Facing Reality in "The Great Gatsby"

Write a special journal entry devoted to a theme you can see developing in the novel. You do not need to be finished reading the novel to begin assessing themes. Identify key quotes and events that you believe contribute to the development of your chosen theme...Remember that these are merely titles that point to a theme; you will need to describe the novel's development of that theme to determine what it is truly trying to say about it.

Throughout The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby himself, has trouble facing reality. He does not often tells stories of his past, but when he considers working with Nick to win back the girl of his dreams, he feels obliged to tell him some of his life story: "'Well, I’m going to tell you something about my life,’ he interrupted. ‘I don’t want you to get a  wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear.’" (Fitzgerald, 65). He tells Nick of how he is the son of wealthy people in the Middle West who are all dead now, educated at Oxford, came into money when his family died, how he traveled, and joined the military. 

One could tell Nick was a bit off with Gatsby's story as he stated: 

"He looked at me sideways - and I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried phrased 'educated at Oxford, or swallowed it, or choked on it, as it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn't something a little sinister about him, after all." (Fitzgerald, 65)

As his story is unstable, and flawed. Making others believe that he is not telling the truth. Ultimately not facing reality as by lying about his past.

You can also see the theme of Gatsby's inability to face reality when Nick tells him to not: " '... ask to much of her'" and that he " ...'can't repeat the past.'" (Fitzgerald, 111) This is when Gatsby tells Nick at his party, that he wants Daisy to tell Tom she is leaving him, but Nick does not think this is a good idea, because before Gatsby came back Tom and Daisy were happily married (aside from Tom's affair).

The theme is also present when Gatsby is being interrogated by Tom in the hotel room in chapter 8. Gatsby is telling Tom that Daisy never loved him, when Daisy objects, because that is a lie, she did love Tom at one point. Gatsby seems not to grasp the reality that Daisy has the ability to love other people, while he only mourns over her love.

In the end, this theme strongly progressed over the entire novel, and seemed to end when Gatsby died, because none of the other character's seemed to have the challenge of facing the reality of the subject.

I believe that what the novel is truly saying is that if you want to get the things you want in life you have to face reality and go get them. You can't let the little things hold you back. This is present when Gatsby tries to get Daisy to love him again, but because he isn't facing the reality of "what happens in the past, stays in the past" he does not fully gain her love or her heart; she end's up staying with Tom, and probably would have stayed with Tom even if Gatsby had not of died.