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Theme of the great Gatsby and how the author shows it in the book
Themes and morals in the great gatsby
Themes and morals in the great gatsby
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Expectations vs. Reality
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the importance of expectation versus reality. This theme is central in The Great Gatsby, because it demonstrates Fitzgerald’s purpose for writing the book: to show that money does not buy happiness. This proverb relates back to expectation versus reality as well. One expects that once they have money, they will have no worries and will obtain the happiness that supposedly comes with an elevated status. However, in reality, money buys objects- not feelings. Gatsby expects that after becoming very rich that he can win back Daisy, because he can offer her money and the extravagant lifestyle she has grown accustomed to. In reality, Daisy remains with her brutish
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husband, Tom Buchanan, and continues to live the life of a mistreated trophy wife with a place in the upper echelon of Long Island society.
The most prevalent example of this theme is Jay Gatsby’s expectations versus his cruel reality. Gatsby often mentions how he wishes to be with Daisy just as the two had been together before he was torn from her. When Nick tries to discourage Gatsby from having such high expectations for their future by asserting that the past cannot be repeated, Gatsby exclaims to Nick, "’Can't repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can’" (Fitzgerald 116). This demonstrates Gatsby’s expectation that he and Daisy can revert back to the exact same people that they were, as if no time had passed. Gatsby further greatens his expectations of Daisy by asking her to claim that she never loved her husband, Tom (Fitzgerald 132). This proved to be too much for Daisy; leading to her reaction, “’Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now- isn’t that enough?’” (Fitzgerald 132). Then, reality set in. Daisy could not live up to Gatsby’s expectations. Daisy decided to continue her marriage with …show more content…
Tom; living a life of wealth and opulence. However, she made this decision after accidentally killing Tom’s mistress by running her over. Gatsby took the blame for this murder and died for an act he did not commit; all in an attempt to protect the woman whose love he could never attain. Gatsby’s funeral is attended by only a few people. Once again, reality has destroyed what Gatsby had worked to achieve. Gatsby threw large extravagant parties that were open to all who wandered in. One would expect that these party-goers would feel some connection to Gatsby, but in reality, none of his party guests cared enough to attend the funeral of their late host. However, Gatsby has one person who stood by him even after he had passed: Nick Carraway. Nick writes, “I found myself on Gatsby’s side, and alone… it grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interested” (Fitzgerald 164). Another important example of how the disconnectedness of expectation and reality in The Great Gatsby relates back to the purpose, to demonstrate that money does not buy happiness, is Tom Buchanan. Tom’s expectation was that he could engage in an affair with a mistress from a far lower class than him and continue his marriage with his upper-class wife. This expectation was a highly superficial one, because he hoped to maintain his marriage with Daisy in order to preserve his status and place in the social hierarchy, and hoped to maintain his affair with Myrtle because Daisy simply wasn’t enough for him. In reality, Myrtle’s husband, George Wilson, discovers his wife is having an affair and decides it’s time to move out west. Myrtle is slipping away from Tom. At the same time, Tom realizes his wife has been having an affair with Jay Gatsby. Daisy too is slipping from Tom’s grip. He can’t maintain a relationship with the two women. Ultimately, Tom’s mistress is accidentally killed by his wife with a car. However, Tom shifts the blame onto Gatsby and salvages his marriage to Daisy. The two leave Long Island with their possessions; but, more importantly, their wealth and status. Reality has fallen short of expectation once again: Tom could not have both women. For my creative representation, I made a puzzle.
