F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'

The Great Gatsby Independent Reading Essay #6 Many readers identify The Great Gatsby as an American classic due to the fact that it rips away at “The American Dream.” This novel takes place within the roaring twenties where the American dream could only be described as wealth and power. In The Great Gatsby, one of the main characters, Daisy Buchanan, lusts after this, but she must choose between love or safety, and this struggle illuminates F. Scott Fitzgerald’s theme for the work as a whole. In the novel, Daisy Buchanan finds herself torn between two forces, true love or security. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Daisy continually tells Gatsby how much she loves him, although she is married, but when faced with the choice of telling her husband Tom that she loves Gatsby and not Tom she can’t do it (Fitzgerald 133). She says it is because it isn’t true, because at a time she was in love with Tom, but it was because he offered security and safety and wealth, and that’s what she truly wants. She, however does still want to leave Tom, until Tom brings up

Daisy’s struggle between choosing love or safety highlights this theme. It highlights the theme of love, because throughout the book love is what keeps Daisy moving back and forth between Tom and Gatsby, she loved Tom, briefly, but she loves Gatsby and so it conflicts with her because she does love him, but she needs safety and security which Tom provides. Throughout the novel, Daisy sees herself moving back and forth between these two men because of love, “‘Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now – isn 't that enough? I can 't help what 's past.’ She began to sob helplessly. ‘I did love him once – but I loved you too.’” (Fitzgerald 132). This quote shows how she feels for both men, and she cannot say that she didn’t love him, because it wouldn’t be true. Her conflicting feelings portray the theme of love throughout the