Memoir of Gatsby
Me now the great James Gatz is an
image of an oxford man. I was brought here in America and educated at oxford
because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years; it’s a family
tradition. I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West but they are
all dead now. I am the Son of God—meaning I’m about my fathers business, the
service of a vast, vulgar, and meritorious beauty. I live in a mansion in the
west egg, right off the shore. I throw parties often with much food, people and
drinks except I don’t drink much. My daisy that I knew five years ago is now
married to some Tom Buchanan in a house in the east egg. My fantasy for daisy
is that she should go to tom and say, “ I never loved you”, then after she
obliterated three years with that sentence, we could decide upon the more
practical measures to be taken. One was that after she was free, we were to go
back to the house and I’ll be married from her house—just as if it were 5 years
ago.
The
real me—before Jay Gatsby—I was a clam digger and salmon fisher along the south
shore of lake superior. My parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people.
I never could really accept them as my parents. I was at the small hutheran college
of on southern Minnesota. I had to pay my way through by despising the
janitor’s work. Then I went back to lake superior where I was employed in a
vague personal capacity with Cody the product of the Nevada silverfeilds, of
the Yukon, of every rush for metal since seventy-five. I was in turn steward
and mate, skipper, secretary and even jailor, for Dan Cody might be soon about.
Cody bought me a blue coat, six pair of white duck trousers and a yachting cap.
When the toluemee left for a five years during which the boat went three times
around the continent. It might have lasted indefinitely except that Ella Kaye
came on board one night in Boston and a week later Cody died. And it was from
Cody that I inherited money a legacy of 25,000 dollars. I didn’t get it. I
never understood the legal device that was used against me but what remained of
the million went in fact to Ella Kaye. I would imagine the rock of the world
was found securely on a fairy swing. The reason I changed my name to jay Gatsby
when I was 17 was because I didn’t want people to know the real me. The clam
digger and salmon fisher. I lie about going to oxford because I want people to
see that I’m very educated. I lie about my family being wealthy because I don’t
want people to know that my parents were shiftless unsuccessful farm people—it
makes me look bad. The reason I have a mansion is to impress daisy if she ever
sees it. I live in the west egg because daisy lives across the water in the
east egg. And I could point out her house. I throw parties often and there are
many interesting people, delicious food and plenty of drinks. I do this for
publicity and so people will like me, but at my parties I don’t drink much due
to what happened to Cody. So the main reason I lie is to hide my past, which
will give me a good reputation, and make people like me. Hopefully daisy is one
of the most people I hope will like me, like in the past, about 5 years ago.