Have you ever loved someone so much that you built yourself up from the dirt, got rich, bought a mansion across the bay from that person, and threw extravagant parties in hopes that they would merely stop by? Probably not, but this is what Gatsby did. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a wealthy man named Gatsby is in love with a wealthy married woman named Daisy, and does anything he can to recreate their love from 5 years prior. Gatsby’s relationship with the past and his problematic materialism to regain lost love causes him to go insane, driving his downfall throughout the novel. Gatsby’s negative past relationship with his parents and his resentment for them not being enough caused him to create a materialistic and false reality …show more content…
He buys a large house, cuts off all connections with his parents, and changes his name, to create a completely new existence. “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people — his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.” (Fitzgerald 76), his denial of his parents, for the blatant fact that they weren’t as successful as he wanted them to be, is a cause of his downfall. This shows his greed throughout the novel, as he continuously wants more and nothing is enough. His materialism caused him to buy a huge house and throw huge parties, but in the end, it didn’t even help because no one showed up to his funeral. No one truly liked Gatsby, and everything he owned and all the people who knew him meant nothing to him as he never was satisfied. His yearning for perfection blinded him from the fact that he had a false reality and sense of importance. Everything he owned just added another meaningless addition to his life, and he slowly went insane since he couldn't be content with what he had. Another cause of his downfall was his attempts to regain his previous love, which was