F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby begins with a quote from the narrator Nick Carraway's father, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one... just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.” (Fitzgerald 7), which serves as a thematic prelude to the narrative's exploration of social class and human relationships. Central to the story are Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby; a dissatisfied housewife, an abusive husband and a hopeless romantic. Despite being raised radically differently, the three share an obsession with wealth and status and a belief that amassing it is the key to life satisfaction. Fitzgerald cleverly uses his novel to criticize this belief, instead asserting that ultimately, …show more content…
Nick Carraway narrates a conversation between the two, where Gatsby yearns for Daisy to inform Tom that she never loved him and envisions a future between the them:
He [Jay] wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ …they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house — just as if it were five years ago.
‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ I [Nick] ventured. ‘You can’t repeat the
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Another manifestation of Gatsby’s pursuit for Daisy is in the extravagant parties he throws every weekend, where he leaves his doors open and invites everyone, hopeful that eventually, Daisy will attend. What these celebrations also accomplish is portraying an image of wealth and success, an illusion that Gatsby belongs to the upper class regardless of his secretive, shady and poverty-stricken background. However, Gatsby remains a distant, unknown figure to most of the partygoers who, instead, wander like “moths among the whisperers” (Fitzgerald 29), only seeking to indulge in Gatsby's wealth and luxury. While his parties assert abundance and pleasure, during the event, Gatsby sits alone, discontent and unfulfilled, lacking any meaningful relationships in his life and still clinging to the past. Jay Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy Buchanan—his fixation on attaining status, only results in a desperate, shallow life marked by the unhappiness of never being able to pursue his first