Examples Of Romanticism In The Great Gatsby

Romanticism is the idealized view of reality or an optimistic view of reality. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character named Gatsby has an romantic view of the world and he shared this view with his friend and neighbor Nick Carraway. In short. Gatsby’s trait of romanticism led him to believe that he could achieve the “American Dream” ever since he was a poor child growing up in North Dakota, consequently, he met a rich man named Dan Cody and a beautiful rich girl named Daisy on his journey, and he had his first taste of money, but his ambition eventually got him killed when had to risk it all for the girl. In Gatsby’s childhood, he had made many optimistic decisions that changed the rest of his life. To begin with, as

First, Nick retells the story that Gatsby told him about how he felt when he met his love named Daisy. Nick says, “[Daisy] was the first ‘nice’ girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people, but always with indiscernible barbed wire between” (148). In this quote, Nick explains how Gatsby believes that he could reach his American dream by marrying a “nice” girl. To continue, Nick explains how Gatsby, or James Gatz, changed when he met Dan Cody on a flat of Lake Superior. Nick states, “James Gatz — that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career — when he saw Dan Cody’s yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior. It was James Gatz who had been loafing along the beach that afternoon in a torn green jersey and a pair of canvas pants, but it was already Jay Gatsby who borrowed a rowboat, pulled out to the Tuolomee, and informed Cody that a wind might catch him and break him up in half an hour” (98). In other words, Gatsby romanticism led him to look for new opportunities for himself and this guided him to meet Dan Cody. Furthermore, Nick repeats how Gatsby explains that he would take the blame for Daisy killing a girl on the road. Nick talks about Gatsby when he

Ever since Gatsby was a poor child growing up in North Dakota, he wanted to achieve great things. When Gatsby met Dan Cody and Daisy, it symbolized a further interest into the American dream and his prolonged romantic views. Unfortunately, Gatsby’s romanticism led to his death when he took a risk to protect Daisy. When he was a child, Gatsby bettered himself everyday with his daily resolves and he reinvented himself to achieve greater things. When he was a young adult, Gatsby showed signs of his romanticism when he met Dan Cody and Daisy. At the time that Gatsby lived, many young people wanted to “break the glass ceiling” and many of them resorted to illegally selling alcoholic beverages during the prohibition. Gatsby was one of these people and it led him down a forlorn path. Is the American dream worth losing your life and the ones you