Nick’s evolving relationship with Gatsby gives the reader a clear understanding of how aggressive and misguided pursuit of the American dream at the expense of morality can lead to tragedy. Nick does not actually get to meet his mysterious neighbor, Gatsby, until he was invited to one of his infamous parties. There, Gatsby explains to Nick that he inherited money from wealthy people in the Mid West, and that he went to Oxford College. Nick is later introduced to Mr. Wolfshiem, one of Gatsby’s friends, and it becomes evident that Gatsby is involved in criminal activity. Gatsby eventually sets up tea between Jordan, Daisy’s friend, and Nick. At the tea, Jordan explains to Nick how Gatsby brought the house just across the bay in order to be close …show more content…
to Daisy, expecting her to waltz right in at one of his grandiose parties. Encouraged by Jordan and Gatsby, Nick arranges for Daisy, his cousin, and Gatsby to meet together for the first time in five years at his house.
During the gathering, Gatsby makes sure to show off the excellence of his house next door. He even tells Daisy and Nick that it took him just three years to earn the money in order to buy the house, showing his aggressiveness in achieving the American dream. As Gatsby shows off his prized house to Daisy, Nick notes that, “He [Gatsby] had been full of the idea [of having Daisy] so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity” (92). It never occurs to Gatsby that perhaps Daisy had changed over the years, or maybe she wasn’t all that he thought her to be. Gatsby believes his idealized version of Daisy is the true Daisy, even though that couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, Gatsby moves recklessly in an attempt to attain the American dream of prosperity and having Daisy by his …show more content…
side. When Nick tells Gatsby that he can’t repeat the past, Gatsby promptly refutes his argument. Nick describes him as “look[ing] around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of the reach of his hand” (110). Gatsby wants so badly to go back to the past, back to his idealized version of Daisy that he had attained when they first met, to the point where he begins to be misguided. Although, Daisy doesn’t live up to his idealized standards, he still wants her and tries wholeheartedly to break up her relationship with Tom.
He even forces Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him. Towards the end of the book, while Gatsby is driving Daisy home, Daisy takes the wheel and hits Myrtle, her husband’s mistress. Even after Daisy murders someone, Gatsby still wants to be with her and protect her. After, Myrtle’s husband decides to take vengeance. Believing that Gatsby killed his wife, Myrtle’s husband shoots him by the swimming pool. Almost no one shows up to Gatsby’s funeral, except for Nick, his father, which Gatsby claimed to be dead, and a couple of other people. At his last visit to his deceased friends house, Nick comments that, “He [Gatsby] did not know that it [his dream] was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on the under night” (180). Gatsby’s aggressive and misguided pursuit of the affluent, aristocratic Daisy led him to the life of a criminal. By chasing his out of reach dream, Gatsby ended up dead, forgotten in the mind of the one he cared about
most.
The central focus of the story is the enigma of Gatsby, his past life, and his perusal of Daisy. Desperate to rekindle their former love, Gatsby works tirelessly to achieve the pinnacle of the American dream, settles in a large, posh house, throws lavish parties, and seems on excellent terms with the world at large. That, however, is not what makes him truly happy. All he did, he did in pursuit of Daisy, and initially it appears to work. She insists that she still loves him ardently. However, when pressed, she chooses Tom once more, and Gatsby is shattered. Nick says that, “If that was true, he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream,” (161). In the end, Gatsby’s dream turns on him, betraying him to the caprice of the world. He had sincerely believed in the American Dream, and believed it would help him secure Daisy’s love. When both failed him, he was left with a lavish but empty house, and to Gatsby, his wealth and prosperity were nothing without someone to share them with. The final nail in the coffin is Gatsby’s funeral, where it becomes clear what his immense wealth gained him in terms of the human affection he was truly after. Nick Carraway jumps through all sorts of hoops and harasses many people in order to get them to go to Gatsby’s funeral, to no avail. When it came time for the burial,
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
Even though he had some thought that the meeting would provoke harmful tensions between Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, he went along with it anyways, further demonstrating his own innate lack of reservation. Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.
For five years, Gatsby was denied the one thing that he desired more than anything in the world: Daisy. While she was willing to wait for him until after the war, he did not want to return to her a poor man who would, in his eyes, be unworthy of her love. Gatsby did not want to force Daisy to choose between the comfortable lifestyle she was used to and his love. Before he would return to her, he was determined to make something of himself so that Daisy would not lose the affluence that she was accustomed to possessing. His desire for Daisy made Gatsby willing to do whatever was necessary to earn the money that would in turn lead to Daisy’s love, even if it meant participating in actions...
Daisy’s original impression of Gatsby is evident in her early letters to him, “...he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself- that he was fully able to take care of her” (149). Daisy loved Gatsby under the false hope that they belonged to the same social class. She grew up surrounded by riches, never working a day in her life, and she could not comprehend the struggles of a man who must work for the food he eats each day. Daisy knew that she must marry when she is beautiful, for being a beautiful rich girl of good social standing was her highest commodity and most valuable chip in marrying well. In order to live a secure life, she had to find someone the had the means to provide for her extravagant lifestyle, and the deep care for her that would allow Daisy to do as she pleased. The only definition of love Daisy knew was one of disillusioned power and commitments under false pretenses in order to keep the wealthy continually rich. Daisy acknowledges the false pretenses of marriage for the wealthy in how she describes her daughter’s future. She tells Nick, “‘And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this
Gatsby downfall came when he sacrificed his morality to attain wealth. Gatsby realises that the illusion of his dream with Daisy, demands wealth to become priority, and thus wealth becomes the desire overriding his need for her [Daisy’s] love. Gatsby claims to others that he has inherited his wealth, but Nick discovers "[h]is parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, pg 104) and that Gatsby has lied about his past. In a society that relies on luxuries, Gatsby throws parties to attract Daisy’s attention. Also, Gatsby expresses that same need to keep busy, just as Daisy does, in a society of the elite. Nick describes Gatsby as "never quite still, there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand" (Fitzgerald, pg 68). Gatsby fills his house "full of interesting people...who do interesting things" (Fitzgerald, pg 96). Gatsby's dream is doomed to failure in that he has lost the fundamental necessities to experience love, such as honesty and moral integrity.
