Why is Gatsby Great?

If you're lazy and have a few insight about why, read the sparknotes (google sparknotes and TGG).

Great book I think.

He's great cause he he looks like Robert Redford

Have to reply to this.

Gatsby is great because he represents the epitome of delusion. That is to say, for Nick, our unreliable narrator, he represents the epitome of those men who would go out there and commit a thousand crimes, a thousand morally culpable acts and still manage to convince themselves that their cause is worthy, romantic, worth dying for: The American Dream.

He is the Great American of the So-called dream. The McDonalds or burger king: rabid wasters and capitalists, oppressors, criminals, who convince themselves that they are doing what they have to do to pursue their dream. As he says, "that's no matter." The romance of the dream is what is interesting, not the morality of the dream itself. BTW An immoral fool like Nick Carraway is incapable of writing moralistically, so as to give us a moral perspective.

Also, on this romantic theme, note. Gatsby's actual story was more interesting and romantic than the stories he told of his rise to prominence. More evidence of the romance inherent in the dream of the Great Gatsby.

The title, while possibly ironic, was also was a working title, I just recently had to read to book for an english class, and I read the notes about it in the back of the book. The notes stated that Fitzgerald was not exactly stisfied with the tile yet he didn't get the chance to change it and it isn't an option to change it now because it is the name of a classic.

But my opinion (i just had to add this ) was that he was a great guy. He just tried to hard to live in the past and based on feelings from the past ended up chasing a dream that turned out to not be worth it,which ultimatley distrroyed him. He fate could have been better had he not got caught up in the decadence of society in an attempt to get what he wanted.

The title is being facetious. The "great" Gatsby is supposed to be mocking famous Vaudeville acts and circus performances, such as "The Great Houdini!"

And many of you obviously read the book on a shallow level if you honestly think Gatsby is an idiot or superficial.

I like my sugar with coffee and cream.

[deleted]

Read the book. It's amazing what literature can do for a mind.

And also- read the Harry Potter books. It's Weasley.

Jay Gatsby was great because he did it all for love. Nick says (I'm paraphrasing here) 'he had the greatest capacity for hope then anyone I've ever seen'. He was the ultimate romantic.
Remember, Nick is the narrator. For the purpose of this discussion, he 'wrote' the book. And he considered Gatsby to be great, despite the fact that Gatsby represented everything Nick didn't like, materialism and whatnot, because Gatsby did it all, everything, out of his love for Daisy.