The Relationship Between Daisy And Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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.

“The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at some time…” (75) The Great Gatsby

Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the character of Daisy Buchanan undergoes many noticeable changes. Daisy is a symbol of wealth and of promises broken. She is a character we grow to feel sorry for but probably should not.

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.

"Greed, as distinguished from honest reward for labor, leads to corruption. To fatten oneself on it is to be compromised."(Lathbury 64). Several characters in The Great Gatsby struggle with their obsessions with wealth. Their lives depend upon their money and what it can do for them. These obsessions lead to greed, and to the corruption of relationships and lives. In F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby, the obsession with wealth leads to issues for many characters.

“He took out a pile of shorts and began throwing them, one by one before us, shorts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel which lost their fold as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher -- shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue” (Fitzgerald 92). Gatsby is flaunting of his wealth and luxurious materialistic items believing that is the only way to gain Daisy back and make it how it was five years ago. Gatsby starts as a poor farmer boy, but throughout the years he desires to be more and have more. To him, Daisy is someone he loves, but this love is based on materialistic objects and status, causing Gtabsy to focus and base his actions on money and wealth.

Daisy’s greed Gatsby can arguable be called the hero of the story, he too is afflicted with greed, perhaps the most of any of the characters. Fitzgerald, at first, manages to hide this trait of Gatsby beneath a romantic image of a young, wealthy, love struck man who gives grand parties and is well-liked. However, Jay Gatsby’s image changes as we learn more of the

Although he accumulated a “great” fortune, Gatsby himself was not “great” because of his illegal rise to wealth, pathetic obsession with an already married woman, and

Gatsby is stuck under the umbrella of this perfect life he aspires to have and constantly battles himself attempting to repeat the past and revive the mutual love he once shared with Daisy. This umbrella, a sanctuary with Daisy surrounded by their happiness and wealth, provides shelter from the storm of real life; a life filled with selfish, inconsiderate people. His naive perception of life and achievement of dreams and success reflect Gatsby’s romantic, unrealistic personality.

Gatsby believes that in order to achieve the past love with Daisy he first must show her that similar to Tom her husband he also has that important social standing. To show this high social class or imitation of the high social class Fitzgerald uses props such as books and clothing. For example in chapter three at the party that Nick attends the owl-eyed man said "See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too - didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?" (p.30). The fact that Gatsby has spend money on all of these books that he has not even cut open to read shows that he desires this idea of social power and believes that to come about the American Dream he must first fit in with the upper class or old money. He shows daisy how wealthy he is by throwing his shirts all around the room. He does this in chapter four. This shows how much he longs for her approval. After Gatsby shows Daisy the shirts she starts to weep at their beauty, this shows how much social statues can effect someone.

In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a clear development of emotions and symbols. The American dream is showed through a different perspective, one that shows the true nature of the wealthy and shows their own selfish fantasies. Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man who becomes incapable to differentiate his fake life of wealth from reality. This American novel is unique in the fact that it describes how humanity’s unquenchable desires for money and power can destroy human principles of the American vision. Nick Carraway describes Jay Gatsby as there being “something glorious about him…”

The shirts and clothes that are ordered every spring and fall show his simpleness in expressing his wealth to his beloved Daisy. His "beautiful shirts . . . It makes me sad because I've never seen such beautiful shirts before" (Fitzgerald 98). It seems silly to cry over simple shirts, but "It is not the shirts themselves that overwhelm her but what they symbolize . . ." (Cowley 43). These shirts represent the simple awesome manner of Gatsby's wealth and his ability to try and purchase Daisy's love, this time through the use of extensive clothing. Fitzgerald wisely shows how Gatsby uses his riches to buy Daisy. In the story, we know that "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things . . . and then returned back into their money" (Fitzgerald). By this, we know that Daisy's main (and maybe only) concern is money. Gatsby realizes this, and is powered by this. He is driven to extensive and sometimes illegal actions. He feels he must be rich and careless for his five year love, and when expressing Gatsby's readiness to spend any amount of money for his hopeful wife, a poem must be stated. "Then wear the gold hat, if that move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry "Lover, gold hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!" ( ). This poem is a perfect description of how Gatsby tries to buy Daisy, and her love. All these enlighten us to Gatsby's personality, therefore we know Gatsby is willing to use an unlimited source

Gatsby throws expensive European shirts made of silk in front of them to make clear, that everything he possesses means nothing to him. Money is not the most valuable thing in Gatsby’s life, which he showed very well with this action.

Due to a long history of cheating on Daisy, it can be implied that Tom brought about the demise of their marriage. In chapter two, Nick recalls his time with Tom, alongside his mistress, Mrs. Wilson. Before Nick meets Wilson though, he learns that: “The fact that he had one was insisted upon wherever he was known.” (Fitzgerald 24). With this statement, it can be inferred that Tom is infamous for cheating on Daisy with other women, such as Mrs.Wilson.

When a person’s greatest hope does not come true, it can not only leave them stuck and unsure what to do with their lives, but cause emotional damage as well. Putting all the eggs in one basket means that if the person loses the basket, he or she loses everything they essentially live for as well. Obviously, this leaves him or her in the lowest depths of despair. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald once again uses the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy, this time to demonstrate how much hurt a broken dream can cause. Within the first hours of being reunited with his former love, Gatsby begins to suspect that the situation will not fall perfectly into place the way he imagined. Nick, after attending this awkward reunion, reflects, “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. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything... No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (103). Although Daisy still appears as beautiful and charming as ever, Gatsby’s false image of her after several lonely years expands so much larger than life that the real Daisy plainly disappoints Gatsby. Fitzgerald strongly warns against the pitfalls of hope - once a person fixates on an idea, such as Gatsby did, reality cannot compete with the power the idea has over the person, leading to a delusional and unsatisfactory life in actuality.