After the world was left ravaged by a great war which brought previously unknown amounts of pain on a global scale the citizens sought after distractions. Soon after men and women both with newfound vigor and rights took to the streets to celebrate, but a wall named prohibition stood in its way. A wall that would be leaped over by the many who believed they earned their right to recline and drink to their hearts content. Although illegal, drinking was commonplace and happiness the name of the game. F. Scott Fitzgerald understood this and crafted a tale that reflects the freedom of choice and flexibility allowed by the United States. The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the film Chicago directed by Rob Marshall present …show more content…
to us a setting filled humanities infatuations with happiness that was simply there to plug up an unquestionable hole in the hearts of those numbed. The pursuit of gains found in the American dream, which is an expectation that life should continue to improve, creates illusions that are unrealistic and harmful for individuals like Gatsby and Roxie who invest in a false reality in hopes of creating a happier truth which applies to them but unknowingly affects others. Gatsby’s dream of reconciling with Daisy pushed him to pursue wealth. As he broke free from the chains of his attachments he held onto the idea that all he has accomplished will bring him closer to who he believes he loves. For Roxie her infatuations with her dream bring her closer to a reality where she is a performer, a reality she believes she would love. As her actions push her away from her marriage she is willing to sacrifice more for the fame and leave everything and everyone behind. Gatsby and Roxie both invest time and resources into a false reality to fuel their dreams. In The Great Gatsby, the past controls Gatsby's future; it binds him to a place, across from the green light, a light that swayed him before The Great War. The green light is his unrequited love, Daisy Buchanan, a married woman, a mother. He chased after her and bought a mansion across from her as soon as he could after the war. He was only capable of doing this because his enormous wealth allowed him to. His existed has convinced everyone that he is far above average expectations. “It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world.”(44) People both believed that it was important to hypothesize about who this man, Gatsby, really was, and that he could possibly be nearby in any case. Gatsby himself perpetrates his larger than life stature when he explains that he received an education at Oxford, claiming,“I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years” (65). Although only a partial lie, as he received an education there, for 5 months, the complete truth that he wishes to avoid is that he is a bootlegger. Before this is revealed, to his precious Daisy, he is the personification of the American dream. but once the truth is out the person which he cares about sees him as less because of it. For Roxie the truth is much more disappointing, which requires an even greater amount of altering. Roxie has two goals throughout the film. She needs to get off the hook for murder and in turn escape the death penalty. She also has the goal of becoming a famous performer and at times she struggles with the balancing of both goals, placing importance on one more than the other in different situations. To achieve these goals she’d be able to acquire the help needed but first a large sum of money, $5,000, would be necessary, which is reminiscent of the way Gatsby needed money to achieve his goals. With the money she’d be able to acquire the best lawyer who has never lost a case, Billy Flynn. Billy Flynn understood that the best course of action was to put on a show for the press, that all they ever wanted was a story to write about. He uses Roxie’s charm to manipulate the crowd into believing but Roxie and her lover reached for the gun before she shot him, which is a lie. Here we see her development in the eyes of the public. As she becomes hot and then stale news Roxie continues to seek the attention needed to achieve her goals. Her hunger for stardom cannot be quenched in the moment. Gatsby and Roxie have placed all of their eggs in the same basket and failure would be extremely disheartening or even deadly. The risk of the moves made by the pair reflect how much they feel the need to succeed. Gatsby has put Daisy on a towering pedestal and Roxie has always wanted to be a performer but neither of them would be able to achieve their goals without the flexibility of their time period and the highly sought after entertainment needed in the world. Roxie’s wish of becoming something greater and her anger of not being able to put her in a position where most would have seen as a detriment but in reality in allowed her to pursue her dream along with the chance of giving her life back. Her being was placed on a stage with coaches and choreographers, cameras and competitors and Roxie loved it. Roxie however did not understand that all of this was still because of a crime she committed. She would still need to convince a jury of her innocence and she finally remembered that as she saw the death of poor Katalin Helinszki who she witness being hanged. Katalin’s American Dream was to be allowed to live but it did not come into fruition, a great example of the risk in dreaming. Roxie soon allows Billy Flynn to go all in with whatever his plan is because she no longer believes that whatever she would be able to do to alter her past would not be enough or would not be taking it in the right direction. For her an error at this point would be life or death. Gatsby similarly takes great precaution with his aspirations and patiently waits for the day Daisy will attend one of his parties, but in the five years he's been throwing them she has never gone to one. As he begins to make connections with people close to Daisy Gatsby’s effort begins to pay off but how stubborn can he be about her and still be unsure of wanting to meet her. When he finally gets the chance to meet her he makes up a lazy excuse to leave, “Finally he got up and informed me, in an uncertain voice, that he was going home...Nobody’s coming to tea. It’s too late!” (84-85). This uncertainty of his dream is not enough to deter him but it is an insight to what light he sees Daisy in. To him she is practically unreachable and showcases exactly why he would put so much effort into his ambition. In the end Gatsby fails because the reality he worked so tirelessly for does not come into fruition.
