Jay Gatsby

Jay Gatsby has no singular identity. He is a dreamer with grandiose ideas, but he prefers to keep to himself aside from his business dealings. Rumors about him are constantly circulating, including rumors that he was a German spy and that he once killed a man, but he makes no effort to deny or correct them. The narrator describes Gatsby as having something gorgeous about him. He also says that Gatsby is optimistic about life, has an extraordinary gift for hope, and is romantic in a way that no one else is. Gatsby is a classic example of a self-made. man. But he can also be understood to be a self-made man in a non-typical sense - he invented the glamorous persona of 'Jay Gatsby'. Born James Gatz, to shiftless and unsuccessful farm people in North Dakota it seemed that he virtually disowned his family.