The Great Gatsby - Essay Example

The Great Gatsby: The Corruption of the American Dream-how its Original Idealism has Been Replaced by Materialism and Greed In a world of supersonic travel, medical break-through, and advance technology, we live in a world of materialism and greed. In the book, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is in pursuit of the American Dream-materialism and greed. Long before Jay met Daisy, he hated poverty, so much so, that he disassociate himself from his poor, farming parents. At seventeen, he tasted opulence while living with Cody on his yacht. For a short while, Gatsby experienced the American Dream with Cody. Gatsby could have found his America Dream through education, but that would be a slow process; especially if getting means taking a janitorial job to pay his tuition; that was too demeaning. It was a reminder of his poverty. Gatsbys parents were poor farmers, whom he had never accepted as his parents. .. He developed out of an idealization of the American Dream... One day, while attending a small Lutheran college in southern Minnesota and feeling dismayed by having to work as a janitor to put himself through school, Gatsby spots the moored yacht of Dan Cody. In an action that changes the young boys life, Cody welcomes him aboard his yacht and introduces him to fine living. Gatsby becomes the protegè of the wealthy goldminer and lives with him until Cody dies. With some wealth of his own and dreams of more, he goes into the army(Media Adaptations). Gatsby wanted the American Dream, long before he met Daisy. Meeting Daisy only enhances his chase of the “golden fleece.” Gatsby is so infatuated with Daisy that he could not see beneath her beauty; “He found her excitingly desirable.” Jordan tells Nick that; “the officer looked at Daisy...in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at some time.” He wants her because other men want her. The difference in their social status lured him to her even more. “He took her because he had no real right to touch her hand.” “He becomes impressed with her beautiful home and many boyfriends(Media Adaptations). Gatsby truly believes that money is the obstacle between him and Daisy; the truth is Daisy does not love him. She is not capable of loveing. Daisy is fickle, but Gatsby does not see this, he convinces himself that if he gets wealth, Daisy will choose him above her other boyfriends. For Gatsby, the American Dream means wealth and Daisy. Gatsby goes to war comforted by the fact that Daisy is waiting for him. However, Daisy does no such thing, her loyalty goes to the highest bidder, Tom Buchanan. It is obvious that neither Gatsby nor Daisy knows what love really is. Daisys requirement list for a husband has only one item, money. Gatsby does not have a list for a wife, he really does not need a wife, he wants Daisy, and Daisy only, at any cost. Daisy is a beautiful thing, a fantasy that he must fulfill he must have her, despite her flaws. Even when she is married to someone else, Gatsbys hope of having her does not waver. Since there is no real love between Gatsby and Daisy, in The Great Gatsby, there is no real truth to Gatsbys vision. Hand in hand with this idea is the appearances and reality theme. Fitzgerald displays what critics have termed an ability to see the face behind the mask. Thus, behind the expensive parties, Gatsby is a lonely man (Topics for Further Study). The fact that Gatsby wanted wealth and got it, gives him reason to think that he could lure Daisy away from her husband. Poor Gatsby, “It excites him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy, it increased her value in his eyes. The very reasons that would make other men run from Daisy, are the reasons that strengthens Gatsbys reverence of her. Upon his return after five years, his desire for Daisy has never wavered. Gatsby lives in a fantasy, during those five years they never kept in touch, nor did Daisy promised to wait for him, Yet, he returns like a Machiavellian Knight to reclaim his possession. It is uncanny that a man who is intelligent enough to attend an ivy league school such as Oxford, cannot differentiate between reality and illusion. This is a man who breaks the law to gain the American Dream, and never gets caught. Yet, for one woman, he is weak, fragile, and fallible. Gatsby would do anything just for a glance, or a chance encounter with this make-believe fantastic, extraordinary creature. He even reads the newspaper, “just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisys name.” Carl Thomas Samuels says that although little is seen of Gatsby, and one scarcely ever hears him speak, he is ever present. His existence, is different from other characters in fiction as a life force. “He recalls the everlasting yea of Carlyle, as well as the meta physical rebellion of Camus. His heightened sensitivity to the promise of life is but one half of his energy; the other being a passionate denial of lifes limitations.” Gatsbys dedication to Daisy is an underlying conflict on the human condition. His passion defies time and disintegrates “to make the glorious first moment of wonder, which is past, eternally present. His passion is supra-sexual, even super personal.” He tells Nick that the Daisy who loves Tom is not the Daisy who loves him. The Daisy who loves him is the Daisy who "blossomed for him like a flower," incarnating his dream, the moment he kissed her. Gatsbys life is totally dependent on Daisy for happiness. Unfortunately, life does not honor such devotion, nor, does it deserve it. “Gatsby is great for having paid life the compliment of believing its promise”(Carl Thomas Samuels). Gatsby got the American Dream but it is a lonely achievement. If only he had made the effort to dismiss Daisy from his life, life would have been so different for him. If Gatsby had Daisy, he would have become tired of her, she is this big illusion as long as he cannot have her. All his lavish parties are only a facade to impress Daisy. Gatsby never loved Daisy, he had a fatal attraction for her. He took the blame for killing Myrtle, and Daisy is not even thankful. As a matter of fact she ignored him as he stood outside her house. Gatsby held fast to his dream―Daisy loves him. From the time Gatsby embarked upon his quest for the American Dream, he lost his soul. In the end it is his desire to share the American Dream with Daisy that robbed him of his life. Daisy is Gatsbys reason to live and if he could not have her, then he did not have anything. Consequently, death is the kindest thing that will ever happen to him. Gatsby prefers to die with the illusion that Daisy still loves him than to live with the reality that she does not love him. Just before he dies, he tells the butler that if anyone called he would be by the pool. Nick says about Gatsby: No telephone message arrived...I have an idea that Gatsby himself didnt believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost t he old warm world,paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. 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 scarcely created grass Although they attend his lavish parties, no one care that Gatsby had died. “The Great Gatsby” lost his soul and his life for the love of a woman, left this world and only two people will remember him, his father and Nick. As far as everyone is concerned he may as well have been the nobody, James Gatz. Read More