Ideal and Reality: The True Identity of James Gatz

Ideal and Reality: The True Identity of James Gatz

Is it possible to become a totally new person by changing one’s name? You can easily find news about criminals who change their identity by renaming themselves, and become a new person. It is not only found in real life, but in literature as well. The first thing that protagonists in a movie usually do when they want to be “reborn” is to rename themselves in order to change their identity. This is also found in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. James Gatz is born to a poor family. He always has the ambition of being wealthy and believes that if he changes his name in order to become a new person, all of his problems would be fixed. Therefore, when he is seventeen, James Gatz decides to be reborn as Jay Gatsby in order to begin his new life; then which one is his real identity? Since Gatsby does not really belong to the actual upper-class, has the constant desire toward unachievable dreams, and maintains the mindset of a lower-class individual, James Gatz is the real person rather than Jay Gatsby.

Tom and Daisy are old money; they live in East Egg. Unlike them, Gatsby is new money and lives in West Egg. When Daisy and Tom come to Gatsby’s party, Tom says: “In fact I was just thinking I don’t know a soul here” (Fitzgerald 137). This quote is the most representative evidence that Gatsby does not really belong to an actual upper-class. The reason why Tom does not recognize people who come to Gatsby’s party is that they do not have a high social status. Because they have free and open manners, such as behaving badly, which are not accepted in traditional upper-class, Gatsby’s party does not seem to be for the upper-class. As the proverb says: “A man is known by the company he keeps,” James Gatz fails to be the perfect person that he creates since he does not really belong to the actual upper-class.

At the end of Chapter Seven, during the conversation at the Plaza Hotel, Tom shouts: “[Gatsby] and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn’t far wrong” (Fitzgerald 173). Tom recognizes that Gatsby becomes wealthy in an illegal way—selling alcohol in the period of Prohibition. In order to be a part of the upper-class, Gatsby should earn money legally or inherit wealth from an upper-class family, or the upper-class society will not accept him. However, he becomes wealthy illegally and Tom points it out in this conversation, which indicates that Gatsby does not belong to an upper-class, and thus be who he says he is.

In fact, Gatsby never belongs to an upper-class. Furthermore, he does not even have an opportunity to be a part of that society. In the article, "Possessions in The Great Gatsby," Donaldson claims: “Even discounting how much there is of it, Tom's ‘old money’ has a power beyond any that Gatsby can command . . . for another point Fitzgerald is making is that if you have enough money and position you can purchase immunity from punishment.” Donaldson recognizes that the power of ‘old money’ is much stronger than ‘new money,’ and this is the reason why Gatsby cannot belong to an upper-class now or ever.

The reason why Gatsby is not his real identity is his constant desire toward unachievable dreams. Gatsby believes that there is nothing that he cannot do because Gatsby is created to be a perfect person. That is the reason why Gatsby responds weirdly when Nick tells him that he cannot repeat the past. At the end of Chapter Six, Gatsby cries: “Can’t repeat the past? . . . Why of course you can! . . . I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before” (Fitzgerald 144). Gatsby truly believes that he is the ‘great’ Gatsby and this leads him to fall into his ideal from which he cannot escape. Nick keeps advising Gatsby that there is something that he cannot do. However, Gatsby’s desire toward impossible dreams leads him to be stuck in his ideal and not to recognize reality.

Moreover, Gatsby wants to remain Daisy’s guardian. After Myrtle is killed by Daisy due to the car crash, Gatsby does not blame her, but tries to protect her. When Nick asks Gatsby about the driver who killed Myrtle, Gatsby agrees that it is Daisy and declaims: “[B]ut of course I’ll say I was . . . She’ll be all right tomorrow” (Fitzgerald 186). As reflected in this quote, the only thing that Gatsby is concerned about is Daisy and trying to protect her as her guardian. Nevertheless, his desire toward impossible dreams becomes worse. Before Gatsby is murdered by George Wilson, he utters: “I don’t think [Daisy] ever loved [Tom]” (195). As stated before, he does not recognize reality. Furthermore, he denies reality because it denies the existence of the ‘great’ Gatsby.