What he believed would make him happy did not because of who Daisy was and Gatsby’s inability to understand that in his absence. Daisy is glad to entertain a husband who does not love her and gladly cheats on her because of the financial security he can provide her. Her little affair with Gatsby shows that there was passion there but it was not enough to split the bond of her marriage, and apparently her own dream, which was plays a role into his inability to succeed. Daisy came from a rich family with little need from an American Dream as they could easily make do with what they had. Daisy’s goal was to marry rich and that she did, even to a man that she cannot deny having once loved even in the privacy of another man that she loved, Gatsby. “Even alone I can’t say I never loved him, she admitted in a pitiful voice” (133). After that Gatsby had lost his footing and fell from grace. He could not topple what was crafted during his departure to the war. Daisy no longer believed in a we between her and Gatsby What Gatsby had worked so long for had fallen apart. Roxie experiences a different finale as she lets Billy Flynn dance around the courtroom, trusting his expertise. His lovingly crafted story of self-defense and motherhood gave her a fighting chance but what closed it off was the evidence that he planted that was given to the hands of the warden. This evidence made it …show more content…
appear that the opposing lawyer had planted the evidence himself and he soon won Roxie the popular vote. “Roxie Hart was free,” exclaimed the newspapers but the attention was no longer on her, because Chicago moves on. Gatsby’s failure is one of the realest facets of the American Dream.
People often work so hard to achieve so little and although he became rich F.Scott Fitzgerald shows us that he was never successful. Gatsby made the attempt of keeping himself composed and he kept a sense of Nobility after dropping off Daisy at her home willing to take the blame for the accident Daisy had caused. He waited for her outside her home to no avail. Gatsby was finally worn out and began to grasp what went wrong in his dream, as if he was being waken up. “He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about...like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding towards him through amorphous trees” (161). The sound of the gunshots were the last cry of Gatsby’s existence, but murdering him was quite redundant as he had died along with dreams. The man he was before his death was alone, washed away from his money and in the same social rank as the man who had killed him. James Gatz was now dead too. Roxie Hart was not murdered, but her career after the court case was dead. She could not find a job and she was no longer relevant. Her dreams would not come to be on her own, but when Velma, a fellow performer and murderer, approached her with the chance to seize
the moment and work together to make each others dreams come true Roxie was not in a position to and would not refuse. Their duo performance that earned them the stage name of the Scintillating Sinners. Roxie Hart achieved her dreams but she “couldn't have done it without you.” In the end F.Scott Fitzgerald and Rob Marshall wanted to show us the realities of what it meant to chase your dreams in the 1920’s. Roxie Hart had a dream that enticed her to pursue a lifestyle filled with drama and the need to have a spotlight on her at all times. Her words had to be well chosen and her actions were forgiven because she had the resources to get the support she needed from both a great lawyer and the publicity she would gain from press coverage. Her dream came true because she helped add to the entertainment that was found in her times. Unfortunately for Gatsby, his love, which was unmistakably there for a questionable Daisy, and sheer will was not enough to permanently alter his reality in the way he saw fit. His dream did not lign up with that of others and his masking of who he truly was made him a fraud. He was built by the American Dream but torn down by his inability to let that be known. Everyone that comes from somewhere cannot be content with nowhere.