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
Nick describes Gatsby as “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life(Ch.3).” Such description unifies the appearance of Gatsby with people’s expectation of a man who accomplished the American dream. The obsession with wealth often blinds people from the potential crisis. The crisis of having everything they worked and struggled for redefined if the reality fails them. Just like strivers who chase the American dream, Gatsby also spent his whole life in pursuit of his American dream, which Daisy was a major component of.
Nick finds out a few days after his move that an adored man by the name of Jay Gatsby lives next door to him. He hears about the parties that he throws and such from a friend of his cousin Daisy. He meets Daisy Buchanon, her husband Tom Buchanon, and friend Jordan Baker, at their house in East Egg. This is when everything begins to unravel. Nick is then invited to Gatsby 's party and attends it. After the party it is very apparent that Nick is intrigued in Gatsby. He even watches the party unwind, "There was music from my neighbor 's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and he champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his motor-boats slid the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before." (3.1) Nick eventually meets up
Conversely, Fitzgerald uses specific poetic lexis to characterise Daisy, whose “voice is full of money”. This shows her as unobtainable, but perhaps even more desirable for Jay. She is “the king’s daughter, the golden girl”, and for this reason society would believe that Tom is a much more suitable partner for her, as he has the money and status that she believed Jay didn't have at the time of the wedding. However Daisy did seem to love Jay briefly, but the security of marrying an affluent Buchanan was much more appealing to her and therefore she was easily able to fall in love with Tom, and the idea of a comfortable life. However Fitzgerald also characterises Jay similarly, especially with his attempts to buy Daisy’s attention with “a greenhouse”
They pass Wilson's carport, Tom's special lady Myrtle comes heading out to them, and Daisy swerves toward her, murdering her in a split second. A while later Nick takes a gander at Daisy and Tom through the window of their awesome house on East Egg as they sit over the kitchen table from one another. Scratch says, "There was an unmistakable demeanor of normal closeness about the photo and anyone would have said they were plotting together." In Daisy's manufactured yet defensive world, Tom persuades Myrtle's spouse that it is Gatsby who was the partner and Gatsby who was the one driving the demise auto. An upset George shoots Gatsby before turning the firearm on himself. Daisy and Tom leave for an amplified occasion, and just Nick and Gatsby's dad go to the burial service. Tom announces his despondency to Nick for the loss of his special lady Myrtle when he takes a gander at the case of pooch scones, yet it is fleeting. Myrtle is nonessential and her passing and in addition Gatsby's is soon regarded as only a leftover of their imprudent past that, as Nick watches, they desert for other individuals to tidy
All attention is on Daisy and she can’t deny the fact that she did indeed love Tom at one point in her life. Gatsby is taken back by this sudden confession but proceeds to tell Tom that Daisy is leaving him. Tom is confident that won’t be happening. After that, everyone heads home but this time Gatsby and Daisy drive in Gatsby’s car and Tom drives in his own car with Jordan and Nick. During the drive, they happen to arrive at an accident scene on the border of the Valley of Ashes. Michaelis, Wilson’s neighbor, informs them that the victim was Myrtle who was hit by a car that sped off. Nick connects the pieces together and knows it must have been Daisy and Gatsby who were driving in Gatsby’s yellow car. Nick is outside of Tom’s house when he
While in a New York City hotel room one evening late in the summer with Nick, Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby, there is a massive confrontation during which Tom exposes Gatsby's corrupt business dealings. Jay and Daisy leave to drive back to Long Island together with her driving Gatsby's car "to calm her down" when she accidentally hits and kills Tom's mistress. The car doesn't stop after the accident and speeds on towards Long Island. Gatsby's charm has faded with his exposed corruption. While Nick goes off to work in New York City the next day, the dead woman's vengeful husband, told that it had been Gatsby's car that killed his wife by a vengeful Tom Buchanan, shoots Gatsby to death in his own swimming pool and then kills himself.
After the argument everyone drive back home, in a bad mood, meanwhile Myrtle, Tom's mistress is hit and killed by Gatsby's car which Daisy and Gatsby were riding it. Gatsby reveals to Nick that Daisy was actually driving, but Gatsby's going to take the incrimination for it. Meanwhile, Tom told Myrtle's husband where to find the person who killed his wife. George shoots Gatsby while he's in the pool and then shoots himself committing suicide. Daisy and Tom leaves New York, leaving their mess behind them. Nick arranges Gatsby's funeral, which very few attended, Gatsby's dad showed up with some more information about his past. Standing on Gatsby's lawn and looking at where the green light was which is turned off
He ends up living right next to Jay Gatsby, the mysterious, wealthy man who throws the biggest parties every weekend. After being invited to one of his parties, Nick decides to show up, because it would be rude not to. Realizing he was the only person ever invited to one of Jay Gatsby’s famous parties, Nick, feeling as important as a king, tries to find this mysterious man at the party to find out why he was invited. Surprisingly, he succeeds and talks to him for a while. Nick still doesn’t acquire any information about his personal life. The next day, Jay Gatsby takes Nick for a ride in his car. Gatsby tells Nick about his life then and how he acquired all his money. After this, Nick starts showing up to more parties and gets to know Gatsby