rich humans, he is more mannered and civil. The people at his parties are all wild and not civil, what you would not expect from people of this stature. Gatsby is this way because he has had to earn his money and has not just inherited it like the lazy lot of them.
The only other person that comes close to Gatsby is Nick, but we don’t get to see what he would be like with wealth. Throughout the novel Gatsby looks out upon the crowd, when he comes down to greet Nick he is very polite to everyone surrounding him, knowing they spread rumors and lies about him. He doesn’t think anything of it because he knows it’s natural for people to gossip, he can’t judge them on it because it is the crowd he wishes to become.
Nick tells Gatsby he is better than the whole rotten bunch of them, Nick realizes this because he knows what it is like to be poor and he knows Gatsby still acts like a poor man, but he has all the wealth to cover it up (p. 146). Gatsby is determined to find his one true love, which causes him to stand out from the wealthy as well. All of the rich in the novel aren’t searching for anything, none of the rich can love anything unless it is of material value. It seems like they love each other, but they only do out of each other’s wealth.
Tom does not love Daisy he cheats on her all the time. Daisy did not love Tom, she married him for wealth, or else she would have married Gatsby if he were not confronted. Gatsby was into bootlegging, which was illegal, he could lose his riches at any time, and if Daisy were with him she would end up poor. Gatsby was in search of the American Dream, the only thing he had left to clench in it was a loving family. Daisy was the flaw in the American Dream. Gatsby wanted to marry out of love and not out of wealth like all the others.
He knew he had to live the American Dream to wed her. He knew she loved wealth more than anything else, he had a collection of clippings of almost everything she had done over the years (p. 90). Gatsby could have anyone else in the world with old money, but he only wanted Daisy, therefore she was his one true love. Gatsby was ruled by his emotions, which causes him to doubt any second thoughts he had made about Daisy. Gatsby knew she could never love him like he loved her, but it did not stop him.
Gatsby kept on having parties in hope that she would come to them, when she never did he thought it coincidence and not fate, which it was. He believed in hope and not fate or else he would have foreseen the bitter end. Once he has seen her again he verifies that she is in life only for money, but he remembers he has been after her his entire life and it doesn’t matter what she thinks. After the party she had finally attended Gatsby is unsatisfied with the results and says that she didn’t like it (p. 106).
After this Gatsby is still determined to make her understand like she used to, to make her love him like she did. After this flaw he still pursues her, despite what she thinks, he hopes deep down inside she remembers. His quiet temper causes him to stand out amongst the others as it upholds his greatness. Gatsby’s house is in a disastrous mess after these parties yet he is never angered about it. He perceives the rich as being low tempered and mannered people, when in truth they are not, they are angry simple people, and because he is not this way he is the hero.
He never is mad about Daisy never coming to his party, never becomes frustrated, and not at all angered by what rumors are spread about him. When he becomes rich himself he realizes that the rich are high tempered and primitive people, which is why he uses people to get what he wants. He meets Nick and actually feels bad for using him, because he is a mannerly less primitive personality such as himself. When Tom is trying to confuse Daisy by confronting Gatsby and make her stay with him he is still not angered such as tom is (p. 26).
At this point Gatsby stands out, he is the only one not angered or entirely out of control, he remains calm. Gatsby is always protected by others in the novel which tells us that he is an important person. He is protected by people related to his job and anyone who knew him. He always wants Nick to come with him on things he is unsure of, like when meeting daisy for the first time in eight years (p. 83). He needs others to fulfill his confidence in himself, it is how he got as far he did in the novel (money wise).
He only meets new people through association with someone else in the novel, he meets Nick through Jordan and Daisy through Nick. He is like this because he expects things to come to him like they have in the past like his job from Meyer Wolfshiem. James Gatsby is the hero in the novel through: his modern acts, determination for love, his conquering emotions, his quiet temperament, and his protected state. A hero is someone unlike the others and Gatsby fills this character perfectly in the novel. Therefore Gatsby is the character and no one else should even be considered for his place in The Great Gatsby.
