Examples Of Hope In The Great Gatsby

A theme is the subject of a discussion, piece of writing, etc. In nearly every short story or novel, there is an overall theme. Hope is a big theme not only in many stories and novels, but also in life in general. According to Merriam-Webster, hope is a desire with anticipation or the want for something to happen or be true. Often times, hope is what gets people through many hardships in their lives. Hope can also keep people motivated to keep doing what they do because they expect something good will happen in their benefit. Hope has an appearance, specifically, in the novel The Great Gatsby. The main theme of the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is hope because hope can be seen playing the biggest role in the entire story

For example, Gatsby’s actions and words are influenced by the false hope of being able to win over Daisy. During an argument, Gatsby confidently says to Tom, “Daisy’s leaving you” (Fitzgerald 133). The reason why he is able to speak it so confidently is because his the false hope of Daisy returning to him became a reality in his own mind. Even when Daisy did not confirm his statement, he continued to speak with full confidence in hopes that everything he said was true. Also, a critic stated that “the quest for medical perfection is too expensive and will lead to a crisis of inequality in the delivery of healthcare in the future” (Johnson), which supports the idea of false hope. When going on a quest for medical perfection, there is false hope that it will actually come into existence successfully in the following years to come. However, this will forever be something that is nonexistent because it is too costly and there will be an uneven distribution of this so-called “medical perfection.” Therefore, even if it does become a reality, it will not be successful because people who cannot receive it will be dissatisfied and cause disturbance to society in order to gain it. Therefore, this is the perfect evidence to support the idea of false hope. A third example of hope is when Gatsby continues to stay in town after the death of Wilson. He stayed in hopes of Daisy calling back which is evident on

The strong feeling of hope keeps Gatsby motivated to work hard in order to win back Daisy. This is evident in an exchange between Gatsby and Nick, when Gatsby desperately tries to put in his best efforts to win over Nick. In fact, “He waited a moment longer, hoping I’d begin a conversation, but I was too absorbed to be responsive, so he went unwillingly home”(Fitzgerald 83), which further proves how hard Gatsby tried. A critic analyzes Gatsby’s actions and also says that hope is the desire in which keeps Gatsby’s motivation alive. The critic, Will, says that Gatsby’s “lies, pretensions, and corruption did not matter” and that the term “wonder” describes Gatsby’s desire to have Daisy which is the hope that kept Gatsby going (Will). Strong feeling of hope gave Gatsby patience along with his efforts as well. An example is when “he had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths so that he could ‘come over’ some afternoon to a stranger’s garden” (Fitzgerald 83). His desire for Daisy kept his patience while waiting for five years just to buy a mansion closer to Daisy. Another piece of evidence is during the interaction between Tom and Gatsby where Tom continues to make rude remarks towards Gatsby, however, Gatsby keeps calm in front of Daisy (Fitzgerald 132-137). The reason for this is because he wanted to show Daisy that