Gatsby’s wealth did not bring him happiness nor did it bring him Daisy. Gatsby was so devoted to his love for Daisy that when she ran over her husband’s mistress, he took the blame. It was that last act of gallantry that cost him his life. In a mad rage the husband of the woman Daisy ran down killed Gatsby. It was only then that the truth that Gatsby’s new life was superficial came to light. His so called friends were users. His love affair a farce. Instead of staying by his side Daisy returned to her husband. None of the hundreds of people who came to his parties ventured to his funeral. Not even his partner in crime, Meyer Wolfsheim, cared about him in the end. He was no longer of value to any of
Daisy's greed can best be seen in her choice of a husband, and in the circumstances
...illingly for a murder Daisy committed and not him. Gatsby had a period of happiness when he was with Daisy and thought it was the best time of his life, and Daisy seemed to think the same. Gatsby was still not good enough for Daisy though because he was part of West Egg, the lesser wealthy. But everything seemed to be an illusion; the story took place in the time of the Gilded Age. Nothing was how it seemed to be, while everything seems to be good on the outside, deep down there are always problems and abandoned memories, which eventually come up again and often causes problems. We all make mistakes in our life, love can influence our decisions greatly, but what’s important in life is setting your priorities straight, becoming a better person from our mistakes, and lastly, loving a person for whom they are on the inside rather than any material possessions or looks.
The Great Gatsby is an emotional tale of hope of love and “romantic readiness”(1.2) that is both admirable and meritorious .Yet, the question of Daisy ever being able to measure up to Gatsby’s expectations is one that reverberates throughout the course of the novel. Be that as it may, Daisy is never truly able to measure up to Gatsby’s expectations because the image of Daisy in Gatsby’s mind is entirely different from who she actually is. Even during his younger years, Gatsby had always had a vision of himself “as a son of God”(6.98) and that “he must be about his fathers business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty”(6.98). Gatsby’s desire for aristocracy, wealth, and luxury is exactly what drives him to pursue Daisy who embodies everything that that Gatsby desires and worked towards achieving. Therefore, Gatsby sees Daisy as the final piece to his puzzle in order realize his vision. Gatsby’s hyperbolized expectation of Daisy throws light on the notion if our dreams as individuals are actually limited by reality. Since our dreams as human beings are never truly realized, because they may be lacking a specific element. Daisy proves to be that element that lingers in Gatsby’s dreams but eludes his reality.
Dreams can be powerful and inspiring, yet when taken too far, they can be toxic to one’s happiness and even fatal in Gatsby’s case. Reality, on the other hand, is always trustworthy, and it is wiser to simply accept and adjust to the faults and imperfections of a society rather than to try to fight them like Holden and Gatsby did. Both men were unwilling to relinquish their precious dreams, yet in the end, that no longer mattered because society took them anyway and annihilated them. The downfall of both these characters demonstrates the importance of staying grounded and never veering too far off the path of reality, because dreams alone cannot serve as a sufficient foundation on which to build a prosperous, fruitful life.
