s on Long Island, New York.
In the novel, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby has a dream that a majority people wouldwant to live. The dream is made up of things that may vary from one person to another,but it is still a basic dream for most people. Finding someone that you truly love and thattruly loves you back is one part of the dream. Being happy is another. The final part ishaving wealth and being in the upper class of society. This dream that is pursued by somany can endanger the future of someone because they never know what they would haveto go through to get it.
Gatsby’s main goal throughout the novel is to attain true love with a former love,Daisy Buchanan. He knows that Daisy is married to a rich man, Tom Buchanan, so heuses poor judgement and assumes that becoming rich will win her back. To be close toher and try to increase his chances of being with her, Gatsby moves across the bay toWest Egg Island. Nick Carraway, the narrator and Gatsby’s main friend throughout thenovel, is an acquaintance of the Buchanans and helps set up a meeting between Daisy andJay. Gatsby finally meets Daisy and begins to spend more time with her, hoping that shewill leave her husband for him. At the end of the story, however, Gatsby begins to realizethat his love with Daisy would not happen at all. When Gatsby sees Daisy’s daughter herealizes the truth. Her marriage is real and he cannot have her. Fitzgerald expresses thisby writing, “afterward he kept looking at the child with surprise. I Nick Carraway don’tthink he had ever really believed in her existence before.” He also realizes that Daisylikes the status quo and likes the security of being known as Mrs. Buchanan, so she willnot leave her husband.
Wealth is the only idea in the dream that is obtained by Gatsby, but it doesn’tbring him what he expected and desired. Gatsby built up his fortune hoping that hisaccomplishments would bring him happiness. Once again, Gatsby’s lack of in-depththinking led him to believe that if he attained wealth that Daisy would love him again andleave her husband. He also felt that gaining many material possessions would make himhappy, but they never did. He needed reassurance about his possessions, “he hadn’t onceceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to themeasure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes.” Fitzgerald uses irony by havingGatsby’s automobile, one of his possessions attained by wealth, lead to his downfall. Hisunrequited love for Daisy never dies throughout the book and is one of the factors thatleads to his death.
Happiness, the central part of the dream, is never really obtained by Jay Gatsbythroughout the book. In order to try to become happy through friends and fun, Gatsbythrows huge parties every week. Despite the fun and excitement at the parties, Gatsbyjust watched and didn’t participate in the activities. This is expressed in a more poeticalway when Fitzgerald writes, “A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windowsand great doors, endowing with complete isolation the figure of the host, who stood onthe porch, his hand waving up in a formal gesture of farewell.” Nick is Gatsby’s mainfriend and even he didn’t make Gatsby truly happy. The only thing that could makeGatsby truly happy would be attaining his true love, Daisy. Before he went off to fight inthe war, Jay was happy because he loved Daisy and Daisy loved him. After serving in thearmed forces during war, Gatsby spends the whole novel in an inspiring chase for anunattainable love.
Through his failed attempts at love, wealth, and happiness, Gatsby becomes atragic victim of the dream that so many people desire. Gatsby did all that he could to winDaisy back but always failed and never attained true happiness. He moved near to hislove and became friends with her again. He became wealthy and tried to impress her withmoney. He acquired material things with his wealth and showed them off to prove toDaisy how rich he was. In the end none of it worked out, and Jay Gatsby was evenaccused by Tom Buchanan of trying to steal his wife. There are many lessons presentedhere. One is that one should not change themselves drastically just for another person.
Also, wealth and material things are obviously not the way to win somebodys love.
Love is something you earn and cant buy. Finally, the only way to gain happiness is tonot desire things that require a great deal of changing to acquire. Most of the time, ifsomeone truly desires something, they will only suffer. This is because when they dontget what they desire, they are left even sadder knowing they wont have what theyvewanted a for a long time. These are just some of the lessons that can be learned frommany of the themes in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby.
