Dreams In Zora Neale Hurston's 'Their Eyes Were Watching God'

In Gatsby’s mission to attain wealth, power, and status he loses sight of his morals through his “dealings” with various shady people that are rumored to be lucrative and illegal. The extent of Gatsby’s criminal activities is confirmed by Tom Buchanan one hot summer night when Tom shares that Gatsby and “Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores…and sold grain alcohol over the counter,” (133) an illegal venture during prohibition. In addition to Gatsby’s business investments, his obsession with winning Daisy clouds his mind with thoughts of inspiring her to leave her husband and abandoned her child. Nick believes Gatsby would “want nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you,’” (109) and prove her marriage was a sham.

She was a girl with wealth, connections and means—everything a seventeen-year-old boy could aspire to one day attain. It is this illusion that Gatsby falls in love with, not Daisy, and he dedicates his life to become a man that could parallel Daisy in both social status and wealth. “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.” (98) Though Gatsby appears to be blinded by material possession and unethical in his means to acquire it, Fitzgerald sets him up to be the hero of the novel by contrasting his virtue to the sea of corruptness and material greed that made up the ambitions of most young folks in the 1920s. True, he made his money through illegal means, but his incredible sense of loyalty is striking against the dishonest, scheming American society. In the novel, it is clear that Gatsby is unfailingly loyal to everyone he loves, from his father to Dan Cody to Daisy, who he dedicated “five years of unwavering devotion” (109) to, even if they were not loyal to him in return.

From the first sentences of the beginning of the novel we are lead to learn about the dreams of men. Starting with those first few paragraphs meant the audience needed to keep a look out for Janie’s dream. From the first moment we see her with the pear tree Janie’s dream seems obvious. Her dream is to find out what true love is. Using Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Edwidge Danticat’s foreword, and my own annotations Janie’s dream will be explored.

N=Necessary Information: In “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carroway, the narrator, has recently moved from the midwest to start his career in New York. He lives on the island of West Egg, next door to a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby. Nick becomes friends with him and learns that Gatsby is in love with his cousin Daisy. They never married because Gatsby had to go off into the military and he was not rich enough for her, so when Gatsby was shipped overseas, Daisy married another man named Tom Buchanan. When Gatsby returns from his service and discovers this, he begins bootlegging to make enough money to try to impress her and win her over. After Gatsby uses Nick to

In another instance, Nick Carraway relates the obsessive behavior of Jay Gatsby towards Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby has achieved substantial monetary success and prominent social status, but his life, in his eyes, is incomplete. He believes that Daisy is the only person who can bring him total fulfillment. In effect, Gatsby’ s desire for Daisy had become an

The rekindling of this epic “love” tale begins when Gatsby buys a house directly across the bay from Daisy, her husband, and child. They do not know it yet, but Jay certainly does. Every night he walks outside and stares through the fog at the green light on Daisy’s dock. Some would consider these gestures endearing and romantic, but with all of that left aside it still seems as if he is stalking her. He is always searching for her everywhere he goes and is intrigued by the mentioning of her name. She is married to Tom Buchanan, a descent from old money, and is living quite lavishly. She hardly remembers Gatsby even exists until Jordan Baker mentions him at dinner. When Daisy hears Jay’s name a sudden bolt goes through her and she flooded with memories of the past. Everyone at dinner can see how this has affected her, including her husband. Nick, who is unaware of the situation, is surprised at what he has seen.

Gatsby had no home and no money for food, so, he would try to get any job he could find so he had food and somewhere to sleep for the day. Gatsby was also an emotional wreck to a point that it would haunt him in his sleep. After, when the two met, Gatsby’s world changed in front of his eyes, “To young Gatz, resting his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world…At any rate Cody asked him a few questions and found that he was quick, and extravagantly ambitious”(Fitzgerald 106). At this moment, a new world flash in Gatsby’s eyes and showed him the world of the rich. After the five years with Dan Cody, Gatsby became a new man with riches and this began his journey of his personal ambition of the American Dream.

Following the war, Gatsby attempted to receive an education by studying at Oxford. From this point on, Gatsby dedicates him self to gain the love of Daisy back. He did this by acquiring millions of dollars, a gaudy mansion in West Egg, and his extravagant parties. As the group of friends, Nick Caraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Jordan Baker, travel into the city, Gatsby and Daisy make their love for each other obvious. Daisy and Gatsby ride in a car, separate from the group, to the city. Gatsby has the belief that Daisy is truly in love with him, and not with her husband. Upon arrival to the hotel, the group began sitting and conversing, when Gatsby tells Tom, “She never loved you.” This is referring to Daisy and Tom’s marriage. This is where a heated dispute begins and Daisy finally explains to Gatsby that, “Rich girls don’t marry poor boys.”

The theme at the heart of the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F Scott Fitzgerald lies in the doomed relationship between the protagonist, Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. Narrated by Nick Carraway, the friend of Gatsby’s whom Gatsby finally confides in at the most tragic moment of his life, the story unfolds against the backdrop of the roaring 20’s.

