What Led To Gatsby's Downfall

Like many others, Gatsby has fallen victim to the American Dream, the idea that he will have all he has ever wanted only after acquiring vaults of riches and elegance and beauty. He cannot have Daisy a poor man, no, he must be rich; one can only have what one desires after amassing great wealth. But it is this dream that preys on Gatsby; in the end, he becomes obsessed by the means to impress Daisy and he becomes materialistic and empty. Gatsby, the greatest of men, the most devoted lover, the all-too-pathetic Don Quixote, has fallen prey to this foul dust, it has asphyxiated his very being and it has killed him.

“She was the first nice girl he had ever known”, is how Jay Gatsby described Daisy. Daisy Buchanan is Nick’s cousin and was once the lover of Gatsby. She is Gatsby’s ideal woman of charm, beauty, wealth, and sophistication. Gatsby “had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person of the same stratum as herself….” However extraordinary as Daisy was thought to be, her riches were paramount to her and her life as Nick describes it, “ She vanished into

The first dream that does not get fulfilled is the one of Gatsby. He starts off as an underprivileged boy and struggles his way to the top. We make his acquaintance when he is on the top of his life. He is enjoying his big house and his vast wealth. The one thing he cannot have is his lovely Daisy. Gatsby’s story reflects the “classical” American dream: Anyone can make anything of himself/herself with just elbow grease, spirit and a whole lot of confidence. Jay loves Daisy and, sadly, she is the one thing which he cannot procure to his “perfect life”.

The Great Gatsby is an example of the original American Dream and all of its pure and moral values that have been replaced with money, greed and materialism. Jay Gatsby took the American dream too far and the idea that money leads to happiness obviously was not the case for him. He truly believed that he could buy Daisy`s love with wealth. His illegal business was all an excuse to earn money and impress Daisy, however once again, money could not bring Gatsby

Gatsby creates an identity for himself as a wealthy man, who lives a glamorous life by throwing huge parties, and is known by the most prestigious figures in New York. What the partygoers don’t realize is that the parties and his wealth is all in the hopes of rekindling with his love from the past, Daisy. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of a young man named Jay Gatsby, who came from nothing, and built up to be everything that he had hoped and dreamed of being. However, his one dream did not become a reality due to misfortunate events. All the money in the world couldn’t make Gatsby happy, as he died as his true self, not the identity he created for himself.

Jay Gatsby begins his life in the novel as a typical, low class American whom has a dream of becoming successful like any other American. As the novel commences, Jay Gatsby is already hinted as being great. Nick Carraway goes on to say “Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him… (Page 2)”.

Although "The Great Gatsby" is filled with multiple themes such as love, money, order, reality, illusion and immorality, no one would probably deny that the predominate one focuses on the American Dream and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is the central of this novel. This can be explained by how Gatsby came to get his fortune. By studying the process of how Gatsby tried to achieve his own so-called American Dream, we could have a better understanding of what American dream is all about, in those down-to-earth Americans' point of view. The characterization of Gatsby is a representative figure among Americans as he devoted his whole life to achieve his dream.

Even though Gatsby was born James Gatz on a small farm in North Dakota, he was motivated by Dan Cody and Daisy to dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth and love. Some people might claim that Gatsby was able to achieve his dream because he succeeded in becoming a fabulously wealthy man in West Egg. However, this is only partially true, for Gatsby’s genuine American Dream was to attain Daisy Buchanan. Therefore, this novel portrays both the power and deleterious result of the American Dream (C. J. Dawson).

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.

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

     F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a tragic tale of love distorted by obsession. Finding himself in the city of New York, Jay Gatsby is a loyal and devoted man who is willing to cross oceans and build mansions for his one true love. His belief in realistic ideals and his perseverance greatly influence all the decisions he makes and ultimately direct the course of his life. Gatsby has made a total commitment to a dream, and he does not realize that his dream is hollow. Although his intentions are true, he sometimes has a crude way of getting his point across. When he makes his ideals heard, his actions are wasted on a thoughtless and shallow society. Jay Gatsby effectively embodies a romantic idealism

Scott Fitzgerald introduces us to the titular character Jay Gatsby who appears to have come from a life of poverty and defies the odds to become a self-made man who triumphs over society and achieves the American Dream. The American Dream in itself is a term which has been expounded on throughout literature and media and comes to signify the hopes and dreams of the many people in society to finally arrive at a life with power, wealth and relationships and to do so on their own terms. Typically, the American Dream occurs as rags to riches type journey and in the case of Jay Gatsby, this is exactly the course of his journey. However, somewhere along that journey, Gatsby is blinded by his love for another character and starts to exhibit the many markings of a Byronic hero, namely a level of cunning sophistication, arrogant, defiance and self-destructive behavior which ultimately dooms him and those around

Jay Gatsby’s sole purpose in life is to achieve the American Dream: to become a land owner, married to the love of his life, who live in comfort and abundance. However, he never gets everything he wants as his love for Daisy is not as fully reciprocated as he wishes it to be. His dream, and the one Nick pursues as well, are only dreams in the end. The culture of the time only gives empty fulfillment with no real substance. The people, like their dreams, are only illusions of what they want to be.

Critically acclaimed author, Azar Nafisi once said, “The negative side of the American dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.” Within The Great Gatsby, which is set in the midst of the roaring 20s, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s apparent plot is the rekindling between hopeless lovers but in actuality it converses the inevitability of the American dream downfall. The novel is narrated by Nick Carraway who speaks in absolute awe of Jay Gatsby, originally James Gatz, who is a man who lives a life of luxury from not only new but dirty money. The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic text, in particular of the true hollowness of the American dream in an era of materialism and corruption which ultimately leads to shattered hopes and dreams.

t was literary critic Lionel Trilling who quite aptly described the collective entity Jay Gatsby when he wrote, "Jay Gatsby [stands] for America itself." Jay Gatsby lives his life entrenched in unfathomable wealth. His true roots are rather mysterious, but they revolve around an anti-Calvinistic attitude and what is Jay Gatsby essentially reinventing himself. Through Gatsby's modest upbringing, domineering drive, and his tragic demise, Gatsby truly is representative of America as a whole.