Theme Of Pleasure In The Great Gatsby

In a world where culture is constantly advertising and encouraging the gaining of numerous possessions, it is understandable that society has become utterly compelled by instant gratification. It wasn’t until the extravagant era of the 1920s that American culture drifted to being motivated by one’s own pleasure rather than necessity. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates that genuine contentment does not stem from indulging in the selfish gratification of mere pleasure. Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses Tom and Daisy show the thoughtless and self driven attitude of the era and the consequences that accompany it. Tom was the first of the two to take an adulterer, and “the fact that he had one was insisted upon wherever he was known” (Fitzgerald 24). Having a wife was not

Daisy runs off with Gatsby without a flicker of hesitation due to the fact that it is what she wants. Her life had become filled “with an expression of unthoughtful sadness” (Fitzgerald 13), therefore she jumped at the chance to attain the pleasure she so desperately sought. The author is making a statement about her lack of patience and the fact that she lost her self control, becoming completely controlled by the need to be instantly gratified. However, this pleasure did not lead to a life of happiness either, and Daisy was forced to retreat back to her muted lifestyle while Gatsby suffered to pick up the pieces of the mess she left behind. Tom and Daisy lacked the will and ability to not give in to their current desires, in hope of something more beneficial down the road; “they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” (Fitzgerald 179). Despite all the wealth and opportunity, the Buchanans were too consumed in their own selfish indulgence to ever obtain enduring joy and an altruistic sense of