“In his blue gardens men and women came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (Fitzgerald 39). In his character, his relationships, and his gatherings, Jay Gatsby epitomized the illusion of a perfect romance. When Gatsby and Daisy met in 1917, he was searching for money, but ended up profoundly falling in love with her. “[H]e set out for gold and stumbled upon a dream” (Ornstein 37). Only a few weeks after meeting one another, Gatsby had to leave for war, which led to a separation between the two for nearly five years. As “war-torn lovers” Gatsby and Daisy reach the quintessential ideal of archetypical romance. When Gatsby returned from the war, his goal was to rekindle the relationship he once had with Daisy. In order to do this, he believed he would have to work hard to gain new wealth and a new persona. “Jay Gatsby loses his life even though he makes his millions because they are not the kind of safe, respectable money that echoes in Daisy’s lovely voice” (Ornstein 36). Gatsby then meets Daisy’s cousin, Nick Carraway, who helps to reunite the pair. Finally being brought together after years of separation, Gatsby stops throwing the extravagant parties at his home, and “to preserve [Daisy’s] reputation, [he] empties his mansion of lights and servants” (Ornstein 37). Subsequent to their reconciliation, Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, begins to reveal sordid information about Gatsby’s career which causes Daisy to

Jay Gatsby, while wildly successful in achieving wealth, does not achieve his personal Dream. Gatsby’s bigger goal is to gain respect from the community and reunite with the woman he loved - Daisy. Throughout the novel, Gatsby flaunts his wealth as an attempt to attract Daisy. When Gatsby and Nick are alone at the Buchanan’s house, both agree that Daisy’s voice “was full of money, that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it”, even describing her as a “king’s daughter, the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 65). The imagery and comparison of Daisy to a rich princess living in a white palace reveals how Gatsby views Daisy and places into context the motives behind his wealth based actions. Gatsby believes that Daisy married Tom in pursuit of wealth, and carrying that belief, he utilizes his own wealth in an attempt to win over Daisy. Not only does this show how important Daisy is to Gatsby,

Like Jane, Jay Gatsby lacks the equality needed to rekindle a relationship with the love of his life. However, unlike Jane, Gatsby is already rich and is longing for a true identity with which he can become a prominent figure in society. Gatsby was a Lieutenant stationed at the base near Daisy's home when they started dating and fell in love. Gatsby lied to Daisy and "let her believe that he was a person from much the same strata as herself" (Fitzgerald 156). He told her that he was a wealthy and prestigious man who can take care of her. Gatsby was soon called off to the war and Daisy promised to wait for him. She ends up marrying Tom Buchanan who has a solid social position and the approval of her parents. Since then, Daisy has moved on with her life with Tom in East Egg, but Gatsby's obsession with her has only grown. Nick learns of Gatsby's fixation when Jordan tells him that "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay" (Fitzgerald 83). His fixation with her has caused him to completely change his life to try to be near her. Like Jane Eyre, Gatsby longs for a position of equality with his loved one. When Gatsby was young, he worked on a yacht owned by a wealthy man named Dan Cody. Gatsby immediately fell in love with wealth and luxury, and when Cody died, he

The character Jay Gatsby the argument that money cannot buy bliss. Mr. Gatsby as a very wealthy young man. Gatsby has a massive amount of fortune that he could by anything that he pleased except for one thing in particular, happiness. With this money Gatsby tries win the back the heart of an old lover, Daisy Buchanan. Daisy Buchanan was related to Nick Carraway, who just happened to be neighbors with Gatsby. Jordan, who was a dear friend of Daisy and Nick’s, was talking to Nick about Gatsby lifelong dream she proclaimed, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78). Gatsby bought his large luxurious mansion that was located right in front of Daisy in search for her attention. Gatsby had bought that very immense and expensive mansion just to be close

Firstly, Gatsby 's ambitious tendencies fuel him to pursue his past and now married lover, Daisy Buchannan. Gatsby is very persistent and hustles to make money whether legal or illegal in order to live the American Dream and to be viewed by his peers as a success. For instance, even during his youth, Gatsby had realized his aspirations and as a result refused to succumb to poverty. As Nick Carraway provides insight of the information which was forwarded to him, he grasps knowledge of his new friend, ‘James Gatz 's’ true and humble beginnings. "I suppose he 'd had the name ready for a long time, even then his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people - his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all " (Fitzgerald, 98). Nick explains Gatsby 's true, humble beginnings

In this movie Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate, hesitates to continue his career as a writer and instead begins to study bonds (finance), as it is becoming a thriving industry. Nick rents a small house on West Egg where he becomes a neighbor to the wealthy Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a mysterious man who lives in the mansion next-door and throws extravagant parties every weekend, one that Nick gets an invitation too. Nick happens to be cousins with a married lady names Daisy Buchanan, whom Gatsby once met and still loves 5 years later. After getting to know Gatsby, Nick is told to invite Daisy over for tea in order for Gatsby to show up and rekindle the relationship. The plan works and even though Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan and has a daughter named Pammy, she pursues this relationship. At the time, Tom Buchanan was cheating on Daisy with a woman named Myrtle, but when he heard that his wife Daisy loved another man, he got furious. One day Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, Nick, and a woman named Jordan go to town by taking a car that the other owns. Tom, in Gatsby’s custom yellow automobile,