What are the specific things that a character has to make them unique in a novel? Is it their personality or there actions? Thoreau says, "The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals." However, he also says, "What a man thinks of himself that is what determines, or rather indicates his fate." Jay Gatsby, a character created by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the novel The Great Gatsby, is a character whose "personality determines his fate" or future and to talk of his personality will "bankrupt the universe" because he is a debatable character. .
"What a man thinks of himself that is what determines, or rather indicates his fate," (Thoreau). In other words, how ever a man acts or how ever he thinks fate will reward him for his amiable deeds and fate will punish him for his wrong deeds. A great scholar once said, "action pertaining to the development of the material bodies of the living entities is called karma, or fruitive activities," (Srila Prabhupada, Bhagavad Gita As It Is). Fruitive activities are ones actions that have an impact on ones life. Karma is an action's reaction that occurs. For example if a man eats three large hamburgers, three large french fries, and two large drinks of coke, he will end up having a stomach ache due eating so much. That is what Thoreau is also saying in his quote. If one does an action, a reaction will happen. Jay Gatsby is a man who has gone through the cycle of karma continuously. He started to deal in drugs and have an illegal business and gain lots of money. However as a result he never gained his love that he gained all the money for. For example, Gatsby says in the beginning of wanting or loving Daisy, " bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay,"(83). Gatsby tried to do whatever he could to be near Daisy and be able to gain her love. However in the end when Gatsby asks her to choose between Gatsby and her husband, she chooses her husband.