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The Value Of Life In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Roadblocks in life are inevitable and fighting through them shows the determination of the individual. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald displays a portrait of success and a glamorous lifestyle in the 20s but does not directly show the smog and realities that float above New York. Through Nick Carroway's life, Fitzgerald shows the true reality of life in New York, which does not directly match up to people's positive personas of the east coast. Fitzgerald denies the American dream through sad realities and shattered dreams. Fitzgerald brings Nick Carroway through a roller coaster of life's unfortunate ups and downs. The situations that Nick finds himself in never seem to surprise him, despite his life being “simultaneously …show more content…

In the first moments of the novel, Nick notices gatsby standing out by his deck. Gatsby “stretched out his arms toward the dark water” seeming to try and reach out towards a goal or a dream that was just out of reach. Gatsby was trying to grab the green light on the other side of the river, and this light belonged to Daisy Buchannan, a girl that Gatsby has been in love with forever. Gatsby has lived his lavish life full of parties and big-time money, in an attempt to obtain Daisy’s attention. Unfortunately, Gatsby has a very hard time achieving this dream, and his “orgastic future year by year recedes” before him, seeming to go away and drift out of his vision. Despite the long-term determination and drastic changes, Gatsby makes in his life to get Daisy, he always finds himself at a halt. Through his motivation and all-around determination, Gatsby pushes for his dream of being a millionaire and buying extravagant things, despite his poor background. Gatsby does not feel fulfilled, and although he is good at disregarding all of his achievements, he fails miserably to come to terms with his lack of ability to win over Daisy. Gatsby still pushes through roadblocks, but “He did not know that {his goal of being with Daisy} was already behind him” and would never work out. Gatsby never fulfilled his one goal in life, not due to lack of trying, but rather being killed, in his own pool, at the hands of

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Gatsby had spent so much time and effort pursuing this unrealistic view of Daisy that it became impossible for her to live up to these expectations. He never made a real effort to find out who she actually is, or even simply respect that she had created a life apart from him. It’s unsurprising that he is disappointed by reality; he has been living in an elaborate dream, deluding himself to believe that his plan to win her over will work just because he wants it to, and ignoring the real factors that would break this illusion until it is broken for him. Gatsby is aware of the factors playing against him when it comes to his dream of being with Daisy, such as her marriage and commitment to her family, but he creates a mental version of events that serve him when he cannot accept this reality. Subsequently, he suffers from realizing that his imagined perfect version of Daisy and their perfect life together is not real or reasonable.

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In chapter four when Jordan Baker says, “ Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”(78). Gatsby is portrayed as someone who is willing to do anything to reach his unattainable goal: to have Daisy. Before Nick had ever met Gatsby, he saw him standing alone on the dock gazing at the green light. Nick describes the scene as, “And distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way that might have been at the end of the dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished”(21).

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When Gatsby first sees the green light on Daisy’s dock, he feels like his dream is “so close that he [can] hardly fail to grasp it” but he is unable to see that it “[is] already behind him” and impossible to reach (180). He lives a life of optimism “running faster and stretching his arms out further”, expending all his energy for a goal that only gets further away (180). Rather than sailing closer to the greatness of his goal, Gatsby is “borne back ceaselessly into the past,” drifting further and further away from his dream (180). Gatsby obsessively crafts an ideal image of a life with Daisy in his head, but the reality of the situation is much different. When Daisy comes over for tea Gatsby is a mess despite spending everyday preparing for her arrival.

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After meeting Nick, Gatsby sees an opportunity to reconnect with Daisy through her cousin Nick. When chasing a dream the typical human will use any resources to get closer to achieving that goal: in this case, Gatsby uses Nick as his resource. As a reader you can sense the potential excitement Gatsby has after realizing he may actually have a chance now at getting Daisy back. Sometimes when chasing a dream we as people do not actually consider whether or not it is attainable, this very thing is the reason for Gatsby’s downfall and eventual death. There is a battle between whether or not we should pursue our dreams and it is a rather complicated one especially in Gatsby’s case.

