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The Great Gatsby Research Paper

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The American Dream has been sought out by many, and although everyone has their own version of it, everyone would agree that it surrounds the idea of happiness and success. It has been made to be this idealization of one’s life, almost like an alternate reality or universe. This idealization, however, can gain control over one’s life, causing them to take risks to achieve their goals. The novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, delves into the topic of the American Dream and how it can corrupt one’s life when obsession takes over. Fitzgerald uses Jay Gatsby to critique the American Dream by conveying how it is an illusion of happiness that gives false hope, and that by being unattainable, it can lead to tragedy. Gatsby’s lavish …show more content…

Gatsby reveals his true motivations behind his pursuit of wealth and status to be an obsession with winning Daisy’s love, which exemplifies the American Dream’s illusion as a promise of happiness. Despite the mystery surrounding his wealth, Gatsby reveals to Nick after having befriended him for a while, that he only ever chased after the higher social class to impress Daisy. Gatsby was born into a poor background with “shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” (98) as parents, which made him feel like he had yet to leave his mark on the world and do something meaningful, and so he became a soldier to join the fight in World War I. When Daisy and Gatsby first met he was about to be sent off to Europe, and so to keep in touch afterwards, they sent each other letters. They held onto this hope that they would soon enough be together once again, but eventually they stopped writing to each other because Daisy got married to Tom. This left Gatsby more determined than ever to win her love …show more content…

high in a white palace, the king’s daughter, the golden girl.” (120) This depicts Gatsby’s perception of Daisy as being deeply connected to wealth and status. It reveals that Gatsby associates Daisy’s charm and allure with the wealth and privilege she represents. This clarifies that Gatsby is not only pursuing Daisy as a romantic endeavor, but also to achieve social status and acceptance into the elite world she was brought up in. Daisy was Gatsby’s only dream for so long, that his obsession and determination to gain her love blindsided him, leading to his downfall. Gatsby was never able to face the fact that he and Daisy could never be together, that his dream was realistically unachievable. Before Gatsby met his end, people gossiped about him left and right while enjoying the luxuries he offered at his parties, but that’s all they ever wanted; someone to keep them entertained: “Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission.” (33) This clearly explains that people didn’t show an interest in trying to get to know Gatsby, and that his parties were this sort of escape for people from the superficiality and hypocris When Nick tries to have people attend Gatsby’s funeral, especially Daisy, only a handful of people show

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(180) In Gatsby’s mind Daisy had symbolized a lavish lifestyle which so unattainable that it was very desirable. In Gatsby’s mind in order to obtain Daisy, he would also have to be extravagantly wealthy and be from “old wealth”. He drafts a persona of a wealthy western scholar who attended Oxford in order to add to the illusion of him coming from wealth. This craze for Daisy had driven Gatsby to resort

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Gatsby travels back to the first time he saw Daisy at her grand home and goes into vivid detail of her house, “There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than the other bedrooms of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year’s shining motor cars and of dancers whose flowers were scarcely withered”. Gatsby goes into the nitty-gritty details of Daisy’s home, calling it ‘beautiful’, ‘gay and radiant’ and ‘breathing’ in order to demonstrate how symbolic the home is to him. This is the first taste of the upper class that Gatsby has ever experienced and serves as the true epitome of wealth to Gatsby. He falls in love with the newness of her home and the activities of the rich. Because of Gatsby’s love for the home, when he sees Daisy become consumed by her own luxuries, he feels betrayed; “She vanished into her rich house, into her rich full life, leaving Gatsby-nothing”.

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