America is commonly thought of as a place where wealth and success lead to happiness. People work hard to earn money and prestige throughout their lives in search of joy and contentment. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby tries to attain happiness through love. Gatsby commits himself to show off a wealthy, lavish lifestyle in hopes of obtaining the love of someone else. However, his obsession with wealth and pride eventually led to his downfall. The Great Gatsby deserves a place in American Literature because its emphasis on Gatsby’s passion for wealth highlights a lesson that many Americans do not recognize the validity of: a fixation on money and status is not the key to fulfillment. When Gatsby is introduced, his materialistic …show more content…
Daisy expresses a dislike for West Egg’s flashy and bold nature when she is at the party. Gatsby discovers that his attempt to win over Daisy has failed when he says, “‘She didn’t like it,’ he insisted. ‘She didn’t have a good time’” (Fitzgerald 109). Gatsby’s realization that Daisy is not impressed by the party is a specific point that demonstrates Gatsby’s failure to use his wealth to attain fulfillment. In this situation, Daisy expresses her true colors and reveals that she loves her status with Tom more than she will ever love Gabby and his new money. The fact that Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby in the end is a significant point in the book because it shows how Gatsby’s wealth gives him very little power. At the beginning of the book, Gatbsy is confident in the power of wealth to influence others and benefit himself. However, at the point of his death, Gatsby is left unchosen by Daisy as his wealth is not able to grasp her devotion. At this point, Gatsby realizes that money, whether used for materialism or the desire for love, is not enough to make someone truly happy. Money and status are two driving forces in the world
Daisy's greed can best be seen in her choice of a husband, and in the circumstances
The Great Gatsby is an emotional tale of hope of love and “romantic readiness”(1.2) that is both admirable and meritorious .Yet, the question of Daisy ever being able to measure up to Gatsby’s expectations is one that reverberates throughout the course of the novel. Be that as it may, Daisy is never truly able to measure up to Gatsby’s expectations because the image of Daisy in Gatsby’s mind is entirely different from who she actually is. Even during his younger years, Gatsby had always had a vision of himself “as a son of God”(6.98) and that “he must be about his fathers business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty”(6.98). Gatsby’s desire for aristocracy, wealth, and luxury is exactly what drives him to pursue Daisy who embodies everything that that Gatsby desires and worked towards achieving. Therefore, Gatsby sees Daisy as the final piece to his puzzle in order realize his vision. Gatsby’s hyperbolized expectation of Daisy throws light on the notion if our dreams as individuals are actually limited by reality. Since our dreams as human beings are never truly realized, because they may be lacking a specific element. Daisy proves to be that element that lingers in Gatsby’s dreams but eludes his reality.
Everyone has dreams of being successful in life. When the word American comes to mind one often thinks of the land of opportunity. This dream was apparent with the first settlers, and it is apparent in today’s society. In F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), he illustrates the challenges and tragedies associated with the American dream. By examining Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson through the narrator Nick Carraway, I understand the complex nature of the American dream. Jay Gatsby represents the cost complex of them all.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys how Jay Gatsby’s ambition is the root of his success and death. When Gatsby, a man of humble beginnings, meets Daisy, her wealth and high status allures him. They fall in love, but due to Gatsby’s low financial and social position, Daisy feels insecure and leaves him. Gatsby’s optimism and obsession to win Daisy prompts the ambition that ultimately drives him to his noble yet tragic ending.
