Examples Of Dreams Can Kill Jay Gatsby

Dreams Can Kill Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby is a flawed, but successful character whose own dreams and hopefulness blind him, thus leading to his demise. In The Great Gatsby, Jay is the epitome of the American Dream. Self-invention in one of its highest forms. He is following his dreams regardless of reality. To some, such as the character Nick, Gatsby's apparent will to move toward his dreams is astounding. Nick states, as he begins his retelling of the events of the book, “ [Gatsby had] an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.” This illustrates Gatsby as a figure of romanticism and hope. Yet, if the reader looks beyond Nick’s

Meaning, Gatsby was the epitome of self-invention. He rose to the top from the bottom. Nick refers to Gatsby telling the truth about his past, “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people—his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.” The American Dream of self-invention found a definition in Gatsby when he became this “Platonic conception of himself.” Again, his hopefulness brought him higher, but this also blinded him to the reality of situations. Realities in which he wants to be with Daisy, but she is married and has a child. Yet, Gatsby turns away from this, which he suffers for. Nick sates, in reference to the importance of the green light, “But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone--he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock,” This is Gatsby portraying his attachment of his dreams onto this green light. Attaching his dreams onto the idea of Daisy and a perfect life that he will create. In doing this, he creates a vision of Daisy that she cannot

It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning[...]So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Gatsby had not realized that it was too late for his dream to continue. And this green light was believed to be his dream, his future of reliving his past. In choosing to ignore reality, consequences arose. As a dreamer whose ideals stem from a belief in this “orgiastic future,” Gatsby is ill-equipped to deal with the fallout of his affair with Daisy. Even as he senses her slipping away from him, “with every word she was drawing further and further into herself,” he cannot relinquish the illusion of his already dead dream. To do so would be to abandon the romantic vision that has, for so long, inspired and energized his existence, giving his life purpose. Essentially, in aspiring to a dream, Gatsby loses the ability to distinguish between Daisy, the idealized object, and Daisy, the real and insubstantial woman. Despite all that has happened, Gatsby cannot perceive Daisy’s basic insincerity, and clings, instead, to the fragile hope that the dream will prevail. Having lived with the same illusion for so long, Gatsby is unprepared for its inevitable dissolution and can only reel against the harsh reality of a world without love, a world without hope. Nick states, “No