When he first meets Daisy, Gatsby becomes infatuated with his idea of her, or rather, the false persona that she creates of herself. In fact, Gatsby reveals that “she was the first ‘nice’ girl he had ever known” (155). Gatsby was so impressed with Daisy mainly because of her wealth and her status; it is what he wants. However, Daisy chooses Tom Buchanan over Gatsby, solely because of his social status. As a result, Gatsby revolves his whole life around her: he becomes wealthy, creates a new image of himself, and buys a house across the bay from Daisy. For instance, he fabricates lies about how “ [he is] the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west” (69) and how “ [he] was brought up in America but educated at Oxford” (69) in order to impress her. These lies end up altering others’ perspectives of him - not necessarily in a positive way - and impacting his life as a whole. Daisy unwittingly transforms Gatsby into a picture-perfect image of the 1920s: lavish parties, showy cars, and a false illusion of the attainment of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s newfound wealth and success, he never fully accomplishes his dream: to get Daisy. Gatsby’s final act for the sake of Daisy has no impact on her feelings towards him. When Gatsby claims that he crashed into Myrtle and killed her, Daisy carelessly lets him do so, which ultimately results in his death. To make
Instead of investing in their marriage, they chose to actively destroy it by looking for fulfillment in other uncalled for relationships. Their true love for each other is doubted. When Tom finds out that Daisy and Gatsby are having an affair, Tom says to Gatsby, “...what 's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time” (“Great Gatsby” 19). Tom does not seem to view his “spree” as he views Daisy. He wants Daisy to be loyal to him even though he himself is not loyal to her. Though Tom claims to love Daisy and does not like that she is after Gatsby, he says that he loves her in his heart, and meanwhile is still interested in Myrtle. Love is an action, not just a feeling, so his statement of “love” contradicts him. Interestingly enough, though Daisy loves Gatsby, her love for him is not enough to persuade her to completely give Tom up. Gatsby tells her, "‘Daisy... Just tell him the truth-that you never loved him...’ She hesitated...she realized at last what she was doing-and as though she had never, all along, intended doing anything at all. But it was done now. It was too late” (“Great Gatsby” 20). Her hesitance shows that she was torn between Tom and Gatsby, but when she realized the tight spot she was in, she gave in to Gatsby- for the time
“’Did you see any trouble on the road?’ he asked after a minute. ‘Yes.’ He hesitated. ‘Was she killed?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I thought so; I told Daisy I thought so. It’s better that the shock should all come at once. She stood it pretty well.’ He spoke as if Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that mattered.” Gatsby’s hesitation before asking “Was she killed” means he has bad memories from mentioning murder, especially since he was involved in one. The damage in reputation that this kill could possibly result in is enough to hurt Gatsby, and his achievements will have become worthless. During the part where Gatsby claims that he “thought so; I told Daisy I thought so. It’s better that the shock should all come at once. She stood it pretty well,” Gatsby
The novel The Great Gatsby displays deceitfulness in many of its characters. The deceit brings many of the characters to their downfall. Gatsby had the greatest downfall of them all due to the fact it took his life. In The Great Gatsby , “ Gatsby goes to spectacular lengths to try to achieve what Nick calls ‘his incorruptible dream’ to recapture the past by getting Daisy Buchannan love” (Sutton). Gatsby always had an infatuation with Daisy, Jordan Baker said,”Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 83). Gatsby and Daisy did have a past together. While Jordan was golfing, “The Officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime[…]His name was Jay Gatsby and I didn’t lay eyes on him for over four years-even after I’d met him in long island I didn’t realize it was the same man” (Fitzgerald 80). Daisy is now in an abusive relationship with Tom Buchannan, “Nick Carraway attends a small publicly blames Tom for the bruise on her knuckle” (Sutton). When they meet again Gatsby showers Daisy with love and affection, wanting her to leave her husband Tom, but she does not want to in their society. Tom and Gatsby get into an argument and tom tells Daisy about Gatsby’s bootlegging that brought him to his riches. Tom yelled, “He a...
In the 1920s, prohibition, the ban on alcohol is in full force in order to better society, alcohol was seen as the corrupter of people’s judgement. Ironically prohibition caused society to decay, despite the many boons happening at the time. Beneath the seemingly prosperous country lies corruption, inequality, and despair. The corruption is so obvious, that author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a book on this subject called The Great Gatsby. His main character, Jay Gatsby, spent his whole life trying to become rich enough to win the heart of a now married Daisy.
