What Caused Gatsby's Downfall

In the beginning of the novel, Gatsby is shrouded in mystery and all that is known about him is simple gossip. He appeared to be this complicated individual who threw glamorous parties and drowned in wealth and women. In reality, however, he is a lovesick young man who grew up in poverty, and became fabulously rich through organized crime, like selling

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s tragic flaw was the fact that he was very naïve and trusting of all those around him. For example, in the hotel when Tom confronted Gatsby about his love to Daisy, Gatsby insisted that Daisy say that she never loved Tom. This shows that Gatsby was extremely naïve to believe that Daisy would love him to a certain extent as to say that she never loved her own husband. Second example of Gatsby’s tragic flaw is when he admitted to Nick that he could easily be with Daisy by saying to Nick “‘can’t repeat the past?’…. ‘Why of course you can!’” This specific quote showed that although Gatsby has not seen Daisy for a very long time, he still believes that he is able to win her back simply by showing up with his money. Through

He starts out as a poor boy from North Dakota, Gatsby at this time is working for his money, he is a clam digger and salmon fisher in lake Superior, he also works as a janitor when he attends college. He returns back to lake Superior where he meets Dan Cody and he takes him in, letting him work on his boat. Gatsby was supposed to inherit money from him, however that never happened and he became poor again. He does eventually become rich again but not without compromising his morals. Before, Gatsby did what any normal person would do, he worked hard for his money doing everyday jobs, but after, he got his money through illegal drug stores and bootlegging. He is called out by Tom who says, “I found out what your ‘drug stores’ were… he and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores… and sold grain alcohol over the counter.” (141). In this indirect characterization you can see how far Gatsby went in changing his morals to become rich. Instead of sticking to his morals and working regular jobs like he did before, his demand for money corrupted his morals and he turned to bootlegging, forever changing his morals and who he was as a person. The richest and happiest man is the one who sets the joy and happiness of others in the center of his

As Gatsby reached out to the green light across the harbor, he mistakenly thought there was still hope of getting back into a relationship with a married woman, Daisy. He regretted his actions that occurred five years ago, and did everything in his power to regain Daisy’s respect. Gatsby used his wealth to summon Nick, Daisy’s cousin, under his “spell” as his first step to fulfill his path to the love of his life. Gatsby’s fixation to getting back with Daisy makes his judgment unclear since he cannot think distinctly. His craziness for her is seen at, “Yes,” he said after a moment, “but of course I’ll say I was” (Fitzgerald 143). At this scene, Gatsby takes the fall for what Daisy had done. When he does this, he was not thinking about the consequences that might follow which included the revenge of the dead woman’s husband. Gatsby was clearly not thinking straight because his obsession to be with Daisy overcame his intelligence. His dream of being with her slowly became into a nightmare. If he had not done some of his actions, he would not have been in this mess in the first place. If he had let go of her and let her be happy by marrying Tom, this whole situation would not have happened.

I hypothesized that Gatsby 's failure arose from his deluded and futile dream of Daisy. Gatsby 's failure is that he continues to pursue Daisy, who is unwilling to break her marriage, and forces a confrontation that escalates and eventually ends in his death. This dream, which drives him to his failure, arose from his obsession with Daisy and the American Dream. During Gatsby 's life, a social belief existed in the form of the American Dream. The American Dream was a belief held by many that any individual can reach their dream should they choose to work towards it. In most cases, this meant money. However, for Gatsby, it was not enough to simply be wealthy, although he did acquire great wealth, but rather to accommodate Daisy 's background of old money. With the American Dream influencing Gatsby, when he met Daisy and fell in love with her, it became his everything to marry her. However, this dream became an illusion because of the reality that she had moved on. He grew a delusion that he could break the Buchanan marriage as he believed that she did not and had never loved Tom. The futility of Gatsby 's dream accounts from

He made money his goal, but only sees what he wants to see. He only sees the large house he lives in, the expensive clothes he wears, and the happy people at his parties. In chapter 9, a man Nick called to visit Gatsby’s funeral had “implied that [Gatsby] had got what he deserved.”(pg#), showing how little everyone truly cared for him apart from his money. Gatsby saw the money as a chance at happiness, as a chance at Daisy. The rose tinted glasses he wears prevented him from foreseeing the fake friendships, and his sad, empty funeral that the money would play a large part in causing