The main reason that Gatsby is not his real identity is that he maintains the mindset of a lower-class individual. In the 1920s, people do not divorce—especially in wealthy society. This fact appears in the article called “Marriage and Divorce in Early Twentieth Century Drama” by Paul M. Levitt; he says: “[D]ivorce was both ruinous to a woman’s reputation and rare. In 1915, for example, only eight of a thousand marriages ended in divorce; and some states, like South Carolina, prohibited divorce entirely.” In the early Twentieth Century, divorce is tacitly forbidden in America, especially for the rich.

However, Gatsby has a dream of romance which is not the mindset of an upper class individual. In Chapter Seven, Gatsby talks to Daisy: “It doesn’t matter any more. Just tell him the truth—that you never loved [Tom]—and it’s all wiped out forever” (Fitzgerald 170). Gatsby forces Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him. However, she hesitates and cries that she loves both Tom and Gatsby. As reflected in the article by Levitt, in the 1920s, people who belong to upper-class do not get divorced in order to pretend that their world is perfect, but have affairs. This makes a difference between reality and the ideal (James Gatz and Jay Gatsby respectively) because James Gatz, who belongs to lower-class, believes that Daisy would divorce and remarry with him. However, she does not, and it indicates that he cannot truly be the ‘great’ Gatsby that he always imagines.

In order to become a part of a group, the first thing that one needs to do is to make a friend. However, Gatsby has a no real friend and it is another piece of evidence which indicates that Gatsby is not the perfect person that James Gatz creates him to be. The reason why he does not have a real friend is that Gatsby does not really get along with upper-class people, but hides himself, since he maintains the mindset of a lower-class individual. At the end of the novel, there are a few people at his funeral, such as a few servants, Henry Gatz (Gatsby’s father) and the Owl-Eyed Man. We discover that nobody who knows Gatsby has come to Gatsby’s house when the Owl-Eyed Man apologizes that he could not come; Nick responds: “Neither could anybody else” (Fitzgerald 225). Gatsby’s friend, such as Meyer Wolfsheim, or people who join Gatsby’s parties, never appear, neither at his house nor at his funeral. Unlike Gatsby’s wish, Daisy does not even call to Gatsby’s house or send a letter. Nick complains: “I could only remember, without resentment, that Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower” (225). For these reasons, it appears that Gatsby does not have a real friend and it indicates the fact that he fails to be a part of upper-class.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby seems to be a person who is perfectly newly born. However, he is still James Gatz—not a Jay Gatsby—since he does not fit into upper-class, has a perpetual craving toward impossible dreams, and preserves the behaviour of a lower-class individual. Jay Gatsby is the ideal person that James Gatz creates—a person who is wealthy, can do everything, and belongs to upper-class. Firstly, Gatsby gets along with people like Meyer Wolfsheim who is a gangster instead of people, such as Tom, who belongs to the actual upper-class. Since he earns his money in illegal ways, he does not deserve to say that he is a part of the upper-class. Moreover, he does not even have a chance because there is a big difference between old money and new money. Also, his mindset is not fitted in upper-class since he has a dream of romance and does not truly reveal himself. Even though Gatsby changes his name in order to be born as a new person, his real identity (personality) never changes. For these reasons, Jay Gatsby can never be the real identity of James Gatz now or ever, as money cannot buy everything.

Works Cited

Donaldson, Scott. "Possessions in The Great Gatsby." The Southern Review, vol. 37, no. 2,

             2001, p. 187. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=

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             77e35408fd770fde0. Accessed 13 Nov. 2016.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Munhakdongne Publishing Co., Ltd., 2013.

Levitt, Paul M. "Marriage and Divorce in Early Twentieth Century Drama." The Midwest

Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 2, 2015, p. 139+. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.

do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=ko_k12hs_d71&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA422891551&it=

r&asid=dd9afe060599a6376792fa0464b478a7. Accessed 13 Nov. 2016.