The 1920's were a time of great social and economic change in the United States. Many people migrated to the cities, where numerous job opportunities were available. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby uses these opportunities to recreate his life from poor to rich, but the one piece missing from his idealized life is Daisy. She is rich, beautiful, and appears perfect from the outside. However, as we get to know her, we learn that she is also shallow, petty, and unhappy with her situation in life. Gatsby ignores all of the negatives in Daisy in his attempt to create an idealized version of himself. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby sacrifices his honor, time, wealth, and finally his life to win back Daisy, which exemplifies his belief that the ends …show more content…
After showing Nick Gatsby's daily schedule from his earlier years, Gatsby's father said, "Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he's got about improving his mind? He was always great for that" (173). Gatsby worked extremely diligently at improving his mind, body, and general knowledge so he could pass for the upper class. He knew that the only way to be with Daisy was to be at least at the same level of "class" as her. Even when Daisy is almost too far away from reality to believe possible to reach, Gatsby continues his attempt. We can see several times throughout the novel Gatsby stretching his hands out to try to reach it: "he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way…and [I] distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock" (21). Gatsby has sacrificed more than five years of his life trying to reach Daisy. After making his way up the social ladder from the very bottom, he finally ends up in a house just across the water from her. He had been striving for this goal for so long that even when he can barely make out his goal in the mist, he still pursued