Im going to try to tackle The Great Gatsby--or rather, one aspect of it--using the psychological approach. Upon my first reading of the novel, I constantly asked myself whether Nick and Jay were the same person or not. They never seemed to physically touch, or be seen out in public at the same time with each other. Also, the scene in which Jay is coming over to Nick's house for the first time to see Daisy, he was hidden in a closet or something, while Nick was occupying Daisy..then Nick disappears when Jay finally comes out to speak to Daisy. This is one of many times, mind you that this happens. Even in the movie--which to be honest I only remember pieces of--has times where only one of them is being addressed or noticed when they are "together". This leads me to believe that one of the characters is nonexistent. I vote Jay. His background and status are highly questionable and farcical, at least in my opinion. He seems almost to be an imaginary figure--a confident (for the most part), mysterious fellow who possesses Nick's dream qualities. I think the movie hits on something very interesting portraying Fitzgerald himself as a man who pours quite a bit of himself into the character, Nick. I say this because after doing a little reading, I found that Fitzgerald's first love, Zelda--who he fell head over heels for--initially broke off their engagement as he was financially unstable and couldn't support her. That said, I think he bleeds into Nick's subconscious desire to be well-off--as "Jay" is. As I said prior though, it has been a while since I"ve read the novel and I only remember fragments of the movie, so I may be way off the mark--so please feel free to point any holes in my argument and let me know if you also assumed Nick and Jay were the same person. Thanks.