Why Is Hope Important In The Great Gatsby

What if you were never able to hope for anything? Life would become aimless with nothing to desire or look forward to. That is why hope is so powerful. It allows for desires, wants, and dreams to become a reality. Hope can become the driving force in a person's life to achieve his or her goals in life. However, because hope is so powerful, too much of it can be catastrophic. Gatsby's, "Extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again" (Fitzgerald 2), proves how hope can be such an influential driving factor in one's life. The Great Gatsby perfectly exemplifies the rewards and dangers of hope through the depiction of the characters. In F. Scott

Despite Gatsby and Daisy's physical distance, his unceasing hope is symbolic of the distance between his unrealistic aspirations for the future and reality. Five years prior, Gatsby describes falling in love with Daisy as a defining moment in his life: "His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God" (Fitzgerald 110). In this instance, Gatsby gave his rational thoughts away to every unceasing future want of Daisy. From this point forward, he dedicated his life to regaining Daisy's love despite the moral sacrifices he made. In order to gain the wealth that Daisy desires, Gatsby decided to involve himself in corrupt business deals by partnering with Meyer Wolfsheim and buying, "Up a lot of side−street drug−stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter" (Fitzgerald 133). On his rise to wealth, Gatsby corrupted his morals. He became involved in illegal enterprises and was ultimately left with nothing to fall back on when his final attempt to gain Daisy's love failed. Sitting alone in his pool, Gatsby waited for a call that never came. Nick had, "An idea that Gatsby himself didn't believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared" (Fitzgerald 161). At this moment Gatsby starts to understand the magnitude of his actions

As he sees more of the wealthy East Coast lifestyle he notices the corruption of those members of society. In his life recently before moving to Long Island, Nick is hopeful for the future: "When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever" (Fitzgerald 2). Nick perceived the world through hopeful and optimistic eyes. His thoughts about the world and the people who live in it were buoyant, yet they contained a sense of ignorance. He wanted a more structured world, but at the time, society was too unstable. However, as he became increasingly involved with the affairs of Tom and Daisy, he noticed the corruption that lies within their money. Their reaction to Myrtle's death led Nick to see them as, "Careless people, Tom and Daisy they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness" (Fitzgerald 179). At this point, Nick's hope, vested in the wealthy, is declining. He notices the moral faults and it even brings him to become tired of those people. Furthermore, the death of Nick's friend, Gatsby, causes him to lose all hope: "After Gatsby's death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes' power of correction" (Fitzgerald 176). The East portrays wealth and power, however, Nick figures it to be filled with unethical people who have artificial values. In Nick's mind,