Examples Of People Are Never Satisfied In The Great Gatsby

“People are never satisfied. If they have a little, they want more. If they have a lot, they want still more. Once they have more, they wish they could be happy with little, but are incapable of making the slightest effort in that direction” (Paulo Coelho). Coelho is claiming people are never satisfied with their efforts. After reaching one goal, it becomes a new standard for normal, obligating humans to reach further and higher. Using this reasoning, he furthers his assertion by saying satisfaction and happiness are unattainable. Similarly, in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald makes the argument that humans never reach a point of satisfaction with their desires. Through the individual journeys of the main characters, Daisy and Gatsby,

he exemplifies his theme as they continually strive for more but ultimately lack fulfillment.
To begin with, through the characterization of Daisy in the novel, Fitzgerald reveals human desires are ever-changing and disenchanting. Daisy, though she seemingly has everything she could ever want in her life and has accomplished her goals, is unhappy. In the beginning, when Daisy is catching up with her cousin Nick, she begins to tell him about the hopes she has for her daughter. “‘She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool'”(17). Right from the beginning of the novel, the reader is exposed to Daisy’s beliefs that the best thing that a girl can be is a fool. The alludes to her lack of value for herself and her intelligence, cheapening herself. She believes that in order to lead a happy life, a girl has owned her superficiality and release herself from her intellectuality. This leads the reader to believe that Daisy is not happy. Though having a big house in the east egg, married to a glamorized man, she still lacks happiness because she chases materialism. Yet again Daisy’s dissatisfaction with her life is seen with her choice of marriage. When she is about to get married to Tom, after receiving a letter from her lover, Gatsby, she nearly calls off her wedding with Tom. “‘Here, Dearest’ she groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. ‘Take em down-stairs and give ‘em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ‘em Daisy’s changed her mine’” (76)! In this quotation, the background between Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship is revealed to the reader as she nearly calls off her wedding. After she sobers up, however, Daisy recants the idea and decides to marry Tom. Later on, ending up loving him, but only temporarily. In this scene Fitzgerald portrays to the reader Daisy’s unhappiness while depicting her as a materialistic person, marrying for money, not love. The background given by the quotation serves as an understanding to why Daisy is unsatisfied in her life. This further goes to satisfy the argument Fitzgerald is making about mankind and the inability to reach satisfaction.
The argument is then advanced in seeing that Gatsby’s love for Daisy was impure.

When he sees that she had changed, he and Nick analyze her. “‘She’s got an indiscreet voice,’ I remarked ‘It’s full of-- I hesitated. ‘Her voice is full of money’ He said suddenly. That was it I’d never understood before.It was full of money- that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it. High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl”(120). In the quote, Gatsby’s characterization is added to when saying he only wanted Daisy because she was the manifestation of his life goals. Daisy was the final piece in Gatsby’s dream of having it all. His desire for her was no more than an ambition to fulfill his dreams. He finds himself disenchanted when she is not who he expected her to be. He often depicted her as a trophy to obtain. In his strive to reach a higher level of status, he aims for daisy. The trophy wife. However he fails to acknowledge that Daisy was a person who had her own life, such as a kid and a husband. Thus because of his expectations for Daisy, he ends up not being satisfied with what she was able to give him, her love. Gatsby demands to be her sole love. “‘’Oh you want too much! She cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now- isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past!’ she began to sob helplessly. ‘I did love him once-but I loved you too’ Gatsby’s eyes opened and closed. ‘You love me too?’”(132). Gatsby demands that she loves him only with the fullest of hearts. He demands that she admit that she never loved Tom, this is too much to say because it is not true. Gatsby is upset by this and emphasizes that she loved him TOO. Not necessarily the only one she ever loved. This adds to the characterization of Gatsby clearly presenting what he wants from Daisy, that she is a prize to be won. Nothing else really. He only wants her as a sign that he has achieved the American dream. Furthermore this proves Fitzgerald’s claim

that as humans we are never satisfied with where we are in life. We strive for more and never reach fulfillment just as Gatsby is not satisfied with Daisy’s love.
In their relationship, Gatsby’s characterization also enhances the argument Fitzgerald is making. Gatsby recognized that in order to marry Daisy, he would have to come up the social ladder and make money. He succeeds in doing this and when meeting Daisy again, restarting their love affair. However, he is unsatisfied when he finds out that Daisy is different from who she was and their relationship did not flourish. Nick offers him some insight in saying “‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ I ventured. ‘You can’t repeat the past’ ‘can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’ He looked around him wildly, as if the past were larking in the shadow of his house, just out of his hand” (110). Gatsby has expectations for Daisy and desires of who wants her to be. When Nick tells him not to have these expectations because that the past cannot be repeated, he negates and tells him that he definitely can. This contributes to Gatsby’s characterization in saying that he is stuck in a time where he had the girl he wanted but not the money to make her happy. Now that he has the money, he craves to go back to a time where he had the Daisy he loved. Furthermore, Gatsby will inevitably fail at reaching satisfaction because he wants to accomplish the impossible, turning back the clock. In the last words of the book, Fitzgerald makes his argument clear in saying “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter – to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning –So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past (180). When Fitzgerald refers to Gatsby reaching for the green light that was striving for daisy, the distance between them is also depicted by the water as a function of time because the time for them had passed. It is no longer retrievable. It represents that humans are always reaching for more yet always ending up empty and unfulfilled.
Conclusively, in The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald makes the contention that humans will never be satisfied with what they have. They will always reach further and strive for more. They work harder, more and faster. They reach for bigger and better things. Through the novel in the characterization of Daisy and Gatsby, Fitzgerald makes this argument. That humans fail to reach satisfaction in their attempt to have it all. Gatsby is the embodiment of that and he becomes a cautionary tale of the constant desire for more as he ends up no longer alive.