Examples Of Obsession In The Great Gatsby

Jennifer Alfaro
Ms. Shoopman
English 3
April 3, 2023
Idealization and Obsession
“What happens to a dream deferred?” a question and a poem by Langston Hughes. It is a vague question that relates to the vague morals and goals of the characters in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Dreams are a central point in the novel, it is what motivates Gatsby to rise in social status and his need to be with Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald uses the obsessive characteristic of Gatsby with Daisy and the harsh social societal climate of the time to show the inner and outward destructive effects of dreams.
Wealth is a blessing and a destructive object. Nick Carraway is privileged to a certain extent yet he is self aware of it.``In my younger and more vulnerable

Nick takes this to heart, when he first meets Gatsby he admits that Gatsby is a likable person and is in awe of his wealth. Yet he does not yet see him as a fully developed person. It is not until the end when he learns about Gatsby’s struggles to get to the point at which he is at that he gains a sense of understanding. Yet, Nick is one of the first to notice Gatsby’s destructive nature to achieve his goal of being with Daisy. Nick also has a disdain for the ones who were born rich and did not value the privilege that they have been handed on a silver platter. “ They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and . . . then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” At this point in the story Gatsby has died, a result of his unrealistic dream, a self destructive event that is depicted as a tragedy, not because Gatsby did not end up with Daisy, yet because of the potential he had. Tom and Daisy Buchanan had the money and the power to do good in the world.

Nick’s very first encounter with Gatsby demonstrates the obsessiveness that will be further elaborated during the course of the novel. This obsession is then materialized in the form of the green light,“stretching out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way… Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away” (Fitzgerald 21-22). This quote seems to have no meaning in the beginning. Yet later on when we learn about the past of both Gatsby and Daisy we see how the light represents the idea of Daisy. The light does not represent Daisy herself because Gatsby is not in love with the current Daisy who is shown in the novel, he is in love with the dream and idea of Daisy. The light is simply a light yet to Gatsby it represents his future with Daisy, an idealized future with Daisy because in life she has received everything that he had been denied in his past as James Gatz. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning –” (Fitzgerald, 180). This is the last sentence in The Great Gatsby, it is what Fitzgerald wanted the reader to walk away with this message. A message which points out how destructive Gatsby’s dream was. An illusion