Jay's Motivation In The Great Gatsby

After killing the king, Macbeth is seen to be embracing evil over and over again when he decides to murder Banquo. Having already gained the crown of Scotland, he now wants further security and believes that Banquo will disrupt that. Although at first manipulated by his wife to

      Gatsby's tragic flaw lies within his inability to see that the real and the ideal cannot coexist. Gatsby's ideal is Daisy. He sees her as perfect and worthy of all his affections and praise. In reality she is undeserving and through her actions, proves she is pathetic rather than honorable. When Daisy says "Sophisticated-God I'm sophisticated" (18), she contradicts who she really is. The reader sees irony here, knowing she is far from sophisticated, but superficial, selfish and pathetic. Gatsby's vision is based on his belief that the past can be repeated, "can't repeat the past? Why of course you can" (111)!  The disregard for reality is how Gatsby formulates his dream (with high expectations), and the belief that sufficient wealth can allow one to control his or her own fate. Gatsby believes youth and beauty can be recaptured if he can only make enough money. To become worthy of Daisy, Gatsby accumulates his wealth, so he can rewrite the past and Daisy will be his. He establishes an immense fortune to impress the great love of his life, Daisy, who can only be won with evidence of material success.  Over the five years in which Gatsby formulates this ideal, he envisions Daisy so perfect that he places her on a pedestal. As he attempts to make his ideal a reality things do not run as smoothly as he plans. Daisy can never live up to Gatsby's ideal, though

Jay Gatsby, the title character of the novel is an incredibly wealthy young man, living in a medieval mansion in West Egg on an imaginary area of Long Island. Gatsby has many laudable traits. For example, he is filled with optimism and the ability to transform his dreams into reality. Jay is also extremely faithful to his true love, Daisy Buchanan, even to the point of death. When we first meet Gatsby, he is the aloof host of the fantastically opulent parties thrown every weekend at his mansion. It appears he is surrounded by wondrous luxury and is courted by beautiful women and the rich and powerful men of the time. Jay is also a very admirable character due to his status of wealth and being a hero of War World I, “In the Argonne Forest I took two machine gun detachments so far forward that there was half a mile gap on either side… I was promoted to be a major, and every Allied government gave me a decoration- even Montenegro”. However, Nick who narrates the book views Gatsby as a flawed man who is dishonest, deceitful, a liar, and a dreamer whom is searching for answers in the past, “he talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself, perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy… if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…”

In chapter 8, Gatsby reveals to Nick what his life was truly like. While reading about Gatsby's past the read comes to realize how much he changed just for one person. Gatsby was actually born James Gatz, a man from a poor family who had fallen in love with Daisy. With the love that James had for Daisy he was willing to give her up to try and better himself for her. James had known that the only way he could be with her, was if he was wealthy. When analyzing this chapter, we truly see how much James had changed himself and left his family just so he could have money to be with the women he loved. Now it seems to be something romantic, however one should not to gain more wealth to be with someone. The reader will read more and find out that, however Jay Gatsby had actually bootlegged to earn more money. It seems to be that Gatsby had been worried about his social status just to have Daisy back.

Jay gatsby is a man who no one really knows personally so when Gatsby starts to open up and talk to him Nick does not really know if he should believe what he is saying. When Gatsby starts to tell Nick about his love for daisy and how he wants to be married to her again Nick tries to make it easier for them to get together. Gatsby has been trying to show Daisy how much he loves her but Daisy just is not sure that she loves him the same way she used to when they first met. Jay Gatsby did some things that could get him in trouble to live a life that most people wanted to live. Although Jay Gatsby obtained all the money he ever needed, he never reached his goal of having daisy as his own.

The character Jay Gatsby the argument that money cannot buy bliss. Mr. Gatsby as a very wealthy young man. Gatsby has a massive amount of fortune that he could by anything that he pleased except for one thing in particular, happiness. With this money Gatsby tries win the back the heart of an old lover, Daisy Buchanan. Daisy Buchanan was related to Nick Carraway, who just happened to be neighbors with Gatsby. Jordan, who was a dear friend of Daisy and Nick’s, was talking to Nick about Gatsby lifelong dream she proclaimed, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78). Gatsby bought his large luxurious mansion that was located right in front of Daisy in search for her attention. Gatsby had bought that very immense and expensive mansion just to be close

Gatsby does well in the war and he then tries to go back to Daisy but is unable to and is sent to Oxford instead. When he comes back, he is absolutely broke and then he tries to find a job. He shows his selfishness again when he tries to get money. Gatsby meets Meyer Wolfshiem while searching for a job. He ends up getting involved in some shady, illegal business and becomes a bootlegger. Gatsby was so adamant in getting money and rising up in society that he was willing to do whatever it took to get money. His greed and selfishness led him to do illegal things that he shouldn’t have been doing. Gatsby ends up buying a house across from Daisy where he was hoping to reconnect with her again. He again shows his selfishness by wanting to reconnect and rekindle his love with her even though she is already married to Tom Buchanan. Daisy is clearly taken and Gatsby wants her to leave Tom and go away with him since now Gatsby isn’t poor and can provide for her. Even now, he still selfishly hides the truth by lying about his education and not telling the truth about the source of his wealth. He even confronts Tom about his love for her saying “she never loved you. She loves me.” (Fitzgerald 137) Gatsby’s selfishness ends up costing him his life at the very end. He does end up showing some selflessness by taking the blame for the accident even though Daisy was the one driving.

