Who Is Daisy Wrong In The Great Gatsby

Brielle Ledellaytner Ms. Smith English 11 Honors 3 April 2024 The Tragedy of Gatsby’s Incorruptible Dream The Great Gatsby is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald renowned for its insights into the American Dream through its depiction of society in the 1920s. It is narrated by a businessman named Nick Carraway, the neighbor of a mysterious, wealthy man named Jay Gatsby who lives in West Egg. Nick is intrigued by Gatsby, and in contrast with the shallow individuals who spread ludicrous rumors about him at his parties, wants to know who Gatsby really is. As the novel progresses, stories about Gatsby’s past and his present actions reveal that his desire to resume his relationship with Daisy has motivated every action and plan he has made for many years.

He decided that “his mind would never romp again”, revealing that he would focus solely on pursuing Daisy to the exclusion of other dreams and activities. Nick likens the moment at which Gatsby kissed Daisy to a “tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star,” relating the inability of a tuning fork to produce more than one note to Gatsby’s rigid belief that being with Daisy was the only thing worth achieving in his life. Author Robert C. Evans explains that Gatsby’s fanatical devotion to Daisy is multifaceted, writing that “[i]n some ways, Gatsby seems the embodiment of humanity's highest, most noble aspirations; in other ways, he seems juvenile and self-deluded” (Evans 7). Gatsby’s dream has been able to survive because of its strength and permanence, qualities often considered to be admirable and essential to achieving one’s American Dream. However, since Gatsby’s dream is incorruptible and rooted in fantasy, these qualities only perpetuate his irrational perseverance and lead to his

His use of money is exaggerated and in poor taste” (Tate 9). Unlike Tom, whose generational wealth gave him an air of respectability, Gatsby’s association with the nouveau riche and his excessive flaunting of his wealth deprecated the value of any money he earned. However, the incorruptibility of Gatsby’s dream prevents him from accepting that it is impossible to achieve the same social status as old-money members of society like Tom Buchanan. No matter how hard Gatsby tries to overcome his lower class background to gain both riches and Daisy, the rigidity of class differences prevent him from achieving either aspect of his American Dream. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald exposes the impossibility of an American Dream when, like Gatsby’s, it is developed in one’s imagination and ignores reality. The incorruptibility of Gatsby’s dream leads to a fanatic sense of devotion to Daisy that makes him blind to any obstacle to achieving it. His intense desire to relive the past contributed to a delusion that it was possible to resume his relationship with Daisy exactly the same as it was years