This puzzle represents how expectations and reality rarely coincide in The Great Gatsby. Ordinarily, when you put together a puzzle, you use the picture of the finished image on the front of the box as a reference for where to put each puzzle piece. This picture on the box is identical to the picture created once the puzzle is completed. Similarly, what you expect to occur usually occurs. You expect that it will rain, you expect that the number one ranked team will win the super bowl, you expect that you’ll get an A on a test that you stayed up all night studying for. However, in The Great Gatsby, this is not the case. For the puzzle, I chose the most important example of reality not living up to expectations. On the front of the puzzle is Gatsby’s expectation that he and Daisy will go back to the way things were and the two will be happy and together, like no time has passed at all. The green light that has represented Daisy throughout the book shines brightly in place of where the sun should sit on the horizon. The sun is the center of our universe, and everything else revolves around it. The green light is the center of Gatsby’s universe, and everything he’s done has revolved around it. Everything he’s done has been to win Daisy back. Inside the puzzle are the misshapen and scattered pieces of reality. The image is of a broken heart. On one side is Tom and Daisy; continuing their life of wealth and opulence.
The two are clearly oblivious to the destruction they have left behind as they enjoy cocktails behind curtains the color of the money they care so much for. On the other side is Gatsby’s funeral, with Nick, Gatsby’s only friend, standing hunched over his casket. The colors are all dark and somber, representing death and sadness. But, you can’t piece together reality by looking at the expectation. The two are entirely different. This is what occurs in the book. Gatsby expects to win the love of his life and live happily, but instead ends up dead with only Nick who truly cared about him. In conclusion, the theme of expectation versus reality is used by Fitzgerald to bolster the purpose: to show that money does not buy happiness. Fitzgerald uses this theme throughout the book, and shows multiple examples of occurrences when reality fails to meet the outcome that the characters of The Great Gatsby had expected. The visual, a puzzle, that I have created also demonstrates this theme by showing the most prevalent example in the book.
In this day and age, money is a very important asset to have. One needs to have at least enough to live on, though great amounts are preferable. In The Great Gatsby, by Thomas F. Fitzgerald, having a large amount of money is not enough. It is also the way you acquire the money that matters. Gatsby and Tom both have a lot of money yet Daisey picks one over the other, not because of the difference in the amount they have, but because of the manner in which it is attained.
The theme “blind pursuit of an ideal is destructive” is the main message of The Great Gatsby. Gatsby is on a blind pursuit of happiness. His ideal is to be with Daisy as he was in the past. Although, you can not ever really grasp the past and have things the same as they once were. This pursuit is destructive because Gatsby can not be satisfied with Daisy anymore. He really longed for an image of the past and how he and Daisy used to be, but she is not the same as she once was. Her past self is unobtainable but Gatsby is persistent. Gatsby vision of Daisy is unrealistic and much better than her true self. Nick stated in the book, “Daisy tumbled short of his dreams- not through her own fault, but because of his colossal vitality of his illusion”.
Because of his wealth, everything in Gatsby’s life hints at having power through status and money, but he is not happy because all he wants to do is be with hard to reach Daisy; she is the reason why he acquires the materialistic things he does in the first place.
According to Cynthia Wu, no matter how many critical opinions there are on The Great Gatsby, the book basically deals with Gatsby's dream and his illusions (39). We find out from the novel that Jay Gatsby is not even a real person but someone that James Gatz invented. Wu also tells us that Gatsby has illusions that deal with romance, love, beauty, and ideals (39). Wu also points out that Gatsby's illusions can be divided into four related categories: he came from a rich upper class family, a never ending love between him and Daisy, money as the answer to every problem, and reversible time. Through Nick's narrations we can really see who this Jay Gatsby is and the reality to his illusions, and from this we can make our own decision on who we think Jay Gatsby really is.
Like the author Garrison Keillor once said “ I believe in looking reality in the face and denying it” ,but in this tale , isn’t very wise. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, some of the character are in disillusionment, but the one that is constantly in it is Jay Gatsby.Although, people can do this, Gatsby tries to recreates the past and never considers Daisy’s reality.Through Gatsby’s choices, Fitzgerald displays his argument that people should accept reality .
“Gatsby makes pure ideal of loving money than before, because he wants to make up for the past. He believes that he can buy the love of Daisy” (Na). Little did he know that one can’t repeat the past because the past is already behind him. Gatsby has a grand vision for his life and Daisy was part of his plan; he wants Daisy’s love but aims for a social high status and power by marrying her. In the F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, a central theme involves the idea that money can’t buy love; this is portrayed by Nick Carraway’s narration of the infidelity in the novel, Daisy’s betrayal of Gatsby and the ending result of Gatsby’s death.
