Great Gatsby the Slow Unraveling Term Paper

Total Length: 993 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

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His life had been confused and distorted since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what one thing was..." (Fitzgerald 117).

He took notice to the love of her new luxurious socialite lifestyle. He decided to truly embody the life he had created to appease Daisy.

However, Gatsby failed to see the darker side of his young love. Below the beauty and grace was a spoiled and shallow brat who used her money as a shield to avoid truly living in the real world. She proves her true character in the most dire of circumstances. Her betrayal of Gatsby when he needed her most revealed the falsehood of her character, essentially showing him that he had lived his life trying to obtain something which did not exist, "That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money -- that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it...High in a white palace of the king's daughter, the golden girl..." (Fitzgerald 127). Despite reuniting with Gatsby, she eventually returned to her rich husband. She also lied about who was driving, essentially selling Gatsby out for the murders of Myrtle and Wilson. Rather than owning up to her own mistake, she showed Gatsby and the reader the detrimental qualities of the rich elite.


Nick, Daisy's cousin, plays an important role in the unraveling of Gatsby's true consciousness. Nick is the opposite of the lavish characters within upper class society. His distance allows him an in-depth insight to the true nature of Gatsby's life. As Gatsby's reputation is destroyed through scandal, Nick sees beyond rumors and sees Gatsby's innocent beginnings and distorted pursuance of his life-long dreams. Nick realizes that his intentions had always been true, for the love of another. But those intentions were not enough to save him from the greed and superficiality of upper class life. The extreme contrast between the two characters of Nick and Gatsby allows Fitzgerald to give Nick a special role in relating Gatsby to the reader.

The persona intentionally created by Gatsby as he acquired power and money, eventually crumbles. As the reader journeys more into the real context of his existence, the more his failure is seen. He made his pipedream a reality. However, when the unstable foundation on which it was built crumbled, he fell from his self-made grace. Eventually even his love for Daisy is shown as just an obsession with the unobtainable. In the end, Gatsby's constructed character turns on him and eventually destroys him. However, Nick does still see the true nature of the social illusionist.

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"Great Gatsby The Slow Unraveling" (2008, January 10) Retrieved May 4, 2024, from
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"Great Gatsby The Slow Unraveling" 10 January 2008. Web.4 May. 2024. <
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Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

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"Great Gatsby The Slow Unraveling", 10 January 2008, Accessed.4 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/great-gatsby-slow-unraveling-32953