Examples Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

Katie Maggipinto

Elston

English 11 Honors

2 March 2023

Unrealistic Love in The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is not the love story most readers initially assume it is. The romance between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan is depicted in the novel as this forbidden love between two star-crossed loves that ends tragically with the death of Jay Gatsby. The love shared between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby is a hoax; Gatsby, in pure desperation for the American Dream, imagined an ideal Daisy. Daisy Buchanan was never in love with Jay Gatsby as much as she was in love with money and the idea of being a young, beautiful fool again.

Gatsby was fixated on a Daisy that never existed, his love for Daisy was never real. Gatsby’s love

“Gatsby’s dream of love symbolizes the death of love itself. His love towards Daisy and his affinity and admiration of her seems too much idealized, and, probably unreal. This is clear when Nick Caraway, the narrator says, “I tried to think about Gatsby then for a moment, but he was already too far away, and I could only remember, without resentment, that Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower. Dimly I heard someone murmur “Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on,” and then the owl-eyed man said, “Amen to that,” in a brave voice.” (Baker) Gatsby’s delusion was always apparent and was never hidden. The fact that his idealized romance with Daisy was always apparent since the very beginning of the novel hints at the fact that Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan’s romance was fleeting and irrational. This example from Baker explains how shallow their love was in the sense of how Daisy didn’t even show up to Gatsby’s funeral, almost like she never cared about him as a person in the first place. “The pursuit of the American Dream is indubitably one of the most prominent themes of The Great Gatsby, and essential to the storyline. The changing values in society was to some extent due to the wealth

She was a very materialistic woman who pined for Gatsby due to his immense wealth he gained over the course of time after Daisy and Gatsby first met. Wealth and the idea of having that younger feeling and the idea of the bliss of her days of being the young, beautiful fool again. Once she realized Tom had more to offer with his older money, and after the novelty of Gatsby worn off after he tried to sustain a commitment with her, she was no longer invested in him. “Daisy’s self-avowed “sophistication” (Fitzgerald 24), or rather remarkable indifference to most things, including her own daughter, emphasizes another aspect of the American Dream. In the sense that it is not merely the accumulation of material possessions — a house, a car, polo-ponies, and expensive clothing — but also the spiritual fulfilment and happiness of the individual, her impassiveness, and nonchalant demeanor inhibits her from achieving even this fundamental part of the American Dream.” (Zeven) Jay Gatsby had been fantasizing and dreaming about a life with Daisy Buchanan for four years, and had not seen her since. His desperation for the ideal American dream is very perceivable, however Daisy is a very shallow character who only cares about status. When Gatsby was pushing Daisy to tell Tom she never loved him, she was very agitated and was unable to do it. Gatsby was always wanting to stay in the past and pretend that everything is how it was when