In the end, Gatsby loses all of his friends and never truly becomes happy. Through this novel, Fitzgerald comments on the prevalent belief that, in order to be successful one must be wealthy or strive towards it, even if it is by any means necessary. This lends to the belief of wealth acting on a person 's motivation towards any aspect in
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a man of meager wealth who chases after his dreams, only to find them crumble before him once he finally reaches them. Young James Gatz had always had dreams of being upper class, he didn't only want to have wealth, but he wanted to live the way the wealthy lived. At a young age he ran away from home; on the way he met Dan Cody, a rich sailor who taught him much of what he would later use to give the world an impression that he was wealthy. After becoming a soldier, Gatsby met an upper class girl named Daisy - the two fell in love. When he came back from the war Daisy had grown impatient of waiting for him and married a man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby now has two coinciding dreams to chase after - wealth and love. Symbols in the story, such as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the contrast between the East Egg and West Egg, and the death of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson work together to expose a larger theme in the story. Gatsby develops this idea that wealth can bring anything - status, love, and even the past; but what Gatsby doesn't realize is that wealth can only bring so much, and it’s this fatal mistake that leads to the death of his dreams.
"I hope she'll be a fool-that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." Daisy admits this to Nick on page 17. This short statement reflects a great deal on what the society of that time thought about women. They were supposed to marry money and be happy the rest of their lives. This represents a theme in the Great Gatsby that many people believe that money can buy you happiness and love. Many characters in this book try to buy things that they think will make them happy. For Tom it was Myrtle, and for Gatsby it was Daisy. Money only increased their problems, for instead of realizing that the thing they wanted would not satisfy them they continued to push at happiness with money expecting results. At the end of the book the reader comes to realizes that happiness and love is one thing money can’t buy for most people. There are many examples of this throughout this book.
In the book “The Great Gatsby”, Gatsby, begins by allowing his mind to believe that he can repeat the past. He starts to fanaticize about Daisy, a girl he met before war. Towards the end of the book his dream is crushed due to Daisy leaving and eventually giving him the fall for Myrtle’s death. The American dream is a time in history in which riches mattered and money bought everything even happiness. Fantasy was all about imagining something that isn’t necessarily possible. Gatsby tends to stick to the ideal of the American dream throughout the story. For example, the green light. This symbolizes the open door to new dreams that lead to never ending imagination. Therefore, everything Gatsby allowed himself to believe was reality, came to be a thought that was
The idea of money being able to bring happiness is another prevalent modernist theme found in The Great Gatsby. According to Sparknotes, Fitzgerald acts as the poster child for this idea. He, himself in his own life, believes this as well. He puts off marrying his wife until he has enough money to support her (SparkNotes). Fitzgerald’s delay to marry his wife and Gatsby’s quest to buy Daisy’s love are parallel (Gatsbylvr).
Gatsby is a dreamer, he dreams that one day he and Daisy will be able to be together once again. To achieve this dream, Gatsby has made himself a rich man. He knows that in order to win Daisy back, he must be wealthy and of high social stature. Gatsby is rich, has a beautiful mansion, nice things, things like shirts “They’re such beautiful shirts. . . It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful clothes” (pg.98).Gatsby believes his dream will come true because of all the money and nice things he has.
In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby proves that money cannot buy everything through his attempts to pursue Daisy, his lack of true friends and his constant feeling of emptiness. He constantly relies on his wealth to solve his problems. Unlike the reader, Gatsby never gets to learn the lesson of not being able to buy his way out of all his problems.
middle of paper ... ... Specific examples of this have been shown in Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s failing marriage, and Gatsby expecting Daisy to be the person she was before she met Tom. From this novel, the theme of not living in the past and taking advantage of opportunities when they are given shows that it is miserable trying to fix things that already happen. You will never learn to live in the present if you try to fix everything in your past.
perhaps even one of the greatest novels of all time. In order to be revered as a