s lack of intelligence and judgement of reality that leads him to his tragic death (Brewley 53). Gatsby’s long lost father attends his son’s funeral with great pride, commenting that “Jimmy always likes it better down East. He rose up to his position in the East” (Fitzgerald 176). This statement is viewed with great sadness due to the fact that, although Gatsby had collected a vast amount of wealth, in the end, he was left with nothing. It becomes evident, at the novel’s close, that “beneath the elaborate, albeit gaudy, elegance of Gatsby looms James Gatz, the original “roughneck” that Gatsby spends so much time trying to conceal” (Lehan, “Inventing Gatsby” 59). However, Gatsby is not the only character who tries to conceal his true identity. Daisy, the object of his desire, is also quite obscure. Throught out Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby the importance of outward appearances is ever present and continuosly deceptive. One can witness through the parties of “dazzling extravagance”(E.K. 7), the decieving underworld business of Gatsby, the “wasteland” Valley of Ashes (Miller 106), the unreal ,cold palaces of the East and West Egg, and most of all in the imaginary self-invented souls of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan the truth to the idea of outward appearances. Not only did these deceptive masks prove to be important but they were essential to the plot of the novel. The Great Gatsby ‘s success can be attributed to the twists and turns provided by the human need to judge one another and develop onesself through the use of outward appearances. ...
