The Great Gatsby Character Analysis

It is unfortunately widely believed now a days that once you obtain love all will be right in your life. People believe that it will solve their issues and make them finally content. The main character Jay Gatsby in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald lives a lavish life full of large parties and not a worry financially. He is not completely happy with his life due to the absence of an old lover, Daisy Buchanan. Personally I have learned through my senior year that you can not rely on the love of another to make you happy and that you must be able to make yourself happy to be content in life. The love of another should not dictate your happiness, it is up to you to make yourself happy. Jay Gatsby is a wealthy man who has a lot of power and connections to people because of his wealth. He appears to be independent, but he let's his life be dictated by his drive to obtain

Once he thinks he has obtained Daisy’s love once again he finally enjoys a swim on a “pneumatic mattress that had amused his guests,” (161) by himself. He started to do new things that made him happy the day he was shot and killed. Gatsby only started enjoying life when he thought he obtained love again. Something as simple as enjoying a dip in his pool on pool toys that he knew would bring comfort and relaxation was put off until he thought his life was more complete in his eyes. He wasted his life not allowing himself to enjoy it on his own. By letting his yearning for another love dictate his life he did not live to the fullest. Once I realized that another’s love and attention would not complete my life I took things into my own hands. I did not allow myself to let my life be completely lost in non necessity goals of obtaining other approval. Without learning this I could have completely allowed myself to stand in the shadows and let life fly by unlived to the fullest just as Gatsby had done for majority of