How Does Daisy Use Power In The Great Gatsby

Rolls Royce's pulling up on driveways, pink suits, ravishing gardens, and parties that go from sundown to sunrise; this is Jay Gatsby’s life. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald Gatsby seems to have everything figured out, he lives the highlife. Gatsby though, is an enigma to all, but one thing that is known is that Gatsby doesn’t struggle with a divide between his power of wealth and his dream of being with Daisy, instead he uses his power to get his dream, and Gatsby comes to stand for America itself, in the American Dream. Money equals power and with power comes opportunities, in Gatsby's case this also applies. Gatsby uses his power of enormous wealth to achieve his dream of being with Daisy, leaving no divide between the two.

Every step Gatsby take that involves money seems to literally bring him closer to Daisy. Gatsby wants to amaze and show off his luxuries to Daisy and he uses his wealth in order to do so. Gatsby badly “wants [Daisy] to see his house”(79) because he wants Daisy to see just how rich he is. He believes that this is what will bring Daisy back. This seems to work out for Gatsby because Daisy sees Gatsby house and she can’t help but cry “That huge place over there?...I love it”(90). Gatsby goes to the extent of buying a greenhouse of flowers to send to Nick’s when he is going to meet Daisy at Nick’s place. The “Flowers were unnecessary”(84), but to Gatsby it’s not. He does all this to get his dream, Daisy. He tries to impress Daisy with what he is able to buy with his wealth..his power. When Gatsby, Nick, and Daisy are in Gatsby’s house, Gatsby “[revalues] everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes”(91). Gatsby’s mission is to make sure Daisy amazed and that she approves of his luxuries. Daisy is materialistic and Gatsby because he has the power(money) is able to buy and impress her with materialistic things. Gatsby “[takes] out a pile of shirts...shirts of sheer linen and thick silk

This is who Gatsby is, Gatsby’s “parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people”(98). He has nothing growing up, but Gatsby has a different plan “[he] never really accepted them as his parents at all”(98). Instead he “[springs] from a platonic conception of himself”(98). Gatsby knows he is destined for something more than life on the farm. He invents Jay Gatsby, a person “a seventeen year old would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end”(98). Gatsby dedicated his life to this platonic conception of himself and doesn’t stray away from it. Although illegally, Gatsby climbs the economic ladder by being a bootlegger. Gatsby is the rags to riches story that the American Dream has been built on “[he was raised] out of nothing, right out of the gutter”(171). Another reason Gatsby stands for America itself is his hard work. Gatsby is from West Egg he is “[the] newly rich”(107) meaning he didn’t inherit his wealth nor does he have any title to his name. He simply works for his wealth, he works hard. Just as Gatsby is works hard to get Daisy, is parallel to how people worked to achieve the American Dream. Gatsby’s “instinct toward his future glory [leads] him”(99). He “[believes] in the green light” although “year by year recedes before [him]”(180) Gatsby believes, believes he can get the