Examples Of Hard Work In The Great Gatsby

Does Hard Work Really Pay Off?
Imagine working majority of your life to get one thing and in the end you end up losing it? In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald the main character Jay Gatsby experiences this disappointment. He spends his time as a young man building himself up to impress and win back the woman he is in love with to only, in the end, do it for nothing. The author takes us through Gatsby’s journey only for it to end opposite of what readers wanted. He acquired millions, bought a house, that was more like a castle, and then threw parties hoping one day that she would show up. He successfully gets her attention, gets her back partially, then loses her to her husband because her husband is the status quo

and their marriage is what is deemed acceptable during the 1920’s time period.
The woman Gatsby is in love with is named Daisy Buchanan, married to Tom Buchanan.

Before marrying Tom, Daisy and Gatsby were in love but he ended up going to war then to Oxford. Eventually she got tired of waiting so she married Tom for financial and social security, and she stays with him even though he has had many affairs that she knows about. Throughout the novel we learn that Tom has been having affairs since the beginning of their marriage, “Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road… The girl who was with him got into the papers too… she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel.” (Fitzgerald 82) They went to Santa Barbara for their honeymoon, not even a year into the marriage Tom was cheating and Daisy stayed. In addition to cheating, Tom was nowhere to be found after the birth of his daughter. It is possible that he was with another woman but either way Daisy was upset by this event, she says, “Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where… I asked the nurse if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl… I wept… I said, “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool.” (Fitzgerald 21) Since Tom was not present for the birth of their child, Daisy associates her daughter with abandonment and hopes her daughter will accept the idea that ignorance is bliss, which is disturbing. Tom Cheats on Daisy so much that he feels it is ok to introduce Daisy’s cousin, Nick, to his mistress. He invites Nick to go to the City but halfway from

East Egg to the City, in the Valley of the Ashes, they get off of the train when Nick says Tom, “... literally forced him from the car. ‘Were getting off!’ he insisted. ‘I want you to meet my girl.’” (Fitzgerald 28) Nick is obviously thrown off by this but he has to stay with Tom, because he is a man who peaked early, Tom has to be in control of the situation. As a result, from all of the cheating, Daisy still chose a man she was unhappy with over a man who did everything for her.
Gatsby took himself from rags to riches, just for a woman he gave himself to 5 years prior to this.

Jordan knew who Gatsby was because ,while they were young, Daisy was the girl to marry. Young military officers tried to impress her but only Gatsby won her over, though it sounds like she won him over. He talks about the first time he and Daisy got intimate, “He knew that when he kissed this girl, … his mind would never romp again like the Mind of God. So he waited, listened for a moment longer… Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch… the incarnation was complete.” (Fitzgerald 117) The moment Gatsby took before kissing Daisy was nearly vowing himself to her at whatever it takes. He began to host extraordinary parties hoping one day, either Daisy or someone who knew her would wander into his hotel sized home. As a result of the close living proximity, Nick became a direct line from Gatsby to Daisy. Nick’s involvement in the rekindling of Daisy and Gatsby is when he says, “I’m going to call up Daisy tomorrow and invite her over here to tea.” (Fitzgerald 87) This simple task is the favor that Gatsby wants from Nick, and when he agrees to it, he knows there is no backing out. Ultimately the most blood boiling thing about the Buchanans is the fact that after all the conflicts caused ,mainly, by them they just up and leave like nothing happened. Almost ironically they jump town after both of their paramours are killed. It is angering to think that after they used these people,

especially Daisy to Gatsby and all his efforts, they just left. Nick says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or vast carelessness or whatever it was keeping them together…” (Fitzgerald 187) This is why we did not get the ending we hoped for. Daisy literally married Tom just to be associated with East Egg and all of it’s “Old Money”, because the “New Money” located where Gatsby is, in West Egg, I not refined enough for her aristocrat ways, this, in all, is why she holds herself nearly captive to Tom.
All things considered it was never about whether Tom was a good guy or a bad guy. She stayed with him, over a man who did everything for her, because of his economic and social ties. The careless users, that go by the Buchanans, are extremely selfish, which is what the thing to was during this time era. They could run wild and wreck things and face no consequences, not even after the deaths they were associated with. After this it is clear that Daisy would’ve never picked Gatsby, she loved all the things he did for her but it was never actually enough. It was all about Tom being at the top of the food chain, and showing how greedy people were during the 1920’s.