Chapter 3:
Hey everybody,
I’m just getting my first sixteen words out of the way before I begin. It seems, as has been noted in class, that many of the characters, rich and poor, try to be what they are not. Daisy and Tom each lie to Nick about their situation. We learn in the third chapter that Miss Baker simply lies about everything. Myrtle and the Mckees seem to seize the chance they have to live out of their class through Tom. To me, Nick seems unsure of what he wants. Indeed, he is as he described himself in the opening passage: he is an undecided observer. Gatsby is the one exception. Gatsby does not have to pretend to be something because he is all everyone else wants to be and more. Other characters are even surprised by Gatsby’s genuine qualities. For instance, Owl Eyes is surprised that Gatsby has real books in his library; the expectation for this social group is that he would have fake books so as to only appear as one that reads. Moreover, Gatsby is the only one at the party we know not to be drunk (although Nick once again is an undecided slight drunk). This illustrates how he does not need to live in a fantasy world. He has all he wants in the real world. Gatsby does, however, live a lie in the most permeating way of all. Nobody knows who he really is. If this were a real paper, I’d somehow explain this, but it’s not and I’m out of space. I hope you’ve enjoyed two hundred sixty-nine words of wisdom.
At this point in the reading, I definitely agreed with you that Gatsby was the most genuine character in the book, except for Nick, who has the unfair advantage of being the narrator. I think it's really interesting to see, looking back, that all of those traits we thought of as genuine are actually part of the facade; Gatsby has just taken it further than most. Also, Gatsby does not "not need to live in a fantasy world," but instead has spent the past five years perfecting one.
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