How Does Daisy Reward Gatsby's Life

By implying that Gatsby would have to steal a ring for Daisy, Tom displays his view that Gatsby is significantly lower than himself. In the end, Daisy chooses to stay with Tom and through assembling the pieces that Fitzgerald provided his readers with, we can infer that it was largely due to Tom’s ‘top of the pyramid’ social status. While both Gatsby and Tom were very wealthy, Tom’s money was the more fashionable ‘old money’ and Gatsby’s was ‘new money’. Even more, Gatsby’s money was acquired through less than respectable ways. Tom informs us “’I picked [Gatsby] for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong’” (133). Instead of joining Gatsby, with whom she would possibly be happier with, Daisy decides to stay with Tom and continue to reside at the top of the social pyramid.

Gatsby is then reminded of his low status when Daisy’s mother“…had found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say goodbye to a soldier who was going overseas. She was effectually prevented, but she wasn’t on speaking terms with her family for several weeks.” (75) From that moment Gatsby becomes motivated to become one of the wealthy elite in order to win Daisy and her family.

The narrator Nick goes into detail about the history and the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. Gatsby and Daisy meet while Gatsby is in the army, Daisy growing up wealthy and Gatsby a poor young man has no right being with her, Gatsby gives Daisy a sense of security and they have a short relationship. One night when they are together they kiss and Fitzgerald writes, “She had caught a cold, and it made her voice huskier and more charming than ever, and Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor” (Fitzgerald 150). While poor people are struggling in life, Fitzgerald refers Daisy to money. Throughout Daisy’s life she doesn't experience, struggles and instead lives a life with money that gives her anything she wants. Gatsby on the other hand is poor and sees what money gives you, Gatsby sees that money puts someone above people like him. In reality Daisy isn't living a life she appears to be, she is using men in the army to fill her void of loneliness, if she doesn't have money the men wouldn't all be in love with her. She puts herself as a prized possession for them to have because she has money. Daisy at a young age, and when she gets older uses her money to assert herself over others.

Gatsby has everything that he could wish for, except of love. Gatsby tried everything he could to achieve Daisy, but failed to do so. Gatsby always thought that Daisy actually loved him and that he was very close to achieving her. One time Gatsby showed Daisy all of his luxuries in the house. Daisy was impressed by how rich and wealthy Gatsby has become as time passed. Daisy says “never seen so many shirts like these” (87). This quote shows how Daisy likes materialistic things. Gatsby worked hard on his dream unlike Tom. Tom Buchanan who is the husband of Daisy has no purpose and goal in his life except his affair with Myrtle. He never really loved Daisy. On the other hand when Gatsby showed all of his English shirts Daisy begins to cry and they plan their future plans of meeting each other. We can see how Daisy is attracted to Gatsby simply because of his wealth. She loves Gatsby but she loves his money more then she actually loves him. This goes to show how people’s mentality worked in the 1920’s. Daisy, Gatsby, and all other characters live a very superficial life. Gatsby wants to achieve Daisy by the means of fortune and how Daisy is attracted to Gatsby because of his wealth.

As readers can see, Gatsby has his own set of unique characteristics differing from these of Tom. Gatsby is a passionate and kind person. He lives in West Egg, which contains people who have new money. He came from a poor family, "his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 104). He struggled with obtaining enough money to make it through college. He is a loyal and good-hearted man who loves Daisy and strives for her true love. He is willing to do whatever it takes to win her love. Her love becomes one of the prime reasons he desires to be rich. However, Daisy cares solely about net-wealth and therefore, chooses Tom. Throughout the novel, Gatsby shows how he is a romantic dreamer by always dreaming of Daisy truly falling for him. His unrealistic approach to life causes him to be often disappointed. He believes that he actually might be able to win her love when he really has no chance with her.

James Gatz being born poor with unsuccessful parents had always dreamt of being rich, creating a persona to fit the ambitions he wished to reach. This persona, Jay Gatsby is everything Gatsby wanted to be, a wealthy, unbound, and powerful person. He never really accepted his parents believing they “were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people,” and that “his imagination never really accepted them.”(Fitzgerald 95) Gatsby rejects the classism in society and uses his persona as a drive to change his life to something more fulfilling, and a place where he can be together with Daisy. This wealth Gatsby desperately wants leads him to his own demise, losing any other ambitions he had, only focusing on his desire for Daisy. The moment Gatsby remembers of Daisy is when “she vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life… leaving Gatsby overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery,” that “Daisy proud above the hot struggle of the poor” (Fitzgerald 142) The senseless that comes with money is shown how Gatsby once gaining the wealth loses his mind into Daisy, making the second premise more evident in Gatsby as his desire not be alone drives him to the stage to attempt to take Daisy away from Tom. Nevertheless classism in society at that time played a big role in Daisy’s choice to be with Tom, as he truly is rich and has a secure wealth, unlike Gatsby born poor, and not truly rich, with an unsecure income. Overall Gatsby wasted all this time and money into getting Daisy back, following his desires which soon lead him to his death rather than choosing to use his money to do something else he imagined in his

Gatsby does not realize that Daisy also represents the corruption that comes along with wealth. "Her voice is full of money, he suddenly said. That was it. I'd never understood it before. It was full of money--that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it. . . . High in a white Palace the King's daughter, the golden girl" (127). Gatsby becomes obsessed with Daisy and her voice that promised riches, but he does not realize that money was the only thing she offered. After listening to Tom, Nick describes Daisy and Tom as careless people who "smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (188). Daisy lets Gatsby take the blame for Myrtle’s death and shows no concern over Gatsby’s death showing her carelessness with people’s lives. Tom and Daisy’s actions indicate the corrupting effects that wealth can have on someone. They focus too much on appearance and materialism and ignore other people’s feelings and lives.

