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Who Is Jay Gatsby A Victim Of The American Dream

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The early 1920s saw the emergence of hard work and persistence as a means to achieve the American Dream. While this concept seems optimistic, equal opportunity and success are nearly nonexistent. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, a self-made man obsesses over and pursues the woman of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby dedicates his entire life into achieving wealth and high-class in an attempt to impress her. However, Daisy is currently in an unhealthy marriage to Tom Buchanan, an arrogant man born into the American Dream that feels naturally superior to the lower class. Regardless of Daisy’s marriage, Gatsby develops a relationship with her, before eventually falling victim to the American Dream, failing to secure Daisy …show more content…

During an outing in town, Gatsby confronts Tom hoping that Daisy will leave him and confess her true feelings, however she hesitates and “[realizes] at last what she [is] doing—and as though she [has] never, all along, [any intention in] doing anything at all” (Fitzgerald 132). Gatsby is unable to receive the confession he desires, as Daisy merely views him as an affair rather than a true potential lover. Despite Gatsby’s ambition, Daisy prefers Tom’s inherent wealth and luxury over Gatsby’s own self-made success. Since Tom’s wealth is more financially stable, Daisy is unable to confess any attraction towards Gatsby and risk losing the materialistic value from Tom. After the argument over Daisy’s affection between Gatsby and Tom, Nick Carroway, a mutual friend, observes Tom and Daisy noticing the two share “an unmistakable air of natural intimacy…and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together” (Fitzgerald 145). While Daisy and Tom do not share a healthy marriage, staying together is beneficial for their status. Considering Gatsby lacks the high-class background, he is unable to break the bond between Tom and Daisy. Status is an important factor in the American Dream and only truly obtainable through family heritage, a factor absent in Gatsby. Unfortunately, when Daisy murders Tom’s mistress, Myrtle

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The reunion of Daisy and Gatsby sets all the following events into inevitable motion. Chapter seven reveals that the story of their romance reaches its climax and its tragic conclusion. The fact that Daisy invites Gatsby to her house, considering the fact that Tom is also there, was a very foolish move. The confrontation between Gatsby and Tom serves to reveal the major flaws and motivations of both characters. Tom’s conceitedness causes him to believe that his wife will never leave him because of his wealth and high social status.

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Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, similar themes from A Raisin in the Sun are presented in the sense that each character has his or her own American Dream due to his or her varying socioeconomic status. Originally, Gatsby had a poor socioeconomic status, which motivated him to increase his status with a lavish, over-the-top American Dream in order to please Daisy. When Gatsby confronts Tom, promising that Daisy never truly loved Tom in the first place, Gatsby uses his wealth as a factor as to why she married Tom: “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me” (Fitzgerald 130). This proves that Gatsby was motivated by Daisy’s desire for wealth to justify his lurid American Dream. Daisy, on the other hand, was quite the opposite.

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Tom has suspected that an affair is going on between Gatsby and Daisy. Tom also talks about Gatsby’s illegal life where Daisy is then surprised by what she is finding out. Gatsby also gets heated to the point where he wants Daisy to tell Tom that she

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Gatsby acquires a great amount of wealth in order to win Daisy’s love. Daisy, instead, is obsessed with having more “old wealth,” so she marries Tom Buchanan. The fascination Daisy has of Gatsby’s clothes and house symbolizes her idea of the American Dream. The perception of the American Dream is one of glamour, sophistication, and happiness; however, as seen in The Great Gatsby, the dream consists of corruption, immoral decisions, and

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Daisy dreams of a surplus of wealth where she doesn’t have to worry or do anything. This dream makes her leave Gatsby as, “she wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force,” (Fitzgerald 151). Daisy’s obsession with the perfect life free from troubles and woes, lead her to a turbulent life full of troubles and woes. Her unfaithful husband, Tom, constantly mistreats her, slowly poisoning her mind, causing her to make an unfixable mistake and kill Myrtle. Her mistake was life caused by years of being willingly blind to Tom’s actions, allowing them to be forgiven and forgotten for the sake of the American Dream.

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The American dream destroyed the life of Jay Gatsby through the representation of his automobiles and love for wealth. The automobiles in the book show the destruction of lives that the American dream can bring onto a person. In chapter 7, Myrtle is hit by a car and killed, but the car belongs to Gatsby. Although he wasn’t driving, he takes the blame for the murder of Myrtle. As in the text it states “Yes,’ he said after a moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was” (Fitzgerald 143 ).

