Persuasive Essay on Gatsby is Not Really Great

Gatsby is alone in life and lies to manipulate people around him to get what he wants shows how he did not deserve the title "The Great". Gatsby lies to the people around him about his status in life to make him look better. This does not make him great. Gatsby is in the car with Nick and he was analyzing what Gatsby said and Nick thought, “He hurried the phrase 'educated at Oxford,' or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before.  And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn't something a little sinister about him, after all” (Fitzgerald 4). Nick caught on to the lies that Gatsby was saying because he was speaking if he didn’t know what he was saying, this expresses how Gatsby is not a truthful man. Claire stocks states in her writing “ All Men Are Not Created Equal”, “There is certainly something of the showman about Gatsby, and the appellation 'Great' brings to mind a ringmaster, magician or renowned performer” (Stocks). Gatsby is a showman. Everything he is, is not real, it is made up. Gatsby plays tricks to make everyone like him but in reality it is not real thus makes him not great. 

Gatsby is so lonely that he has to sleep with another man's wife. Mr Buchaan, Gatsby, Nick, jordan and daisy were all in a hot hotel room when Mr Buchaan confronts gatsby about him sleeping with daisy and said “I supposed the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (Fitzgerald 7). This supports Gatsby's being alone in life because it makes him confide in someone else's wife. A great man would have a woman of his own to support him in his life instead he has married woman. David F. Trask states in "A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby” that, “Gatsby was as alone in death as he had been in life. Of all the hordes who had accepted his largesse when alive, only one—an unnamed “owl-eyed man” who had admired Gatsby's books— appeared at the funeral. He delivered a pathetic epitaph: “The poor son-of-a-bitch” (Trask). Out of all the parties that he had, all the people who had come to his house, no one showed besides a man he didn’t even know. This shows even at the most important time to show up for someone nobody is there for him. When you are great and make a difference in someone's life they show up for you. Not even the woman he loved showed up for his funeral. This shows that the title “Great” was not for Gatsby.

In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, the main character Gatsby does not deserve the title “Great” because he lies and he is alone. A Great man does not sleep with a married woman or tell people made up lies about where you come from. Gatsby is a desolate man who spreads propaganda about himself to make people believe he is great.