Disillusionment in "The Great Gatsby"

Disillusionment in "The Great Gatsby"

6 Word Memoirs

A six word memoir is a 6 word sentence describing a person's life or personality.

The End

Tom Buchanan

I have got the upper hand.

Daisy Buchanan

An unfaithful relationship with her husband.

TJ Eckleburg

Vacant, omniscient eyes follow through time.

George Wilson

Crazy man, but for good reason.

Nick Carraway

It's not what I had thought.

Jay Gatsby

Striving to recover an empty past.

Analysis

Jay Gatsby - “Striving to recover an empty past”

This describes the disillusionment presented to Jay Gatsby by the hopes to return to a great point in his life. Referring to the time when Daisy and Gatsby were happy together. Throughout time Gatsby never stopped trying to improve his life in order to impress the women he loved. Describing the relationship from Gatsby’s point of view was easy for him to accomplish. Gatsby once said, “He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” This quote truly shows the love Gatsby felt for Daisy and the thought of winning her back was something he couldn’t get off his mind. However no one can truly go back into time and recover what once was. Over time people change, feelings shift and nothing stays the same. Not knowing the true selfishness that lay within Daisy was a harsh reality. Tom was well established man with a clear future. Whereas Gatsby was a risk to Daisy’s future because of his sketchy past and unsure future. In the end Daisy was made out to be the greatest woman in Jay Gatsby’s life, but he never saw the true side. Truly showing the disillusionment presented to Jay Gatsby himself.

`Tom Buchanan I have got the upper hand.

Tom Buchanan is a well spoken character who knows exactly wants and does his best to get what he wants. He is persistent in wanting to be known as a well known football player from Yale and not the Polo player that everyone recognizes him as. Not only about his football career but he also wants to be generally well known. He believes that since he has many valuable possessions and comes from “old money” he is better than others. He thinks that his wealth gives him an advantage over others and makes him better. Especially because his money is old saying that it comes from family. He refers to the newly rich as “bootleggers”. With this he loves to show off his possessions. " I've got a nice place here. It belonged to the Demaine oil man" (Great Gatsby, 12). He considers himself to be higher up in the world with all that he has. Not only for does he feel that his possessions and social standard gives him the upper hand but he thinks he has everybody fooled when it comes to his affair with his mistress, Myrtle. Towards the end of the book at during the dinner when Gatsby declares the love between Daisy and himself, Tom supposes that Daisy is done with Gatsby and their little romance is over. He sends them home because he feels he has won the battle with Gatsby and that Daisy will be his forever. Power and control are two things Tom feels he has over people and that these things are important in guiding his life.

Nick Carraway It’s not what I had thought.

Nick Carraway made his journey to the eggs and Long Islands from Chicago in order to be a part of and understand eastern society. Nick is a very judgmental character as we can see in throughout the book. The “It’s not what I had thought” idea had started to become apparent about halfway through the book when Nick realizes his assumptions about the other characters were wrong when he finds out the truth behind their pasts. He realizes that life in the eggs isn’t as glamorous as he thought and that the parties and the people all had something to hide. When he had met Gatsby he had not expected he would find out Gatsby’s real past and who Gatsby actually was. His perspective completely changed. It had influenced him too. Nick became someone he was not and that greatly affected his view of this society. The experience he had as he lived in this society had greatly changed his personality and had caused him to lose everything he had. His life would no longer be the same.

George- Crazy man, but for good reason

As you learn in The Great Gatsby, George is a crazy man, but for good reason. George is told by Tom that Gatsby was the one who hit Myrtle, George’s wife, but in reality, it was Daisy. Tom was trying to protect Daisy but by doing so, he ended Gatsby’s life. All because of the disillusion Tom told George, a life was lost. George believed Gatsby killed Myrtle, because that is what Tom told him, and that made George go crazy, but for a good reason. He was trying to serve justice in honor of his wife.

Tj Eckleburg "Vacant omniscient eyes follow through time”

This symbolizes an all knowing being, Dr. TJ Eckleberg eyes, are presented throughout the book. The realization that no bad deed goes unpunished is seen through the empty holes of Dr. Eckleberg’s eyes. Through any bad action the eyes have been seen to be judging the character or showing the guilt they have for what they’d done. For example, George Wilson had believed that the eyes were God watching over the Valley of Ashes and everything that happened in it. Therefore, the hit and run that had occurred in the book by Daisy would have been seen by the eyes as well. This would lead one to conclude that eventually Daisy will pay for her wrong doing. Even though the eyes are always there looking down, no one is truly watching. It’s an old abandoned billboard that sits in the Valley of Ashes, even though it was said to believe that those were the eyes of God himself. Therefore these eyes are truly not all knowing because they’re vacant. Showing the audience disillusionment throughout the story, one could be clearly mislead by the true meaning of Dr. T.J Eckleberg’s eyes.

Daisy- an unfaithful relationship with her husband

Daisy having “an unfaithful relationship with her husband” is symbolized throughout The Great Gatsby in many ways. Tom, Daisy’s husband, has a secretive relationship with Myrtle, another character in the book. He cheated on Daisy in multiple situations during the book. Although Tom makes Daisy look like the victim, she is not as faithful as she should be either. Daisy has an affair with the well known Jay Gatsby. This marriage overall is a big mess of lies. This is where the disillusion kicks in. Disillusion is believing it’s one thing but it’s really the opposite or something different. Tom is cheating on Daisy. Daisy is cheating on Tom. But neither one know they are being cheated on. Tom and Daisy both know they are being unfaithful but yet they don’t know each other are being unfaithful as well. An unfaithful relationship will always have some hidden disillusion.