If Gatsby manifests his future and his past to pave the way to his future, does he follow the tenants of the American dream? Perplexed by Fitzgerald's purpose behind Gatsby's ambiguity, literary analyst Adam Meehan comments, "Either his parents were actually 'feckless, failed farmers' whom he never truly accepted, or he invented the tale and, in so doing , refuses to accept anyone they actually wanted." were” (Meehan 79). On the other hand, Meehan fails to recognize the poetic justice behind Gatsby's character. Thanks to Gatsby's lack of ethnic heritage or racial association, his character can embody the qualities of anyone. Fitzgerald, therefore, comments that people have ultimate control over how they perceive themselves. Because Gatsby does not consider himself a “northern” or a “farmer,” he gets closer to the future he wanted for himself without the barriers of an ethnic identity stopping him.