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby spent years trying to achieve his dream, but he made a bad decision and lost his chance. Gatsby met Daisy a couple years before (Fitzgerald 74). He would hide his social class from her because he was afraid she wouldn’t like him. He never forgot her, even when he went to fight in the war. He has been formulating a plan to get Daisy back. He comes back and got a house across the lake from Daisy, hoping to be with her some day. He did a lot of bad business to get all of his wealth, but the money wasn’t enough. He wanted to be with Daisy. He eventually gets to meet up with Daisy because of Nick’s help, and Gatsby gets closer to being able to live a life with Daisy. One day, everyone (Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick, and Jordan) is in town, renting a hotel room to deal with the heat. Tom figures out that Daisy and Gatsby have something going on. Tom gets mad and everyone starts to head home. On the way back, Gatsby lets Daisy drive his car, which was his bad decision (Fitzgerald 143). Daisy hits Myrtle,

One thing that surprises me about Nick is that he was loyal to Gatsby who seemed likeable enough but empty inside. He seemed like the picture was more important than the real person. Nick was interested in person and would put himself in a bad light to help a friend. “I didn’t want to go to the city. I wasn’t worth a decent stroke

I feel like Gatsby is a man of low class. Not low class as in, he does not have any money but as in although he has money he does not have the ability of truly act as a man with actual class. Almost as if a common man had a mountain of money fall on him out of nowhere. In the book Nick's keen eye, in this case I should say "ear" he realized that Gatsby was choosing his words methodically, almost carefully. As if he was using much of his brain power to sound smart, like a man with class. Furthermore in Chapter four Nick finds yet again another flaw in Gatsby's life story. Gatsby was lying in order to make his life seem interesting and appealing to Nick in order to gain his trust. During Gatsby's many parties, there are many random people and

Gatsby is a character who aspired to be successful and to realize his dreams of love and wealth, however, when he faced his reality he was never able to fully accomplish his dreams, revealing that one will use all their energy to hold on to a dream that will never reach a reality.

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.

In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, a man with a poor family background, worked his way up to become wealthy. Ever since he was a young boy he wanted to grow up to be someone who was rich, he explained, “It only took me just three years to earn the money that bought it” (Fitzgerald 90). It took three years for Gatsby to come up with the money to buy his huge mansion lathered with expensive taste. He came

During the first chapter we learn that from Nick that Gatsby is a very optimistic and hopeful man. He's done his best to prosper in life but we learn that he has hopes for more. Also we learn that his hope is what drives other characters. Then we find out through Jordan that Gatsby wants to meet with Daisy but is afraid. That is why he always holds such lavish parties, Jordan tells Nick,"I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties..,but she never did.". Later in the story after Gatsby has spilled the beans of he and Daisy's affair he hopes and waits for her to come to him. In the end she does not and this is where we actually see a genuine act of despair in Gatsby, "Nothing happened.., I waited, about four o'clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute..". Overall, Gatsby goes through having his hopes crushed entirely by the end of the novel. But the hope he actually had was false because all along he knew what he had dreamed for wouldn't really work out and you can see this in many chapters of the book.

Since he died for taking the wrath of something he did not do. Gatsby is a man who struggled to get what he wants and who much reach a certain status before marrying the woman he is in love with. He was basically an outsider who comes from an uncertain past. Gatsby was able to win the hearts of many of the people around him with his tales of adventures and showing off his wealth. Yet, there is not a view that shows the success of Gatsby. He tries to convince Nick about his upbringings and his heroic exploits. Gatsby’s stories seemed extraordinary to the point where people questioned it but they still believe

Secondly, Gatsby is a very mysterious character. Nick has been Gatsby’s neighbor, or so he thinks, and has never met him. Nick says “It was Gatsby’s mansion, or, rather, as I didn’t know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name” (5). This shows you that even Gatsby’s own neighbor does not even know who he is; which shows that Gatsby is mysterious. Later on, once he actually meets Gatsby, Nick goes on to say “I don’t like mysteries, and I don’t understand why you won’t come out frankly and tell me what you want. Why does it all have to come through Miss Baker?” (71). As expected, this frustrates Nick and gives him more reason to believe that Gatsby is mysterious and not trustworthy. Nick doesn’t understand why someone who seems to be his friend is hiding so much