Explain what each character helped you to understand about illusion in the novel

Throughout the novel the idea of illusion is shown through the three main characters: Daisy, Gatsby and Nick.  Daisy is associated with the idea of  illusion through the colour white. White is a pure shade ( not colour ) that represents innocence, peace purity and class. “Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red−and−white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay.” This quote is great because it describes not only Daisy’s house but the quote incorporates the colour white. Dais represents the colour white because she likes to think of her self as pure, innocent, wealthy and real. Whereas she is the absolute opposite. Daisy isn’t pure, there are many more people just like her for example Jordan. She is also not innocent because she isn’t a fool, she sees how the world is but refuses to believe so that is why she says:”I’m glad it’s a girl.And I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” Another reasons why Daisy portrays the idea of white is because white also means that she is see through, fake, bland and has no real love or connections. Just like Gatsby, Daisy doesn’t have any true friends or love. Everything she owns and does is based on materialism, it is all based around being rich and keeping up withe the social class and constantly being the best. Overall Daisy helped me understand that everything she does is also to build onto the illusion of her being the best, pure and innocent. She made me realise that there is more to someone that what there seems to be and that colours can often represent more than to what we think. Gatsby shows illusion through out the whole book although the reader doesn’t actually realise till he puts the first crack in his story. Gatsby is a living, breathing, walking, illusion. His while life is based around Daisy and the fact that one day they will both be happy and together. In reality they will never be together, this is because Gatsby isn’t rich, he isn’t actually ‘gold’ he doesn’t have any true relationships ( apart from Nick who is his only true friend). Everything that Gatsby does is rehearsed, his story is so well rehearsed that he gets it exact every time, there are no holes in his plot. But that is until he meets Nick and reunites with Daisy again. Gatsby has all of these materialistic things such as the library. “See!” he cried triumphantly. “It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too – didn’t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?” This quote mean so much more than what it seems. Firstly this is because the reference to Belasco describes Gatsby’s life. David Belasco was a man that set up scenes with props, he was a playwrighter and theatrical producer. This relates to Gatsby because he has being setting up his life ( arranging the props) to make everyone believe that he is a wealthy well known, loved man that comes from ‘old money’. Whereas the truth is he is nothing like that. The second part of the quote where Owl-eyes talks about the books being uncut describes Gatsby himself and of course his ‘fake’ life. Back in those days people used to get their books uncut and would have to cut the books themselves before reading, meaning that if the book is uncut it has not yet being read. Gatsby’s uncut books represent that a lot of what he presents to the world is a facade. He wants people to believe that he is a well-educated man, an Oxford man, but in fact he only spent a short time there after the war. He wants people to think that he is well-read, but he is never even cracked the covers. He has built up this  image of himself that is not  consistent with the facts of his life. But the unopened, unread books represent Gatsby himself: mysterious, undeveloped, closed up and unopened. The third and final main character Nick shows the reader illusion through out the whole book. At the start of the book Nick shares with the reader some advice that his father gave to him in his “younger more vulnerable years”. Nick’s father told him this:“Whenever you feel like criticising any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” This quote is almost stating that we should trust Nick’s judgment. Whilst he comes of as thoughtful and caring we also get a senses of he is judgmental and odd. This advice that nick’s father gives him almost seems like it is a ‘dig’ at him, because it makes him sound like he is always  judging people’s behaviours and action without considering their circumstances or context. This tells us that one of his main weaknesses is judging people, and considering that the book is told through his eyes this is a believable statement. Just like all the other characters, Nick also potrays his desired image and shows people that he is actually judgemental. Gatsby shows us hie life is actually like a well planned scene with props. Whilst Daisy shows the readers that she is actually bland and bases he life around materialism and wealth.

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