Gatsby

How does Fitzgerald Portray Identity in the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’. Use ‘The Bluest Eye’ to Illuminate Your Answer

Fitzgerald portrays almost every characters identity as untrustworthy and deceitful throughout ‘The Great Gatsby’.Tony Tanner talks about Gatsby’s ‘constructed identity’ which Fitzgerald portrays through a number of ways: his characteristic way of speaking; his partly invented backstory and his extravagant parties. Fitzgerald suggests that Gatsby goes to enormous lengths to recreate himself and identify himself with Daisy’s ‘old money’ elite. Gatsby resembles crucial aspects of the American Dream in that, as Sarah Churchwell says, he is ‘forever chasing the green light, a false promise of self-empowerment in which [he is] desperate to believe.’
It seems clear that Fitzgerald presents Gatsby in the novel as a man who has forged his own identity, or in Tony Tanners words; ‘constructed’ it, in an attempt to achieve his wildest aspirations. The reader can see this from the way in which Fitzgerald presents Gatsby at the end of chapter one. Kathleen Parkinson has the idea that Gatsby is ‘represented entirely through Nicks oscillating responses to him’, which to large extents, I would agree with. From his perspective view on Gatsby during chapter one, Nick sees ‘a figure, standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars’. This image emphasises the enormity of the task that Gatsby has set himself; he is stood on the earth looking up at the infinite amount of stars above him and his stance, (‘hands in his pockets’), further suggests that he is aspirational and/or confident that he can fulfil his dreams and desire of belonging in the upper, elite class.   From Nicks perspective however, Gatsby is conveyed to be selfishly intent on ‘owning his share of our local heavens’.
Furthermore, this image foreshadows Gatsby’s tragic failure to succeed in being part of this elite and more importantly being part of Daisy’s life. The use...