Jay Gatsby Desires

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.

Greed takes its toll on Daisy as one of the main characteristics she looks for in a man is in fact his wealth, and that man’s personality takes a backseat when Daisy is “falling in love” with someone. This is clearly exhibited when she visits Gatsby’s house. Throughout the visit she is clearly in awe with Gatsby’s house and his belongings. She is close to breaking down and exclaims that Gatsby has “such beautiful shirts...it makes [her] sad because [she’s] never seen such beautiful shirts before” (Fitzgerald 92). Daisy is clearly thinking about what she and Gatsby could have been as a couple, now that she realizes that Gatsby is not poor anymore, but instead filthy rich. It is not that she misses Gatsby’s personality, but rather his wealth. The desire for wealth that Daisy has leads her to taking advantage of Gatsby’s love for her. She lets Gatsby take the blame for killing Myrtle in the car accident, showing that she did not care about Gatsby, but that she knew deep down that their relationship was

Fitzgerald writes, “‘Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.’...‘I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night,’ went on Jordan, ‘but she never did.’” This statement, made by Jordan Baker, reveals how Gatsby is pursuing his blind love for Daisy and creates a sense of admirable quality that justifies it as a good deed. It also shows that the only reason Gatsby throws his wild parties is because he expected Daisy to come one day. Additionally, Gatsby continues to show his love for Daisy by watching over her. Fitzgerald writes, “‘She’ll be all right tomorrow,’ he said presently. ‘I’m just going to wait here and see if he tries to bother her about that unpleasantness this afternoon.’” Gatsby sees this as a noble act, but it is mostly just reassurance that Tom does not hurt Daisy.

As a young boy, Gatsby has a yearning for wealth and success. He went as far as to changing his name from Jimmy Gatz to Jay Gatsby to sound more professional. The young Gatz strives daily to become his self-created character. Jimmy’s father says “Jimmy is bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something” (Fitzgerald 173). From the beginning of his childhood, young Jimmy is determined to not be like his family. Gatz wants more in his life rather than being poor farmers like his parents. Jimmy Gatz has a plan as shown in his letter about how he is going to attain wealth and prestige. He is constantly working on how he can improve and make a better future

Jay Gatsby also know as James Gatz has always had a dream for his life and that dream is to be wealthy and well-known. As James Gatz lived a poor and unhappy life; he built a new name for himself, Jay Gatsby. Once Jay Gatsby was well known to the people he found it harder to maintain his image as Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald shows one of the struggles of deception through conversations between Gatsby and others, “I think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what business he was in he answered, ‘That’s my affair,’ before he realized that it wasn’t an appropriate reply”. Through Jay Gatsby’s poor response while talking to Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald is able show the complications while deceiving others. Jay Gatsby is now

By depicting Gatsby and Jean’s lower class origins, Fitzgerald and Strindberg set the scene for their aspirations and inevitable failure. Jay Gatsby was originally James Gatz a young man from a poor, uneducated family. However, from a young age, he possessed a focused ambition, as shown by his time-table and list of goals for personal improvement. Even after James Gatz becomes Jay Gatsby on the water, ambition remains Gatsby’s main attribute, and he

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.”

The novel, The Great Gatsby focuses on one of the focal characters, James Gatz, also known as Jay Gatsby. He grew up in North Dakota to a family of poor farm people and as he matured, eventually worked for a wealthy man named Dan Cody. As Gatsby is taken under Cody’s wing, he gains more than even he bargained for. He comes across a large sum of money, however ends up getting tricked out of ‘inheriting’ it. After these obstacles, he finds a new way to earn his money, even though it means bending the law to obtain it. Some people will go to a lot of trouble in order to achieve things at all costs. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, conveys the numerous traits of Jay Gatsby through the incidents he faces, how he voices himself and the

When Daisy’s family did not accept him when he was poor, he determined that he must become rich to marry her. After he lost her to Tom, he changed his life around to impress Daisy and try to win her back. Gatsby turned into a very wealthy man that owns millions of dollars worth of luxurious items: “On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city, between nine in the morning and long past midnight… And on Mondays eight servants including an extra gardener toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden shears, repairing the ravages of the night before”(Fitzgerald 43). Gatsby’s plan was that since he placed his mansion across the bay from Daisy’s mansion, he might happen to attract her over with the plentiful parties he put on.

Jay Gatsby’s background was very similar to that of Andrew Carnegie’s. Jay Gatsby, at the time referred to as “James Gatz”, was the son of two farmers in North Dakota. Similar to Carnegie, Gatsby started off very poor. Although there is suspicion of an inheritance granted to Gatsby in the beginning of the story, it is noted that his story is indeed based on the “rags to riches” motif. His disapproval with his parents’ social class is obvious. “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). Rather than accepting his parents’ guidance and values, Gatsby is primarily mentored by his employer,

He wanted her to come to the parties and show her that he was accomplished and was rich enough to have her. If she would only come to the parties and see him, then she could leave her old life and start a new one with Gatsby. Daisy finally had a conversation with Gatsby after 5 years of being separated and they started having an affair. They secretly met at Gatsby’s mansion where they rekindled their love that had been longing for each other. But when Daisy was confronted in front of everybody about who she truly

He believed his destiny could not be fulfilled if she was not in his arms. Her lure had trapped him in a vision of their past love. Gatsby cries, “...[You] can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can,” (110). Gatsby was determined to recreate their old love but he could not see that they were in two different places. He was so bent on getting Daisy back he even bought a mansion in West Egg to be closer to her. “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay,” (78). Through his fortune and house he played a game of appearance vs reality. Gatsby had painted a portrait of this grand wealthy man but the need to acquire that wealth had led him to an illicit form of business. Tom exposed Gatsby’s criminality and says, “I found out what your ‘drug-stores’ were…[You sell] grain alcohol over the counter,” (133). Gatsby’s illegal bootlegging not only changed Daisy’s view of him but it exemplified the lines he had crossed for his dream girl. As myrtle is chained to her social class, Daisy is left with a broken marriage, trailing Gatsby and his wretched heart slowly

Jay Gatsby also known as James Gatz has always had a dream for his life, and that dream is to be wealthy and well-known. As James Gatz lived a poor and unhappy life he decided to build a new name for himself as Jay Gatsby. Once well known as Jay Gatsby to others, he begins to struggle maintaining his image as Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald shows one of the struggles of deception through conversations between Gatsby and others, “I think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what business he was

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him.

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