Essay on Jay Gatsby’s Dangerous Illusions in The Great Gatsby

In life, what we perceive tends to show misconception in how the thought plays out. A good example would be the character Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic: The Great Gatsby. Gatsby was unable to distinguish between his love for Daisy, a reality, versus the illusion that he could recapture her love by establishing and inventing a fraudulent past. He believed he could repeat the past, and acquire a flaunting wealth. In the novel, Jay Gatsby seems incompetent in establishing a difference between the realities of his life versus the illusion he made out.

Fitzgerald furthers this claim through flashbacks with Gatsby presenting Daisy with an ideal illusion as well. Once Gatsby attempts to change his past, Gatsby’s true remembrance of Daisy becomes misconstrued in the very same way. Nick describes Gatsby’s struggle with coping with the non-Platonic reality of the present as “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (98). Gatsby instills Daisy with an idealized perfection associated with his biased memories of the past; however this view decays away as Gatsby begins to realize that Daisy’s

Jay Gatsby grew up with big aspirations. The definition of the American Dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative, but his vision of the American Dream was beyond what he could have expected. Although things did not play out as he expected. Throughout the book, Jay Gatsby found himself unhappy, not being able to satisfy his large American Dream aspirations. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the protagonist has a strong devotion to attaining the American Dream, but it becomes unattainable for him because of his overpowering desire to always need something, or someone more.

When someone comes off too eager for something they desire, sometimes the satisfaction won’t meet the expectations they primarily had. The thrill to chase that dream has vanished and has now turned into a bland, dull thought. Gatsby’s memory of Daisy had changed and then builds her up to more than she actually is. He then proceeds to market Daisy as something completely different. The tendency for Gatsby trying to lie to himself about his memory of Daisy has faded and is now trying hopelessly to revive his past feelings about Daisy. “He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity”(Fitzgerald 92). The cumbersome attitude of Gatsby towards

Gatsby had not achieved his goal and dream to win Daisy’s heart and have her fall for him again, in order to “fix everything just the way it was before” (The Great Gatsby, p.110), despite the fact that he had won Daisy’s heart back, it wasn’t the Daisy that Gatsby wanted. Gatsby had worked all his life to impress Daisy and meet her standard for wealth, not because he is tremendously attracted towards Daisy, but more because of the idea of having Daisy.

Who Jay Gatsby truly loved wasn’t the real Daisy Buchanan but instead the Daisy Fay in the past he imagined of after haven’t seeing her for five years. The exciting re-encounter between Jay and Daisy occurred when Nick Caraway invited Daisy alone to tea, and Gatsby took the two around his mansion. Yet, by the end of the meet, Nick the narrator described that “I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a

Gatsby has a quality that many people, including Nick, admire; hope. He is constantly reaching for Daisy and goes to extensive lengths to acquire her. His ambitious state of mind constitutes for his progressive nature however, he simultaneously

The American Dream was the vision that brought many people to America to start a new life in a strange and foreign land. This vision or dream is a common discussion topic by modern writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on Long Island in the summer of 1922. On the surface, it seems that the novel is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman, but the masterpiece major theme is about the American dream. The author writes about a man who takes the dream too far and becomes unable to distinguish his false life of riches from reality.

The American dream can mean many different things and can be interpreted in different ways. To some people, the American dream is the belief that if a person works hard enough, he or she can be successful in America no matter what race, gender, or nationality. In the 1920’s, the concept of the American dream was very much the same, that an individual can achieve success in life regardless of family history or social status if he or she works hard enough. By having money, a car, a big house, expensive clothes, and a loving family symbolizes the American dream. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the 1920’s is a time period in which the American dream becomes corrupt and dangerous. For Jay Gatsby, a main character in the novel, his American dream is about gaining wealth and material possessions in order to find happiness. Through his decision to symbolize wealth, superficiality, irresponsibility, and foreshadowing, Fitzgerald conveys the the theme that the American dream is a perfect concept and is something that can never be accomplished, but can always be reached for.

The American Dream, is an idea that all Americans are familiar with, no matter what age they are. It is the dream that everyone has an equal opportunity, to use hard work and integrity to achieve success. The American Dream is an integral aspect of Jay Gatsby’s life in the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel follows Jay Gatsby, as told by Nick Carraway, through the trials and tribulations that correspond with newfound wealth and the quest to find true happiness in a cynical and testing environment. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald suggests that the American Dream has the power to corrupt individuals, through his depictions of wealth, materialism, and the consequences they inflict in the character’s lives.

Finally, Jay Gatsby’s delusions draws more pity for him. Daisy comes from a rich family and chances of her ending up with Gatsby, a poor soldier, is totally unrealistic. Furthermore Gatsby wants Daisy to “ go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you’” (105) but Daisy asserts that “ [she] can’t say [she] never loved Tom…It wouldn’t be true.”(126) Jay cannot grasp the present reality that Daisy could not leave Tom permanently, especially when the fruit of their love is already three years of age.

In the past the American Dream was an inspiration to many, young and old. To live out the American Dream was what once was on the minds of many Americans. In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was presented as a corrupted version of what used to be a pure and honest ideal way to live. The idea that the American Dream was about the wealth and the possessions one had been ingrained, somehow, into the minds of Americans during the 1920’s. As a result of the distortion of the American Dream, the characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby along with many others, lived life fully believing in the American Dream, becoming completely immersed in it and in the end suffered great tragedies.

Nick feels overwhelmed at the start of the chapter by the "colossal vitality of his illusion". The illusions had fell short of Gatsby 's dreams of seeing Daisy more enthusiastic and excited to meet him again. With the phrase, "Almost five years!", written by Nick shows that five years have been a lot for Gatsby and not as much for Daisy. In addition, Gatsby has done everything to get relationship back with Daisy as Nick narrated that "no amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart". This proves that Nick admires greatly of Gatsby.

Time tells us that success often comes with a price. Often money will create more problems than it can solve. The richness of a person’s soul can be hidden in the folds of money. Such is the case of Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is constantly altering in the readers mind due to the various puzzling events that transpire in the novel creating a level of mystery.

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, depicts the life of the notorious Jay Gatsby as told by Nick Carraway. Gatsby spends his entire post-war life dreaming about Daisy Buchanan. She is everything Gatsby could ever want so to try and attract her he throws lavish parties. The problem is that Daisy is married to Tom, a wealthy retired athlete, and has moved on with her life in the years Gatsby was away. Gatsby is so consumed with the dream of Daisy and their life together that he creates an impossible standard for real world Daisy. Gatsby fantasies about the Daisy he once knew years ago and expects her to be exactly the same as she once was. The issue is that Daisy has changed, the chose money and stability over love and now cannot