In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby”, the character Jay Gatsby dedicated his life on becoming rich so he can finally pursue Daisy but as the story goes, there were many barriers that kept them apart from each other. Daisy was not just passionate about Gatsby, she also idolized Tom and they have a family together that they have made ever since Gatsby and Daisy separated . Also, he surrounded himself with a bunch of people that he wasn’t familiar and lavished them with the things that they loved but at the end, they all left him hanging by himself. But with all the love and things that Gatsby offered to Daisy, she didn’t return back the favor of loving him forever. In the novel, the Fitzgerald shows that with all the things that Jay Gatsby can buy with his money, it still didn’t bring him happiness because it …show more content…
He only prioritized Daisy as he did a lot of things that made Daisy contented. First, he tried to earn money by becoming someone he wasn’t, “‘He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn’t far wrong.’” (143). He got into an illegal business with Wolfshiem just to earn money really fast so when Daisy sees him, she will see that he’s rich and not penniless he also lied about how he stumble upon his money. However, Gatsby doesn’t know that he is just wasting his time on Daisy because she idolized Tom even after all the terrible things that he did to her, “‘Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom,’ she admitted in a pitiful voice” (142). Even though Gatsby showed Daisy how wealthy he was she was swooned over his luxurious cars and other expensive things that Gatsby had , but this did not last for awhile as at the end she still ended up choosing Tom over
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.
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.
Before the war, Gatsby and Daisy fell deeply in love. However, Daisy’s family prevented her from marrying Gatsby because, as a soldier he was penniless. As a result, he spent his life on a mission to acquire wealth, but he did so in an illegal way. Having made his fortune, he moves near Daisy and throws lavish parties in hope that Daisy will leave her husband for him. Unfortunately, his newfound wealth does not earn him respect or acceptance into a higher social class. Rumors about his tainted past circulate, even as the partygoers enjoy his home and food. Gatsby is an outsider, and even when Daisy comes back to him, their love is corrupted by money. In a final conversation, Daisy cries out to Gatsby, “Oh, you want too much!” (Fitzgerald 133). She believes that Gatsby’s desire to have it all-- money, class, and power---have corrupted
Until this point in the book, Mr. Gatsby has been portrayed as generous, wealthy, and important man, and he seemed to come from a wealthy family in Chicago. He claims that his parents both died and that he had attended Oxford (a family tradition) and then come to New York. Now, Gatsby reveals that he came from a poor origin and that the idea of Gatsby was purely his own when he states “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself”. James Gatz had abandoned his previous life and constructed a life that he wanted to lead. He was tired of having to work hard and earn nothing, and was also envious of wealth, so in his moment of greed and lust he discarded James Gatz and became the character
Throughout the novel, the reader is constantly wondering who exactly Gatsby is and the mystery as to how he made his riches. It is later learned that he gained his money dishonestly. Gatsby did this with the purpose of gaining the woman he loved since she wanted to live a wealthy life. Daisy’s greed drove Gatsby into having the ambition of becoming rich. Daisy had even chosen Tom Buchanan to marry to live a wealthy life regardless of how poorly treated she was by him. She picked him over Gatsby since Gatsby was not rich at the time they met. She even exaggerates her greed by killing Myrtle and uses Tom to blame Gatsby to keep her life of wealth. Nick says “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they 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,” (Fitzgerald 136-145). Gatsby admits to the murder she committed and in the end is killed by Winston,the husband of Myrtle. Their strive for money, specifically Daisy, lead to the death of Gatsby, a man that simply wanted to be with his love by any means necessary, yet fails in the
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.
Furthermore Gatsby attempts to woah Daisy with his fancy parties and house, but ultimately, he fails, mostly because Tom informs her of the truth. Not only do people not know Gatsby He made his fortune in an illegal manner. Not only do people not know Gatsby personally, none of Gatsby’s party attendees show up to his funeral, aside from Nick. “At first I was surprised and confused; then, as he lay in his house and didn’t move or breathe or speak, hour upon hour, it grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interested” (Fitzgerald 172). Throughout the book Gatsby uses money as well as popularity and achievements to buy you love or even friends for that matter. As we all morally know money can't buy you happiness or popularity and can
I think Gatsby is a very great person because of the fact that he did a lot of things for other people, for example he did Nick's grass and decorated his house to make it look nice, even though ultimately it was for him to see Daisy and he wanted it to be nice it was still a nice gesture. No one asked him to throw all those amazing parties and make everyone happy. All though all the things he did were selfish and for his own good he was still a great person.
The pursuit of wealth, as seen through Gatsby, can poison a relationship through lust, fame, and materialism. To further clarify, Gatsby’s “love” for Daisy is nothing more than an obsession that
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
“At two o’clock Gatsby put on his bathing-suit and left word with the butler that if any one phoned word was to be brought to him at the pool” (Fitzgerald 123). Gatsby’s nervous request to the butler and the phone calls showed his insecurity. Despite his luxurious lifestyle, he’s afraid of losing Daisy, emphasizing that money can’t guarantee happiness. In conclusion, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys the theme that money cannot buy love or happiness. Through the struggles of characters such as Tom, Wilson, and
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
Daisy’s obsession with wealth also created dilemmas for other people. The first person she created problems for was Gatsby. She led him on to think that she would be with him. Gatsby had hope that he would end up with Daisy. He dedicated his life to winning her over and creating wealth. He went so far out of his way
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 creates an identity for himself as a wealthy man, who lives a glamorous life by throwing huge parties, and is known by the most prestigious figures in New York. What the partygoers don’t realize is that the parties and his wealth is all in the hopes of rekindling with his love from the past, Daisy. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of a young man named Jay Gatsby, who came from nothing, and built up to be everything that he had hoped and dreamed of being. However, his one dream did not become a reality due to misfortunate events. All the money in the world couldn’t make Gatsby happy, as he died as his true self, not the identity he created for himself.