Secondly, the reason of the readers’ sympathy is Gatsby’s loneliness. Gatsby is perpetually enveloped by solitude. Despite the “Hotel de Ville” (11)mansion, the car and the luxuries that would overwhelm most people, Jay finds no sense of belonging amongst those objects. “ Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another” (51) does not mingle with his guests. Even at his own party, surrounded by glamour and people, he is still alone. In fact, he is a stranger. Only handful of his guest knows what he actually looks like, to others, he is a mystery. Equally important, Gatsby enclose himself in isolation, “he [gives] a sudden intimation that he [is] content to be alone… he [is] trembling.”(25) He has a whole mansion to himself yet he chooses to stand outside and ponder. Perhaps he is trying to find a way to unlock himself from the life of solitude.

Jay Gatsby, the title character of The Great Gatsby, is really not all that the title might suggest. First of all, his real name is James Gatz. He changed it in an effort to leave behind his old life as a poor boy and create an entirely new identity. He is also a liar and a criminal, having accumulated his wealth and position by dishonest means. But he is still called ‘great,’ and in a sense he is. Gatsby is made great by his unfaltering hope, and his determination to live in a perfect world with Daisy and their perfect love. Gatsby has many visible flaws—his obvious lies, his mysterious way of avoiding straight answers. But they are shadowed over by his gentle smile and his visible hunger for an ideal future. The coarse and playful Jay

     Gatsby lives a selfless life in order to attain his dream. His loyalty to his dream is Gatsby’s most noble characteristic. Although it seems to be too idealistic, Gatsby “[throws] himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that [drifts] his way.” (101) His entire existence revolves around his dream; recapturing Daisy’s heart, taking her away from Tom and living happily ever after in his mansion he built with her approval in mind.

Jay Gatsby is a man of his heart, he is self determined from a young age to the gain wealth he possess. He comes from a family of poverty and hardship which is where his motivation to gain wealth resonates from. Gatsby exemplifies the success of the American Dream, but he has more fundamental personal dream and that is to get Daisy back. Ever since Gatsby had returned from the war he has wanted to reconcile with daisy and make up for the time lost. One of the weaknesses that Gatsby withholds is that he is unable to balance his romantic life with work responsibilities, he repeatedly leaves conversations with Daisy unfinished to pick up a call or speak to his accomplices, which leads the audience to believe that he may never be able to gain the

According to Cynthia Wu, no matter how many critical opinions there are on The Great Gatsby, the book basically deals with Gatsby's dream and his illusions (39). We find out from the novel that Jay Gatsby is not even a real person but someone that James Gatz invented. Wu also tells us that Gatsby has illusions that deal with romance, love, beauty, and ideals (39). Wu also points out that Gatsby's illusions can be divided into four related categories: he came from a rich upper class family, a never ending love between him and Daisy, money as the answer to every problem, and reversible time. Through Nick's narrations we can really see who this Jay Gatsby is and the reality to his illusions, and from this we can make our own decision

First off, Jay Gatsby comes off as a nice man who throws huge, florid parties and lets everyone come over even if he doesn’t know who they are. He seems mysterious, reticent, and rather elegant but know one knows who he once was. Gatsby was in the war as everyone knew, but no one knew his secret love. He didn’t get rich in a correct way but more so a corrupt way. He sold fake bonds and was a bootlegger and did it all for one girl. The light at the end of her dock was glowing green brightly and he would stare at it from his, reaching for

Nick is carried away (pun intended) by the fun, fast-paced lifestyle of the rich and powerful in New York City. He is going along with the lavish lifestyle that his friends are providing him. Nick is building dreams with the perception of what his friends are providing him, a name, a reputation. Nick thought that wealth was a great thing to have until after he had found out about the fatal car crash that killed Myrtle Wilson. Nick realized that night after the car crash that wealth corrupts people. The wealthy hide behind their status and money believing that they are untouchable, this belief makes them think that there are no

However, these materialistic pleasures do not add to Gatsby’s greatness as much as his dream does. The ‘colossal vitality’ of his dream sets Gatsby apart from everybody else. The fact that he has total belief in his dream truly shows his greatness. His idealism is utterly admirable, ‘I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before – She’ll see.’ Gatsby, unlike all of the other characters in the novel is not materialistic. He has no concern for all of his belongings, because his wealth is all for love of Daisy, who clearly states that ‘rich girls don’t love poor boys.’ Gatsby cannot be blamed for the failure of his dream, his dream was only destined to crash because it was invested in a shallow person – Daisy. Gatsby’s dream is often described by Nick. He tells us that Gatsby had ‘thrown himself into it with a creative passion.’ His dream is immense to ‘romp like the mind of God’. These vivid descriptions from Nick provoke the feeling from the reader that Gatsby is great.