Americans love Gatsby. We love the idea of a mystery man from nowhere. We want to believe, like Gatsby, that we can invent a persona to fit into our culture.
Gatsby is a story about the lengths we will go to because of shame. Gatsby’s great secret is that there is no Gatsby. An impoverished teenage boy, ashamed of his upbringing and family, invented the character of Jay Gatsby. He then spent his life lying, cheating and stealing to create Gatsby.
Churches often force people to do the same.
Tweets