It’s a common misconception that money is equal to happiness, and Daisy is a sad, bored woman, afraid of the future. She is selfish and self centered, caring so much for the wealth that she believes will make her happy that in Chapter 7 her voice is said to be “full of money” (pg #). All the worse, when she kills Myrtle, she feels no remorse whatsoever, as she is incapable of caring for anyone but herself. Gatsby cannot see any of her bad qualities. He simply sees a beautiful young woman that he thinks he deserves. In chapter 8, Nick says that “It excited [Gatsby], too, that many men had already loved Daisy - it increased her value in his eyes.”(pg#). Gatsby is blinded by his desire for Daisy, fueled by the wants of other men, that he sees nothing bad about her. Daisy loved Tom and Gatsby equally and for the same reason: Their wealth. With Gatsby dead Daisy returns to Tom not even shaken by his death, and just as nick says they would do, they retreat from the chaos they cause into their money when they move away.

When Gatsby first met Daisy, he was merely a poor boy with dreams much bigger than his wallet. Daisy was everything he could have possibly dreamed of: rich, beautiful and powerful. As his love for her grew, so did his ambition to give her whatever he could. When Gatsby acquired a lot of money by a chance encounter with a sailor, his first thought was of his heart. He had left it with Daisy. But, as seen in the book, love that is given yet not returned is poisonous. Although Daisy loved Gatsby, she was too obsessed with the American Dream to ever truly give him her heart. No matter how much Gatsby tried, part of Daisy would always belong to Tom and to

A theme from Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, is that money cannot buy a person happiness. This theme applies to Gatsby himself. Gatsby spends about half of his life trying to satisfy Daisy. He obtained an enormous amount of wealth and threw house parties for five straight years. He did this to show off his wealth and to see if Daisy would attend one of his house parties. Daisy is married to Tom and has a child named Pammy. She has feelings for Gatsby but, she eventually stays married to Tom. Throughout the book, Gatsby has an obsession with Daisy that he cannot get over. Nick says that, “He [Gatsby] knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realize just how extraordinary a “nice” girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, in

Class and worth are strong themes in the novel, and they are ultimately what keep Gatsby and Daisy apart. To Tom, Daisy is worth $350,000 in pearls (around $4.7 million in today’s money). To Gatsby, she’s worth a whole lot more than that, but he, too, expects on a very basic level that her affection can be bought. They sure don’t grow ‘em like Daisy Fay in the North Dakota of James Gatz’s youth. And so the economics of supply and demand mean that a woman like Daisy—with her fine looks and breeding and her family wealth—can command quite a stratospheric price indeed.

Gatsby’s pursuit for his past relationship becomes selfish in his attempt to make Daisy notice him, specifically his wealth. While Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby considering his deprivation of wealth, he remains judgmental when he assumes Daisy “only married [Tom] because [he] was poor and she was tired of waiting for [him]...she never loved any on except [Gatsby]” (130).Quickly, he presumes she solely decided on wealth to marry Tom, a simple alternative. Bringing up the past generates the thought to please himself into believing that Daisy has always

By throwing these high-class parties, Gatsby is surrounded by other high-class people. Their relationships are social standings based on labels of society rather than love between two people. A woman named Catherine attends Jay Gatsby's parties and notices the unhappiness of the couples around her. She is a friend of Daisy's and comments on Daisy's marriage, "Neither of them can stand the person they're married to" (37). She married for convenience and for money rather for love. Their marriage has become very weak and Gatsby sees it when "Daisy had told Gatsby that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw" (125). Gatsby sees the way that Daisy doesn't love Tom anymore. Yet, while he feels he has been in that position before, he accepts the fact that marriage rarely represents true love. He ignores true happiness because his wealth has become his family, and he now relies on money rather than family to bring comfort and security to

Gatsby does not belong to his own class and he is not accepted by the upper class, therefore he becomes an exception. Because of disappointment of being looked down upon and impossibility of accept by the upper class, he has nothing left except his love, which is also his “love dream”. Gatsby’s love for Daisy has been the sole drive and motive of his living. Gatsby’s great love is also the root of his great tragedy, because he is desperately in love with a woman who is not worthy of his deep love. Fitzgerald offers Gatsby with the spirit of sincerity, generosity, nobility, perseverance, and loyalty. All his good natures can be seen

Daisy grew up spoiled due to the vast wealth she obtained from being ‘old money’, which caused her to become selfish and self-centred. Daisy had become selfish to the point that she has an expensive and materialistic desire or want. When Gatsby shows Daisy his mansion, she gazed in awe as “she admired […] the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils […] and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate.”(Fitzgerald,97) Daisy, all along, does not have feelings for Gatsby, but more for his money and expensive possessions, as she revealed her true self during Tom and Gatsby’s argument. Daisy is selfish even if money was not involved, as she does not feel grateful for Gatsby taking the blame for her killing Myrtle Wilson. For instance, when Nick tells Gatsby about Mrytle dying, Gatsby replies “’Yes,’ he said after the moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was.’” (Fitzgerald, 154) When Daisy cried in Gatsby’s mansion, she was crying about her actions in killing Myrtle, meanwhile she does not care about Gatsby’s act of chivalry. Furthermore, Daisy takes advantage of Gatsby by taking Tom along to Gatsby’s party, when Daisy was personally invited to essentially go alone. When Gatsby saw Tom appearing to his party, Gastby with a light temper has a conversation with Tom. He says “I know your wife’, continued Gatsby, almost aggressively.”