The Great Gatsby Essay
In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald there are many images of The American Dream. This dream exists mostly in Jay Gatsbys head. This idea consists of a perfect home, perfect life, and a beautiful wife. However, his dream is not complete. He is missing a major part of this equation. During the entire novel, Gatsby is in pursuit of the woman of his dreams, Daisy. Acquiring this dream isnt as easy as it seems, as Daisy is hard to capture.
In this novel Nick Carraway is a major character in that he affects Gatsbys view and acquisition of the American Dream.When Gatsby was young, he fell in love with Daisy, unfortunately things changed and Gatsby gained everything else. He eventually felt a major gap in his heart and his American Dream was incomplete. He still needed the girl. So Gatsby moved across the bay from Daisy and set out a line in the form of throwing parties, in hopes that she would eventually come. Nick Carraway, a cousin of Daisy, brought her to one of Gatsbys parties. Gatsby immediately figured this out and made his move. He got a hold of Nick and asked him to play matchmaker. Thus, their relationship was started again. However, this couple was destined to end in flames from the beginning.
In all of Gatsbys attempts at capturing Daisy (or at least the idea of Daisy) she always avoids him. While Gatsby is busy stumbling around and trying to woo and flirt with her, she seems to have something else on her mind. Daisy is not a reliable character, and one can never tell what is going through her head. She is shallow, selfish, and hurtful under her beauty and charm. In fact, Nick thinks of her as a balloon(35). As you can see, Daisy is not the smartest character in this novel. Daisy is called a low, vulgar girl (123) because she asked Nick if he would like a kiss. Its not surprising, however, that Gatsby is so attracted to her, because of her beauty and the relationship he had with her when they were young. It shows how shallow Gatsby is because he just thinks of her as an object that he needs to grasp in order to form his perfect world.
When Gatsby was young, he had nothing. He was forced to go to the army to get by. He happened to meet Daisy, who thought Gatsby was rich enough to support her. The only reason why she thought this incorrect thought was because she had slept around so much that she just generalized all of her men and guessed that they all had money. After Gatsby took Daisy, they fell in what they thought was love. They eventually went their separate ways. When Gatsby encountered Dan Cody, everything changed. He made a ton of money and worked for a long time. Gatsby had achieved the American Dream, or so it seemed.
The only object that Gatsby hadnt achieved yet was the girl of his dreams. This girl was Daisy. Gatsby decided to move near her. He moved across the bay from her and stared at the green light on the end of her dock. This light signifies everything Gatsby wants out of life. Once Gatsby achieves this light he will have achieved his dream. His plan to complete his circle of perfection is to throw gigantic parties in hopes that Daisy will show up to one. It would be much easier for Gatsby to just go up to her house and talk and bring up the past, but he is deathly scared that he will mess everything up. This technique allows him to lay back and let her come to him. When she finally arrives at his mansion, he uses her friends to get close to her. He immediately sends a butler who asks Jordan Baker, to speak to Gatsby alone(55). This shows that Gatsby is completely desperate while reserved. He knows exactly what to do to get what he wants.
He finally gets to the final stretch when he talks to Daisy and convinces her to come with him, however there is one final hurdle. Tom is Daisys current husband. Tom is neither a good nor truthful husband. He has a mistress named Myrtle. Although Daisy has all of this going on in her life, Gatsby wants her to denounce herself of ever loving Tom at all and go back to the past. This may seem possible to someone who doesnt know Daisy, however Daisy finds it hard to leave Tom. She cant possibly do what Gatsby asks her to do. She cant deny that she loved Tom. In fact, Daisy cant make a decision between either of them.
In the preface and notes that Matthew J. Bruccoli wrote, he says many interesting things about Gatsbys personality. Bruccoli notices that Gatsby is the American-self made, self invented man(xi). This means that Gatsby has built his dream life on his own. He had worked for it himself the entire time. Gatsby proves this time and time again when he uses his money for his benefit. It is quite apparent that Gatsby is a showoff. He tries to use his possessions to win over Daisy. At one point it works, Gatsby was giving Daisy a tour of his home and he showed her some shirts. She sobbed that Theyre such beautiful shirts(98). This is either an example of how Daisy feels about Gatsby or how clueless Daisy is. Gatsbys wealth is constantly criticized in this novel. At one point Tom criticizes Gatsbys car and calls it a circus wagon(xi). This shows what the other characters in this novel think of Gatsby and his money. They dont really care. I personally think that they are turned off by his money and they see that he is just showing off. Bruccoli notes a romantic readiness [he] had never found in any other person and which is likely [he] shall never find again.(xi) This means that Gatsby is apprehensive to fall in love again and fulfill his dream and circle of everything he desires.
Gatsby has a strange quality about him. He makes people respect him even thought he doesnt deserve it. All of the characters in this novel have a certain respect toward Gatsby. Nick says that he put down the idea of exploding those first wild rumors about the antecedents, which werent even faintly true(xii), because he respects Gatsby and all that he has achieved. Daisy respects Gatsby because of all of his money and his ability to love her so passionately. Tom respects Gatsby because of his money and his home. Tom is just as shallow as Gatsby.
Fitzgerald uses many types of figures of speech in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald especially likes to use personification. This type of figure of speech creates an eerie and dreadful tone to the entire novel. This is shown when, Gatsbys car lurched up the driveway (57). Fitzgerald also uses a lot of allusions. This gives the reader a sense that of realism. It makes the novel seem like real life and that it actually happened.
Overall, F. Scott Fitzgerald does a greatly expresses the theme of acquiring the American Dream. Gatsby spends his entire life attempting to fulfill all of his dreams. Who doesnt want everything to be perfect in their life? The only difference between this and reality is that Gatsby is attracted to a woman who carries a deadly price. In this novel, Gatsby is captivated by Daisy and he cant go on without her. This is his eventual downfall. In conclusion, Fitzgerald proves the point that not all of us will achieve our dream in life and that we shouldnt trust anything, because we never know what might happen.
Works Cited
1. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Simon and Schuster, 1925.
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