The Great Gatsby: Secrecy

"James Gatz- that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the beginning of his career- when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor over the most insiduous flat on Lake Superior." (page 104)

Secrets, secrets are no fun. Secrets, secrets hurt someone. Ain't that the truth for this novel. Sheesh. I seriously wanted to make that my quote to start off this blog, but I knew that I had to stick to the novel. This entire book is centered around secrecy, which leads up to the deceit and the betrayal of all the characters. Let me get this straight: Gatsby's secret is that he used to be poor and that his real name is James Gatz. He goes by a different name in order to live as a different person. To me, it almost seems as if he is living a double life, like Hannah Montana or something. His separate identity allows him to be who he wants to be. Actually, this reminds me of The Devil in the White City. The main character in The Devil in the White City creates a separate identity for himself so that others will never know who he really is. I will post a trailer at the bottom of this blog to showcase more similarities between Gatsby and Holmes. Furthermore, secrecy might tear the characters apart in this book, but secrecy ties their storylines together. Daisy's secret is that she is in love with Gatsby. She also held a secret from Gatsby that she was engaged to Tom when Gatsby was off at war. That's confusing. Tom's secret is that he is having an affair with Myrtle. Holy cow! Everyone has secrets here! I guess, in real life, this holds true as well. I just love the irony of it all, though. On the outside, everyone is put-together, nice, young, and wealthy people. On the inside, they all feel desperate for love and want to be happy. Their material things don't make them happy, so they turn to other things. Every character in this book just keeps wanting more and more, and this greed leads them to selfish lives submersed in secrecy.