Examples Of Being Blind In The Great Gatsby

When a man falls in love, he tends to be blinded by everything else in reality. If you are truly in love with someone, you stop realizing what is happening around you because of your blindness. In the end, being blind is what can destroy you. People can get so caught up in their own world that they stop thinking about everyone else's. In the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Gatz, who is generally called by the name of Gatsby, fell in love with a young women named Daisy Buchanan. He then fought in the war. When he came back all he wanted was to repeat the past, and Daisy to fall back in love with him. Daisy was married when he got back, and this causes Gatsby to do anything in his will to get her back. Gatsby is essentially

an innocent victim (romantic idealist) who is destroyed by his inability to accept reality.
James Gatz was born into a poor family that worked on a farm.

Everyone in his life as an adult believes that he is new money by owning a lot of drug stores. One source states, “He was born into inescapable economic conditions. He had a dream of becoming a respectable and wealthy man and he had very high ambitions.”(Kyle Helsing) His whole life, he dreamt of living a better life than his family. He wanted to become a married and rich man, but sadly Gatsby did not make his money by owning a line of drug stores. He lied to everyone so he could make himself look like the person he strived to be. He was really an illegal bootlegger, and worked alongside a man named Wolfsheim. He saw himself marrying Daisy Buchanan. A long time before this, Gatsby went to go fight in the war. Before he left to go fight, Gatsby and Daisy fell in love. Gatsby then left, and Daisy was not going to wait around for him until he came back. She had moved on and married a man named Tom Buchanan. “Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven.” said Nick. (Fitzgerald 6) Daisy was currently in love with Tom. When Gatsby came back this was the time he started lying to people about who he was to try to prove to Daisy that she should have waited for him. Gatsby purposefully bought a house on the tip of the West Egg directly across the bay from Daisy. Nick says in chapter four, “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of

fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history or the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans.” (Fitzgerald 5) Nick lives right next to Gatsby, and this quote explained how the Buchanans lived right across the bay. Gatsby was still trying to prove that he was the right man for her. He was so in love with her that he would do anything to get her back. The theory that love blinds people is portrayed here because he was just an innocent victim trying to win back his dream girl. The only reason he lied was because of that, and his belief of what the American Dream was. He was trying to repeat the past, and you can’t always repeat what happens in the past. “Gatsby is clearly a romantic hero who tries to live his life on the basis of a single romantic longing.”, said an article called “The Desire in the Great Gatsby”. (Grande) He illegally became rich and made up crazy stories all only to impress Daisy, and couldn’t see what he was actually doing.
The American Dream was the ideal life that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. All Gatsby wanted was to live his own American Dream and get the girl of his dreams. Another source explains, “..it makes Gatsby himself seem like someone in the pursuit of the American Dream, and for him the personification of that dream is Daisy.”(Wulick) Gatsby is willing to do everything in his power to get Daisy back. Gatsby has a secret affair with Daisy while she and Tom were married. He also almost started a fight with him in his hotel room over Daisy. This proves yet again how blinding love is. Gatsby can not accept reality. He can’t accept that Daisy is married, and does not understand what is so wrong with telling Tom that he and Daisy love each other. This makes him an innocent victim. His unconditional love for Daisy causes him to do crazy things. He can’t control his actions because of his blindness. All he can see is what is directly in front of him and does not notice all of the signs around him that are indirectly telling him to stop.
Gatsby is an innocent victim also because of how much hope he displays. He thought for sure he was going to get Daisy back, and lost everything because of that. It is actually very romantic of Gatsby for feeling this way. “Undoubtedly, Gatsby’s worship of Daisy and his request to regain her love echo the natural impulses of romanticism.” explained a professor. (Yvonne Hopkins) His lifetime goal was really to regain Daisy’s love. Another quote states, “Furthermore, his success obviously doesn’t last- he still pines for Daisy and loses everything in his attempt to get her back.” (Dr. Anna Wulick) The blindness that love has created for Gatsby is unreal. Gatsby kept reaching for the stars, when all he got back was nothing. Nick says, “The responsiveness had nothing to do with the flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of “creative temperament”-it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.” (Fitzgerald 2) Gatsby is a romantic idealist. This means that he thinks his many romantic ideas are the only reality. That is not true. This confirms that he is an innocent victim because the only thing that he ever really thinks about is Daisy, and pretends like there is nothing else stopping him from being with her. There are not enough times we can say that Gatsby is really just blinded by his love for Daisy. Again, Daisy is a married women. He does not realize the hurt he could cause by getting caught disrupting a marriage. His hope for getting her back, and repeating the past is too high.
Reality is slowly killing Gatsby.

His love for Daisy gets him caught up in his own world, and he hasn’t even thought about what Daisy’s real feelings may be other than her only loving Gatsby himself. Gatsby irresponsibly exclaims at the Buchanans house, “Your wife doesn’t love you, she’s never loved you. She loves me.”(Fitzgerald 130) Gatsby is proving he is a romantic idealist here because he is only thinking about his own ideas of their fantasy. Daisy then said, “I never loved him.”(Fitzgerald 132) She couldn’t even truthfully say that she never loved Tom. He was so caught up in his dreams that him and Daisy were going to go back to the way things were years ago, but that is clearly not what is going to happen. Daisy loves him, but it does not matter. This makes Gatsby even more innocent because he really thought she loved him for who he was, and was going to explain that to Tom, so in return her and Gatsby could be together. That is not how things went. Gatsby is heartbroken, and destroyed because of this. During this fight between Gatsby and Tom Daisy screamed, “Please, Tom! I can’t stand this anymore.” (Fitzgerald 134) Most likely, Daisy saying this tore Gatsby apart even more. Gatsby hears in her voice while she hollers at Tom that she is choosing him over Gatsby. His plan to get Daisy back is failing, and destroying him because of his own ideas and innocence. This is described when an article states, “In many respects, the intensity of Gatsby’s love for Daisy and his

pledge to win her, exude an innocence and idealism reminiscent of courtly love.” (Yvonne Hopkins)
Even if you loved someone as much as Gatsby loved Daisy, you should make sure that you do not end up becoming the victim the way Gatsby did and end up being destroyed. At the end of the novel, Gatsby ended up getting shot. It is ironic because it was shortly after reality shot him, and made him realize that it was the right time a while ago to move on from Daisy. His inability to accept reality was a problem that could not be fixed because of his blinding love, and proves that he was an innocent victim.