Jay Gatsby had the biggest dream of his life which was to turn back time to the way it was with Daisy in his life . But is Gatsby really trying to recreate the past, of course not he is constantly trying to create a better future. A type of future where his one true love Daisy could be in it with him. But also there is a problem, and that problem is the fact that Daisy is married. What were the efforts given by Gatsby to recreate the past.
He never wanted to give up on her, so he tried to recreate their past in hopes of rekindling a love they once had. “Gatsby's gospel of hedonism is reflected in his house, wild parties, clothing, roadster, and particularly in his blatant wooing of another man's wife. Daisy, a rather soiled and cheapened figure, is Gatsby's ultimate goal in his concept of the American dream. However, he falls victim to his own preaching. He comes to believe himself omniscient-above the restrictions of society and morality. His presumption extends to a belief that he can even transcend the natural boundaries placed upon human beings. He will win back Daisy by recapturing the past” (Pearson). Gatsby lies about his lifestyle including the parties, clothing, and almost all of the other aspects he reveals about himself, to impress his teenage love, Daisy, who also happens to be Tom’s wife. He believes he can win Daisy back from her husband by throwing lavish parties, and putting on a deceitful lifestyle in an attempt to lead her in believing he qualified to be one of the elite. “The book's chief characters are blind, and they behave blindly. Gatsby does not see Daisy's vicious emptiness, and Daisy, deluded, thinks she will reward her gold-hatted lover until he tries to force from her an affirmation she is too weak to make. Tom is blind to his hypocrisy; with "a short deft movement" he breaks Myrtle's nose for daring to mention the
Daisy becomes harder to grasp when Gatsby’s unworldly views on time and what is achievable causes her to fade from his dreams. His determination encompasses naivety because his dreams are unrealistic. Gatsby not only wants Daisy back, but he also wants to remove her past with Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband. Gatsby demands Daisy to tell Tom how she never loved him, but Daisy struggles to because it is not the truth. She tells Gatsby, “’Oh, you want too much!... I love you now – isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.’… The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby” (132). Gatsby’s expectation for Daisy to delete the memory of her past love for Tom like words on a computer is naïve. It is Gatsby’s fault for fabricating a false idea of Daisy that separates his idea of her from her. He has a vision of a perfect story, but Daisy’s inability to erase her past with Tom critically ruins Gatsby’s vision. In his mind, Daisy only loves him, but when Daisy admits to the truth of once loving Tom as well, it is intolerable to Gatsby and his dream begins to fall apart. Similarly, Gatsby’s perception of time is flawed due to his obsession with Daisy. Ever since Daisy left Gatsby, he chases after her, looking for the past. When he finally meets her after many years, he sees an opportunity to start over and strives to avoid losing her
At the hotel gathering, Gatsby struggles to persuade Daisy to confront her husband and she responds with “Oh, you want too much! . . . I did love him once--but I loved you too” (Fitzgerald 132). Daisy desperately tries to satisfy Gatsby but his imagination blocks his mind to such a degree that it eliminates his chances of learning how to comprehend reality. After Myrtle’s murder, Nick advises Gatsby to leave town but instead he realizes that “[Gatsby] wouldn’t consider it. He couldn’t possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do. He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free” (Fitzgerald 148). No matter how hard Nick attempts to help him make the better choice, Gatsby continues to skew his priorities like a juvenile. Unfortunately for Gatsby, Daisy stays with Tom, a more secure and experienced adult, leaving Gatsby alone. As Gatsby’s life loses his vitality, he obviously needs learn how to act like an adult and survive in the world; but unable to accomplish this, Wilson kills him soon
In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy struggles between her desire to be with someone she truly loves and her rational to be with someone who will give her social and financial stability. Ultimately, Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby as he is the safer option once Gatsby is revealed to be untruthful, showing that she is predominately interested in a steady life.