Period 4, Michael Carleo, Eng 4 HNR

In this article, the author makes his point in various ways. He is proving that Jay Gatsby is a fictional character that is totally real in our lives. Even though he was made up, he represents what happens in our lives each day. Gatsby turned out to make money right until the end, but before he stole his money with Meyer Wolfsheim. However, Gatsby did show his purity in this book by trying to win Daisy back ever since he first saw her before the war. That is the purest thing because he would have sold his soul to be with her, which represents that he understands how dark and cruel the world can be sometimes. He was like almost every American kid was, he told his father what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he planned out his life. Gatsby might have bad qualities, but he is just like every American who is searching for that perfect "American Dream."

It is compelling to see Jay Gatsby as this. To understand what he went through is a similar situation of what we go through everyday to try to make something of ourselves. We might not do it in that form or way like stealing money, going to the army, and becoming rich, but we see how the world has brought such things on us to be perfect. Gatsby saw that he was flawed in this flawed world, and we have to see that as well. It is compelling of how Fitzgerald chose the color green to represent all of our desires like women or men, money, gratitude, etc.

I agree with the editor because I feel that Fitzgerald did use Jay Gatsby to represent us as people in a fictional way. Through all of the media, music, and marketing that our generation goes through is what Fitzgerald is trying to get us to see. All of these materials and "perfections" we are trying to meet isn't the way to get that "American Dream". He related the war in the 20s to the war now that we face. He related the corruption in the story to the corruption of the Watergate. All of these symbols in this novel represented us as Americans or even people in some shape or form. I believe that Gatsby is a true symbol of what an American can potentially be.