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Great Gatsby Characters

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After World War I, America seemed to provide unlimited opportunities for anyone willing to work hard—an American Dream. For many people the idea of accomplishing their American dream corrupted them, as they acquired wealth it changed them and made them a completely different person. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, we learn about a few character that appear to take advantage of the freedom of the 1920s, their lives reflect the hollowness that results when wealth and pleasure become ends in themselves. The three characters in this novel — George Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan—show that chasing the American dream can have a very high cost in the end, and only end in misery. Nick first meets George Wilson while traveling with …show more content…

Throughout the novel he is never content with what he has. He only wants one thing, Daisy’s love. Jay and Daisy had a past relationship that is broken by his deployment into WWII. When Jay comes back he finds out that Daisy moves on to a man named Tom because of his immense wealth (at the time Nick was not wealthy). This crushes Jay and drives him to become everything that Daisy would ever want, so he goes on to make millions of dollars and purchase a huge mansion in West Egg. He purposely made his mansion be across from Daisy’s home, "…Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78), because he wants to be as close to Daisy as he can without him being on top of her. From his house he is able to see/reach the green light (which represents his dreams of being with Daisy) and gaze upon Daisy’s …show more content…

He is ultimately unable to persuade her and goes through a visible depression. This entices him to take the blame for the car accident that kills Myrtle, "Yes," he said after a moment, "but of course I 'll say I was…Well, first Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and then she lost her nerve and turned back. The second my hand reached the wheel I felt the shock – it must have killed her instantly” (143), he does this because he is a hopeless romantic and wants to take care of Daisy even if she did reject him. Unfortunately this act of kindness later leads to his death because George finds out who the owner of the yellow car is (Gatsby, the car that hit Myrtle) and decides to take matters into his own hands. Later on that afternoon George ventures towards Jay’s house and shoots him and himself. This assassination brings an end to Gatsby’s American dream, which is to live with the love of his life happily ever

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