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She chooses the extravagant lifestyle that Tom is capable of providing instead of patiently waiting for her true love. The self-centered desires she displays demonstrates the lack of authetic love she promised Gatsby. Instead, she marries Tom “without so much as a shiver”, demonstrating her hedonistic mindset (76). Since Tom treats Daisy with minimal care, she thoughtlessly dives into an adulterous affair with Jay Gatsby. With no severe intentions towards marriage, she always “ought to have something in her life” to fulfill her heart (79).

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Many enjoy the idea of having a loving significant other, a happy family, and a white picket-fence around their house, but even through hard work and dedication, this can not always be obtained. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick Carroway moves from the Midwest to New York in hopes of living the American Dream. Here, he meets Gatsby, who obsesses over his previous lover, Daisy. Daisy is now married to Tom, an unloyal husband, and has not seen Gatsby in years until Nick reintroduces them. Gatsby focuses on winning Daisy back into his life while Tom is cheating on Daisy with Mr. Wilson’s wife, Myrtle.

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Though Daisy wanted both money and love, she already had a life and a child with Tom. Things were also different with Gatsby now, and the man who she fell in love with before the war was different. Lost in the time passed, there was a certain element of fantasy that held their longing for each other together when they were apart. Now when reality hits, though they had an affair, Daisy knows Gatsby is unreliable. Her decision was made by both money and “unquestionable” practicality, reinstating the theme that one of her priorities was financial security.

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In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, characters Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Myrtle Wilson all desperately try to escape their social class. Each character has different desires and dreams which include moving into a different lifestyle and social class. In this novel, we can see each character face different obstacles in trying to achieve their desired lifestyle. Jay Gatsby’s “American dream” revolves around one particular woman; Daisy Buchanan. Daisy is Gatsby’s ex-lover

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With his high social status and inherited wealth, Tom Buchannan lives the dream that many people, like Gatsby, long for. Besides all of Tom’s riches and his marriage to Daisy, he is not satisfied, and he takes advantage of his fortune by having a public affair with Myrtle Wilson. After Myrtle’s death, Tom looks for condolences from Nick by explaining how heartbroken he is, showing that he is self centered and has no remorse for his actions (Fitzgerald 178). With Gatsby’s newly found wealth, he hopes that he can win Daisy back, and pursue a relationship with her, similarly to their unfinished relationship from five years prior. Even

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Gatsby disregards Daisy’s marriage to Tom on multiple occasions, leading Nick to assume that he “wanted nothing less of Daisy” (Fitzgerald, p. 132) than to hear her tell Tom, “I never loved you.” Gatsby’s outright dismissal of Daisy’s feelings for Tom is an idea that is reinforced throughout the novel. His dismissal of the relationship between Tom and Daisy stems from the romanticized version of her he has created and obsessed over for years. His refusal to acknowledge the reality of their marriage is a result of him being so infatuated with the idea of Daisy and the memories of their relationship that he has clung to all these years. Gatsby’s inability to confront the uncertainties of the past is eventually his undoing, as he is unable to see that Daisy and Tom “[are] careless people” who make a mess of things “and let other people clean [it] up.

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Daisy wanted to keep the self-image she worked so hard for but it is to do that when she wants to be with someone else, and this created holes and gaps in both relationships. Through the use of vivid imagery and engaging characters, Fitzgerald paints a picture of Gatsby’s happiness and how it all comes back to Daisy. Ultimately Daisy turned a blind eye to the idea of leaving Tom for Gatsby, the risks and dangers

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(99) In this moment, Gatsby makes it clear to Daisy that he could easily provide her with the same lifestyle she shares with Tom. Once Gatsby captures Daisy’s affection, he becomes full of greed and doesn’t want to believe she ever gave any of her love to Tom. “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’” (118) When Daisy states “‘Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom,’ (142), Gatsby begins to feel a “touch of panic” (142). All of his parties, stories, and entire persona were all fabricated to win Daisy back.

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The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows how Jay Gatsby tries to fulfill the ideals of the American Dream. When Gatsby was young, he set goals and worked hard to improve. He pursued the typical American dream of gaining wealth, finding a companion, and being admired by others. Gatsby thought it was best to try and change everything about himself. He wears a thick mask of lies throughout the story, hiding his past, changing his name, suppressing his emotions, and even adapting his word choice.

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