Erin Schnabel Femenella American Lit P4 24 March 2023 I will neither give nor receive unauthorized aid. Gatby’s Impractical Pursuit It is often said that all the money in the world cannot buy happiness. In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby has situated himself and his enormous mansion on one of the richest beaches in Long Island. Each weekend he throws party after party, repeatedly inviting the entire city of New York into his home with one goal in mind: to catch the eye of Daisy Buchanan, the girl whom he loved and lost 5 years ago. When Daisy and Gatsby finally reunite, he is determined to materialistically win her back and restart the life they once had together. Unfortunately, his failure to realize that Daisy …show more content…
Despite his poor upbringing, Gatsby habitually fabricates his past and the many things he accomplished. He boasts about having attended Oxford, fought in the war, and so on. Unfortunately for him, he is unable to do so without sounding suspicious. Gatsby’s neighbor, Nick Carraway, characterizes the absurdness of Gatsby’s words, “The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned ‘character’ leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne” (Fitzgerald 66). Because Gatsby has managed to re-invent his idea of himself, he is hardly distinguishable from a fictitious character. His "worn” and “threadbare” lies have been told so many times that even he has managed to convince himself of his constructed image. In creating his new, unauthentic identity to match the upper class of society, he highlights the impossibility of pursuing happiness through external factors such as wealth and status. Gatsby is no longer his own person, but instead an unhappy one who recedes back into his facade of lies. His fascination with the past continues to characterize him as obsessive, prompting him to purchase his house in a very specific location: “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78). The driving force behind Gatsby’s expensive purchase was Daisy. He did not care for the mansion’s marble swimming pool, expansive garden, and numerous bedrooms. He never even acknowledged the house’s features. Instead, its location across from Daisy was the only deciding factor. Gatsby bought the house “so that” Daisy would be in sight, not as a practical bonus. Because of this, he has never spent a single moment attempting to move on and has been living unhappily—unadjusted to a life without her. Convincing himself