Critics agree that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is not only a social commentary on the roaring twenties but also a revelation of the disintegration of the American Dream. Jay Gatsby embodies this smashed and illusionary dream; he is seen as a “mythic” (Bewley 17) individual, as “the end product of the American Dream” (Lehan 109) and as a representative of “man’s headlong pursuit of a dream all the way across a continent and back again” (Moyer 219). The factors that contributed to the destruction of this American fantasy are materialism, moral waste, and spiritual transgressions. As a direct result of this fallen hope, the characters search in vain for fulfillment in wasteful and trivial pursuits. Fitzgerald portrays the American Dream by as a pure fairy tale.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a fictional story of a man, Gatsby, whose idealism personified the American dream. Yet, Gatsby’s world transformed when he lost his god-like power and indifference towards the world to fall in love with Daisy. Gatsby’s poverty and Daisy’s beauty, class, and affluence contrasted their mutual affectionate feelings for one another. As Gatsby had not achieved the American dream of wealth and fame yet, he blended into the crowd and had to lie to his love to earn her affections. This divide was caused by the gap in their class structures. Daisy grew up accustomed to marrying for wealth, status, power, and increased affluence, while Gatsby developed under poverty and only knew love as an intense emotional
There are times when reality falls short of expectations, and when individuals fail to live up to their ideals. This struggle can come in the form of one specific event, or an overall life philosophy. The quest to attain what we really want can be an all encompassing one, requiring all of our devotion and effort. It is especially painful to see others possess what we cannot have. For the characters in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby these problems are all too real. Gatsby works for a lifetime to gain back what he feels is rightfully his, while all the while facing the crushing realization that he may be too late. Fitzgerald uses this futile search to introduce the idea that the idealized America Gatsby fought for has been corrupted over time. Descriptions of a land of picket fences and middle class freedom is exchanged for one based on greed and lies, where characters with stop at nothing to attain what they desire. Fitzgerald provides a window into the American Dream, and shows that it has become one based on immorality and deception.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby aptly reflects the time period in which the story was set. The author sought to address the frivolity of life and convincingly portrayed how money could not buy happiness. The novel effectively underlines the fact that the American Dream is a natural corollary of the kinds of events portrayed therein. On the surface, The Great Gatsby seems to be a tragic love story. Digging deeper, however, it is clear that the novel is more than just a love affair between Gatsby and Daisy; rather it is an accurate reflection of the 1920s. The Great Gatsby depicts the corruption and human depravity of the times to illustrate how the American Dream is marked by greed and lack of moral values.
The coined phrase, “money can’t buy happiness” is an infamous saying that has pondered many minds. The debate over what wealth brings to a person’s life has been around long before currency became a way of payment. As long as money is made, there will always be people who have more of it than others. These people are the ones who attend the lavish parties, dress in clothes of gold, and drink water from the rivers in Fiji. These people are filthy rich, and although “money can’t buy happiness”, it sure can buy them everything they desire. In the United States, the 1920’s was a time full of dancing flappers, wealth, extravagant parties, and lots of fun. The 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of Nick Carraway, a young man who moves to New York City and becomes entangled in the mystery of Jay Gatsby. Throughout the novel, readers unravel the tragic tale of Gatsby working his way to winning back Daisy Buchanan, a rich, elite women who is married to the wealthy, Tom Buchanan. In The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the use of Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby’s characterization helps to establish the importance of wealth in the novel demonstrating that the desire to be wealthy leads to decisions based on greed and materialism, making characters in the novel chose money over everything else.
In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy struggles between her desire to be with someone she truly loves and her rational to be with someone who will give her social and financial stability. Ultimately, Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby as he is the safer option once Gatsby is revealed to be untruthful, showing that she is predominately interested in a steady life.
In conclusion, The Great Gatsby reveals the carelessness and shallowness of the characters in the upper class. Society is totally corrupted and the character’s lives revolve around the money and extravagant lifestyles. All of the characters are surrounded with expensive and unnecessary itms, which in turn, dulls their dream of actual success. Scott F. Fitzgerald provides a powerful and everlasting message of a corrupt, materialistic society and the effects that it has on the idea of the American dream.
Books all around the world often inspire and influence us. The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is read throughout the nation as a world-renowned classic. The main character, Jay Gatsby, has an extravagant amount of money yet minimal happiness. I found this instance very interesting because even with everything he has, he still is not content. I realized while reading that money can never guarantee happiness or love.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines immoral as “outside society’s standards of acceptable, honest, and good behavior.” Not only do actions reveal immorality, but personality highlights immoral behavior. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby explores the lasting effects of immoral behavior. In the novel's beginning, Fitzgerald’s depiction of a naive and charming Daisy reveals dissonance between her actions and personality.
“Her eyes fell on Jordan and me with a sort of appeal, as though she realized at last what she was doing. ‘I never loved him,’ she said, with perceptible reluctance” (Fitzgerald 101). In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald follows Nick Carraway as he is thrown into the lives of Jay Gatsby, his cousin Daisy, Tom Buchanan, and the internal struggles that are faced by them revolving around wealth and love, leading to the demise of Gatsby and Nick realizing the true people that Tom and Daisy are. With that, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby and his relationship with Daisy and his poor background to showcase not only the rags to riches idea, but also how Gatsby’s past influenced his actions in the novel. Gatsby constantly longs for his past life with Daisy,
The unhappy and careless people of both the East and West Egg represent the immorality and corruption that wealth can bring. Gatsby’s dream was ruined by his own materialistic views. His dream of success transformed into a nightmare that ultimately led to his death. Gatsby and the Buchanans are proof that wealth does not equate to happiness or success. Gatsby’s romantic idealism is so great that he does not understand how wealth cannot bring happiness or love. Fitzgerald’s novel is great reminder to those with materialistic views about the detrimental effects the “American dream” can have on society.