The Creation Of Jay Gatsby

The costume: 

At the age of 17, James Gatz decided to recreate himself as ‘Jay Gatsby’. This means he most likely spent time picking things he would wear so he would appear rich and could create the version of himself that he wanted. For example, when Nick arranges for Daisy and Gatsby to meet again for the first time in 5 years Gatsby is wearing a white suit. The color white in the story symbolizes both purity and corruption. Gatsby is extremely nervous in front of Daisy and doesn’t know what to do with himself. “An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in.” He almost appears to be acting childishly. This symbolizes the innocence and his childlike actions he has when around Daisy but it also symbolizes his corruption. Gatsby has lived his entire life obsessing over Daisy and hasn’t made time for anyone else and therefore doesn’t have many friends. He earns his money illegally by bootlegging and throws big parties every weekend especially for Daisy hoping she’ll turn up one day and see how wealthy he has become. Gatsby’s gold tie symbolizes his wealth and ‘Old money’. Throughout the entire book, the color gold represented and was associated with East Egg and wealth. As Daisy has lived in East Egg her entire life and always been wealthy Gatsby wears the tie to try to impress her as he wants her to see that he is just as wealthy as the people living in East Egg.

When all the characters go to town and are at the Plaza hotel Nick notices Gatsby is wearing a pink suit. I think that the color pink symbolizes Gatsby’s love for Daisy and how he has hopes that they will be together. Nick was watching Gatsby and noticed “His gorgeous pink rag of a suit made a bright spot of color against the white steps…” I think that the white steps and Gatsby’s suit symbolize how Daisy’s purity is being affected. Her love for Gatsby is causing her to go behind Tom’s back and cheat on him. Tom also makes a comment on the color of Gatsby’s suit “‘An Oxford man!’ He was incredulous. ‘Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.’” Tom criticizes Gatsby for wearing this suit as he believes that pink is not a color that men wear and because Gatsby wears this that he would not have gone to a place like Oxford.

The props:

The 20s were seen as a time of wealth and many people liked to display their wealth. Gatsby drives a yellow Rolls Royce which is an uncommon color during this time. He would have chosen this color to show how much money he has. Its unique color is most likely there to attract Daisy’s attention just like everything else he has. In the book, yellow ends up representing falseness, dishonesty, and corruption as the color is almost like fake gold. In the end, the car’s color represents Gatsby’s failure to achieve what he has dreamed about most of his life. Gatsby’s car is the car that hits and kills Myrtle which in the end results in Gatsby’s own death. “‘It was a yellow car,’ he said, ‘big yellow car. New.’”. It shows Gatsby’s failure to connect with East Egg and the true gold color. As soon as the car hits Myrtle all Gatsby’s hopes and dreams come to an end. He has failed to gain Daisy and the life he always wanted to have with her.

Another time when the color white symbolizes corruption is when Gatsby flashes his white card at the cop. As Gatsby and Nick are driving to New York to have lunch Gatsby gets pulled over by a police officer for speeding. Gatsby simply pulls out a white card from his wallet and shows it to the officer. “Taking a white card from his wallet he waved it before the man’s eyes.” The officer then proceeds to apologize and tell Gatsby that he will recognize him next time and not pull him over. He then leaves without even giving Gatsby a ticket. When Nick asks Gatsby what the white card is Gatsby responds with “‘I was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year.’” This answer is very vague and does not tell us what the favor was and therefore suggests that it was most likely an illegal one. This shows how corrupt their society is and how people of wealth are able to get away with a lot more than the average person.

The setting of the ‘Stage’:

When Jordan and Nick entered Gatsby’s library, Owl Eyes referred to Gatsby as a ‘regular Belasco’ as all Gatsby’s books were real. David Belasco was a stage show director and producer and was very well known for how realistic all his sets appeared to be. Gatsby is compared to him because of the image he has created of himself which is not actually real and is in fact an illusion. During this time many people bought fake books to make themselves appear wealthy and important but Gatsby’s books were in fact real. This proves what lengths he’s willing to go to to uphold the image he has created for himself. 

Gatsby is able to manipulate people and make them believe everything he tells them and this is not hard for him to do as he has put so much time into making sure the way people see him is perfect. The main part of this illusion is Gatsby’s enormous mansion of a house. It makes him appear very wealthy and like he has it all when in reality this is not true. Every weekend Gatsby throws huge parties where hundreds of people arrive at his house. He does not send out invitations, people just seem to turn up. The reason for the continuous parties is for Gatsby to try and catch Daisy’s attention as he hopes that she will turn up to one of them, however, she does not. The parties make it seem like Gatsby is well known, extremely wealthy and has many friends when in reality he does not. Many people throughout the story were able to see through this illusion as Owl Eyes did and that Gatsby’s entire life is actually just a setup and made to look the way it does. 

The speech and dialogue:

Throughout the entire story, Gatsby often seems to be forcing the words he says and continuously uses the phrase “Old sport”. I think this is because it makes it sound more like he is from “Old money” and is of higher status. When Gatsby’s father shows Nick Gatsby’s timetable from when he was little it becomes clear that Gatsby has been practicing the way he speaks ever since he was little as there is a time that says “Practice elocution, poise and how to attain it 5.00-6.00 P.M”. Gatsby has worked very hard on his appearance and the way that people see him from a young age and that’s why he has become so good at manipulating and getting people to believe his lies. Gatsby also spent a lot of time with Dan Cody on his yacht as his assistant when he was a bit younger. Dan was wealthy and reasonably well known and used the phrase “Old sport” often as well. Gatsby, therefore, began to use this phrase as it seemed to him that it was a phrase that people of higher status and wealth used.

The backstory:

There are many rumors going around about Gatsby such as how he’d apparently had killed a man once and that he was a German spy however not many people seem to know very much about him. From the very beginning, certain things that Gtabsy says don’t seem to quite add up or make sense. For example, when he and Nick are on their way into town to have lunch Gatsby seems to have brought along a few things with him as if he is trying very hard to make NIck believe his back story and prove that it’s real. Gatsby shows Nick a medal he got during the war and a photo of him at Oxford. Gatsby seems to carry these things around with him often in case anyone ever asks about where he is from. Nick attempts to find out a bit more about Gatsby by asking “‘What part of the middle-west?’. To this Gatsby responds with “‘San Francisco.’” However this is where Gatsby makes a slight mistake as San Francisco is not in the midwest. This proves that Gatsby is not really from there and that it is just another part of his illusion.