Most readers develop sympathy and understanding for Gatsby because Fitzgerald makes Gatsby a sympathetic character through Nick's view of the events surrounding Gatsby's life and death. In the beginning of the novel, we are told through Nick's narration that Gatsby will be the one person in his story who did not earn Nick's contempt:
No--Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.
The word "preyed" suggests that Nick views Gatsby as having been a victim, and therefore worthy of sympathy.
It is Gatsby's "colossal dream" and his faithfulness to it that earns Nick's respect. Gatsby commits crimes, that is true, but if motivation has merit, his purpose, at least, was not contemptible. Gatsby builds a fortune to bring love back into his life and to literally repeat the past. Gatsby is "great" not because he acquires wealth and all its trappings, but because he remains absolutely faithful to his love for Daisy and his dream of having her love him, too, once again. Gatsby's innocent romanticism makes him appealing because it makes him absolutely vulnerable to those who are, ironically, far less honest than he. When contrasted with the deceit, selfishness, and amorality of the Buchanans, Gatsby gains our sympathy, just as he gained Nick's.
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