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We are first introduced to gatsby in the end of chapter 1 When he is staring across the bay at a green light then he disappears. Later in chapter 3 Nick meets Gatsby and they become friends. Gatsby’s dream is to get with daisy but he has to find a way to get around Tom. “Gatsby Bought that House so daisy would be just across the bay”(Fitzgerald 78). This quote show Gatsby is a very mysterious character and it also shows he must have history with daisy.

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Gatsby has spent his whole life trying to prove to Daisy and everyone around him that he is worthy of her. The only way to be on the same social level as her is to turn himself into new money. Since this is not possible, he has to try to convince to others that he truly is old money. To do this, he becomes rich, and lies about his past, but the only way for him to complete this idea is if he is with Daisy. She is the final piece in his American dream.

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His constant attempt to find fulfillment through others reveals a bitter truth about him: he will never be fulfilled. Due to his indecisiveness, Nick’s life is constantly at an impasse. Originally from a “well-to-do” (6) family, his life would have been comfortable, a clear path set before

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Gatsby then tries to be with her as himself, which later leads to his own death. If he had never shown Daisy his true self or tried to be with her openly and honestly like he did, he never would have lost her. This shows how quickly the American Dream can fail when it is in reality instead of under lies and falsehoods. Gatsby keeps everyone he knows at a distance, which alienates his relationships and prevents everyone from getting close to him. It works for a time, but when his American Dream is achieved Gatsby should not have let go of that strategy, because once he did he lost the one person that was his whole life, his whole goal, his whole

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Gatsby had everything, a beautiful house, a car, money, but there was no meaning to any of it since he did not have the one thing he was longing for, Daisy. As Nick visits Gatsby’s house one final time, he realises that Gatsby finally knows “what a grotesque thing a rose is” (Fitzgerald 161). A rose, symbolic of love and beauty, is now ugly and dead, just like his and Daisy’s romance. Looking at the rose, Gatsby knows his dream has failed and Daisy will never return the love he longs from her. While alive, Gatsby did not focus on his own self but instead Daisy, which led to his unsucessful

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At the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick reflects upon Gatsby’s life and pursuit on the beach where “the green light” at the end of Daisy’s dock can be seen. As a significant metaphor, “the green light” represents Gatsby’s dream which guides him to keep pursuing wealth and social status, while the position of the light, the distant and inaccessible Daisy’s dock, indicates the close connection between Gatsby’s unreal dream and Daisy, and as well the disillusionment of the dream. In the last three paragraphs, Nick explains the disillusionment of Gatsby’s dream, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (162). Gatsby has always strived for his ambition and dream.

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He goes through whatever it takes in order for him to achieve as much wealth as he can in order to achieve his dream of reuniting with Daisy. Gatsby fails to accept his

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826 Words | 4 Pages

Gatsby's ambition to win Daisy back causes him to neglect his own well-being and he ultimately dies in pursuit of this goal. Both characters are willing to go to great lengths to achieve their goals and are willing to sacrifice their morals and integrity in the

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When we are visibly able to see the actions and reflections portrayed by each character, we begin to understand the depth of their intrinsic qualities developed by Fitzgerald. At the beginning of the film, Nick quietly observes a man standing on the edge of a dock, who he assumes is Gatsby, reaching his arm out towards a vibrant green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, as if something had compelled him to do so. That compulsion, we later can infer, is Gatsby's desire to strive for something that he no longer has; the ambition to reach for what was in the past. Nick observes the behavior portrayed by Gatsby by narrating,“He had come such a long way and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it,” which illuminates the profound symbolism of the green light presented throughout the book and how it connects to Gatsby’s unfulfilled desire to obtain Daisy. The bay that Gatsby overlooks time and time again, solemnly concentrating on what’s beyond, represents the barrier separating him and his lost love Daisy, and the green light out in the distance which he fixates on, symbolizes as a reminder to Gatsby that what he is reaching for is so close yet so far out of

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1122 Words | 5 Pages

Beginning with becoming rich and buying the house across the Bay he developed an obsession with her. Unable to live his life, searching the papers everyday hoping to catch just a glimpse of her name to see what she was up to, Gatsby was setting himself up for failure. He never opened up to the idea that things could change and that Daisy could love someone else. Daisy pushed Gatsby away in the end because of the person Tom had made him out to be. She saw Gatsby as damaged which only damaged him more, leaving him to feel unloved by the person he loved

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However, Nick understands

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