Examples Of Daisy Selfish In The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby manipulates other characters. Gatsby fails to love Daisy Buchanan; instead, he “seems committed to an idea of Daisy that he has created rather than to the real woman she is” (Hermanson 1). This idea of Daisy represents the American dream. Flaunting his money, Gatsby attempts to seduce the idea of Daisy rather than Daisy herself. Therefore, Gatsby deceives Daisy.

Gatsby's strategies of winning back Daisy's heart are to show off his wealth and social status such as connecting himself with "Oxford"; living in a luxurious "mansion"(Pg 5), throwing lavish parties, dressed in nice expensive clothing; he even has "men in England who buy him clothes and sends him a selection"(Pg 92). Gatsby believes that with his money and material success he could buy anything in life including true love and happiness. Because of his obsession to obtain Daisy's love, he betrays his honesty and morality. With no other purposes in life, Gatsby ends up engaging in illegal activities. Therefore, it is very ironical that sometimes in life, good idealistic goal, somehow, is achieved by immoral and illegal means. This is the reason for the failure of the American Dream, and the tragedy of Gatsby.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby was born into a life of poverty and as he grew up he became more aware of the possibility of a better life. He created fantasies that he was too good for his modest life and that his parents weren’t his own. When he met Daisy, a pretty upper class girl, his life revolved around her and he became obsessed with her carefree lifestyle. Gatsby’s desire to become good enough for Daisy and her parents is what motivates him to become a wealthy, immoral person who is perceived as being sophisticated.

Selfishness is a disease of the soul that every person experiences several times throughout their life. To say that selfishness has never been experienced would be hypocrisy. To say that selfishness is a beneficial trait would be erroneous. Although as humans we lie to ourselves, there is no question that selfishness can make any person a fool. Being selfish consumes us and changes us into someone we are not. Whether it leads to getting people killed, losing love, or abolishing families, selfishness always leads to destruction.

Gatsby's love for Daisy blinds him from perceiving her corruption, therefore causing him to fall in love with an idea. Daisy Buchanan is a rich young woman who has lived her

Regarding Gatsby, it is his lack of emotional satisfaction that shapes his obsession and greed toward Daisy. Gatsby’s goal is to regain his former romantic relationship he shares with Daisy, as he truly believes that it is possible to repeat the past (Fitzgerald 110). In fact, during the last five years, he builds himself a facade through illegal means to impress Daisy. Nevertheless, his greed for the exclusivity of Daisy backfires. Daisy says that “ ‘[he] [wants] too much!’... ‘[she] [loves] [him] now--- isn’t that enough?’ ” (132). When Gatsby asks Daisy to affirm that she only loves him, she could not confirm the statement truthfully, thus reducing Gatsby’s efforts throughout the years to naught. Gatsby’s commitment for Daisy’s affection is the very cause of Daisy’s rejection.

Jay’s longing for Daisy is a quite apparent internal call to adventure. He longs for the love and happiness he once had. Gatsby isn’t content; something is missing in his life. He feels that what is absent, Daisy, has been taken from him, and he is determined to get her back. This empty feeling harasses him everyday. Eventually, he decides he must act to attain his goal, which is his call to adventure that

“He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you’ ” (Fitzgerald Chapter 6). This is when it is very clear what Gatsby is trying to accomplish, his goal is to get Daisy to abolish all the experiences she’s had with Tom. Gatsby wants Daisy to follow his ideals and to try and spark their past together. Although Daisy is stuck between choosing Tom and Gatsby, she realizes that the past cannot be relieved, because she has experienced too much with Tom, and that Tom also has a major influence in her

Early in the book, the character Jay Gatsby, is introduced as a dreamer who is gracious, charming, and a bit mysterious. As the novel progresses we also learn that Gatsby is a self-made man who achieved the American Dream of rising up from the lower classes to the top of society. But to Gatsby, the desire for Daisy and love proves more powerful than money. Something that shows his obsession of her, is this example.

Initially, Gatsby stirs up sympathetic feelings because of his obsession with wealth. Ever since meeting Dan Cody, his fascination for wealth has increased dramatically. He even uses illegal unmoral methods to obtain hefty amounts of wealth to spend on buying a house with “ Marie Antoinette music-rooms, Restoration Salons, dressing rooms and poolrooms, and bath rooms with sunken baths.”

Why does Jay Gatsby pursue Daisy Buchanan with incomparable persistence? One might say it’s because Daisy is beautiful. It could be because Daisy’s from Louisville and Gatsby has a thing for Kentuckian girls. Maybe it’s because Daisy drives a nice car. Gatsby could just love girls named after flowers. Though there are countless reasons Gatsby could pursue Daisy, the reason Gatsby endlessly chases Daisy is because she represents everything he hopes to achieve. She has wealth and is an upper class citizen. Gatsby believes she is the key to his own wealth and success in life. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald suggests that Gatsby ties his dreams and visions of success to Daisy. This is seen in the novel’s play on religious ideals and Gatsby’s idealization of Daisy.

To begin with, Gatsby’s desire to rekindle the flame between his dearest Daisy and himself causes a series of awful decisions to arise. For instance, after Mr. Carraway attends the grand party that Jay Gatsby was throwing, it comes to his attention the reason why the affluent man was living in West Egg instead of the elite East Egg. That reason being that“Gatsby bought [the] house so that Daisy would

Nobody can disagree that the romance between Gatsby and Daisy was, at one time, extremely real and very passionate. In fact, just look at this quote from when Daisy rekindled her relationship with Gatsby, "They were sitting at either end of the couch, looking at each other as if some question had been asked, or was in the air, and every vestige of embarrassment was gone. Daisy’s face was smeared with tears, and when I came in she jumped up and began wiping at it with her handkerchief before a mirror. But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room." This is one of the lighter, more positive moments in the story, for this surprise reunion started

All Jay Gatsby thinks he has left to do in his life is to win back his one true love, Daisy. He knows that the only way he can achieve this goal is to make more money than Tom, Daisy’s husband. “What Gatsby buys, he buys for a purpose: to win Daisy”

The transformation between James Gatz and Jay Gatsby is an example of how people can transform themselves according to their ambition for wealth and prosperity. The use of illegal activities to gain Gatsby's wealth is alluded to in the book, this shows the extent of how the American Dream circumvented the moral revulsion and pushed people who were crazy about money into crime - driving the moral standing of wealthier citizens into the ground. To Gatsby, his dream was symbolised by Daisy, Gatsby even says that her voice sounds like money, a direct correlation between Daisy and the wealth and happiness that Gatsby would supposedly enjoy if only he could have married Daisy but could still enjoy if he had married her five years later. His pursuit of happiness with Daisy was the ultimate cause of the degradation of Gatsby's morals and realistic dreams. This is because he held an unrealistic view of life and how he could recreate the past. His dreams had distorted reality to the point where when his rationality realised that the image of life and of Daisy did not coincide with the real life version his mind did not grasp that perhaps the dream had receded to the point of no return, consequently his dreams helped to