What Does Daisy Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Abracadabra! A magician's career depends on the intricate illusions they perform or an audience's amusement. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the peril of harboring such delusions. In the 1920s, social mobility in America was at its peak, but was shattered by the corruption of the richest elite. Caught up in an illusion, Gatsby faces his devastating fate where his extraordinary life is destroyed, making the holocaust of the American Dream complete.
Determined to get out of poverty, Gatsby works his way to the top of the social class but at the cost of his true identity. Gatsby creates this platonic conception of himself in which he lies about his entire background. For instance, Gatsby tells people that he is from San Francisco

Daisy is this green light. It was 1917 when Gatsby first met Daisy and they immediately fell in love with each other. However, Daisy yearned for a man who could provide her material comfort and because Gatsby's financial status was unsteady, she married a rich man named Tom Buchanan. This only further motivates Gatsby to work hard for material success. Gatsby has been spending the last five years of his life trying to make something of himself so that he can impress Daisy and win her over. He didn't fail to do so considering after all this time, he finally reunited with her one day. The day this occurred, the weather was gloomy at first and if “‘it wasn't for the mist [they] could see [Daisy’s] home across the bay,’... ‘[she] always [has] a green light that burns all night at the end of [her] dock’” (Fitzgerald 92) The green light represents all of Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for his future with Daisy. It is a symbol for the American dream. However, as the reunion progresses and turns out to be a success, “it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one” (Fitzgerald 93) This means that the green light begins to lose its symbolic meaning as Daisy and Gatsby reunite. Gatsby was so caught up in the pursuit of his dream, that now that he has it, it has lost its meaning. This shows how his dream is mistaken for reality because when he just about grasps on to

His image of Daisy five years ago illudes Gatsby into thinking that person remains his dream but in reality, she is not the same girl of his dreams. When reuniting with Daisy after five years, Gatsby was very eager and nervous as he then accidentally knocked over Nick’s ‘defunct clock’. Although he did catch it before it hit the ground, they “all believed for a moment that it had smashed in pieces on the floor” (Fitzgerald 87). The defunct clock symbolizes Gatsby’s desire to resurrect the past. He had been in love with Daisy and hasn't stopped thinking about her for all these years. Almost as if he is frozen in time such as the defunct clock. This suggests that Gatsby believes that he can stop or reverse time but he cannot. Later on, Gatsby goes over to Tom and Daisy’s house where he meets Daisy’s child for the first time. It is almost as if Gatsby is brought to reality as “kept looking at the child with surprise. I don't think he had ever really believed in its existence before.” (Fitzgerald 117). Gatsby has had this image of Daisy as this youthful, immature woman filled with vitality. He is suddenly faced with the reality of Daisy and Tom’s relationship and the fact she isn't the same person she was five years ago. His dream is