Jorel Lonesome Professor Amend 10/2/2017 ENG 307 Dangerous Dreams Indeed: The Love That Killed Bodega and Gatsby Not all American dreams end tragically, but in some cases it does. This idea could be broken down by the stories of The Great Gatsby and Bodega Dreams. Whether Jay Gatsby tries to reinvent himself or Willie Bodega tries to reinvent Spanish Harlem, The Great Gatsby and Bodega Dreams run parallel towards a common outcome. Bodega and Gatsby 's ambition to live their American Dream is thwarted by love, which led them to a fate they did not understand. There are three points that I will discuss to support this claim. Bodega and Gatsby had an American dream. Their dreams were thwarted by love. Their demise was love that made them …show more content…
His habit of sacrificing himself for a woman is no different than Willie Bodega’s selfishness for a similar goal. Bodega tells Vera 's husband, Vidal, that she never loved him and that she was leaving him for Bodega. Vidal warns Bodega about Vera, alerting him that Vera 's body "is an international hotel, it has taken men from all over the world" (190). Vera ends up shooting Vidal, killing him, because she knew she could use Bodega’s money. Additionally, love made Bodega and Gatsby unable to prevent their fate. Gatsby 's car hits Myrtle Wilson as it travels through the "Valley of ashes" (138), but it is Daisy, not Gatsby, who drives it. Daisy had struck Myrtle and sped away. Gatsby takes the blame for hitting Myrtle to protect Daisy. Gatsby reveals to Nick that he’s willing to take the blame in order to protect Daisy when he tells Nick asks him if Daisy was driving the car and Nick replies “Yes. But of course I 'll say I was” (143). Gatsby thought he was being chivalrous for Daisy, but he did not care that Daisy chose not to take responsibility for her hit-and-run. Myrtle’s husband, George Wilson, gets revenge for Myrtle’s loss, assuming that Gatsby had an affair with his wife and killed her once he finds a dog leash and Myrtle 's belongings. George kills Gatsby,
Daisy then left with Gatsby to his house. On their way to the house, they hit Myrtle with a Gatsby’s car and drove off. Daisy then settles her differences with Tom and they get back together, leaving Gatsby alone and ignites his downfall:
Another drastic situation created by Daisy arises. However, she does not have to deal with the consequences of it. Myrtle’s husband sees Gatsby in the car, and makes the assumption that he was the one having an affair with Myrtle, which is why she would run into the street to leave her husband and be with the man in the car. Instead of owning up to her mistake, Daisy allows Gatsby to willingly take the blame for Myrtle’s death. When Nick asks if Daisy was driving the car, he replies “‘Yes, but of course I’ll say I was’” (Fitzgerald 137). This causes George Wilson to kill Gatsby, an innocent man, because of the assumption that he was the one who killed Myrtle and had an affair with her. Through all this, Daisy never confessed to being the person behind the wheel of the car and Tom never confessed to being the man who Myrtle was a mistress to. After this incident, Daisy and Tom packed their bags and moved to the Midwest, avoiding the problems they created yet
Gatsby was murdered by Wilson, because he thought that Gatsby was the one that hit his wife and killed her. Tom is a main contributor to Gatsby’s death because Myrtle was his mistress. Tom was the one that suggested he drive Gatsby’s car to town with Jordan and Nick. Myrtle saw them that day and Nick noticed “her eyes, [which became] wide with jealous terror were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife” (125). On the way back home, Gatsby and Daisy were driving the yellow car, which was the car that Tom was driving earlier. Myrtle ran out in front of the car as if “she wanted to speak to [them], [thinking they] were somebody she knew” (143). She ran thinking that it was Tom and that he would stop but, it wasn’t.
Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George, and the lover of Tom Buchanan, is brutally murdered toward the end of the novel. After an uncivilized afternoon in New York, Daisy and Gatsby head swiftly back to East Egg. Gatsby explains to Nick, “It all happened in a minute, but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew” (Fitzgerald 109). Myrtle ran out toward the car looking for Tom but sadly for her it is not him. Many know about Tom’s affair, but not with whom he is having it, especially Daisy. Daisy never slows the car down, and she never realizes who she hits. This shows that Daisy is oblivious to Myrtles existence. Myrtle is sleeping with her husband, she ruins their marriage, and Daisy kills her. The irony exists in this because Daisy actually saves her marriage by killing
Tom told George, Myrtle’s husband that it was Gatsby’s car that hit her. So George, seeking revenge, killed Gatsby.
Myrtle Wilson, Mr. Buchanan's mistress. Tom Buchanan showed the first signs of his reckless behavior in just the second chapter (pg. 29) of the novel when he "broke her nose with an open hand." My other example would also be found in chapter two (pg.27.) which is the fact that Tom had been somewhat leading Mrs. Wilson on by making her believe that he would marry her and run away West. Myrtle's sister, Catherine, states that, "It's really his wife that's keeping them apart. She's Catholic and they don't believe in divorce." Nick then goes on to say, “Daisy was not Catholic, and I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie.” This shows how Tom was using Myrtle without a care in the world, stringing her emotions along as if it were a game. My third and final reason to support Nick’s opinion is how Mr. Buchanan set Gatsby up to be killed. Although he was Myrtle’s secret lover, he led her husband to believe that Jay Gatsby was the one who wrecked his marriage, or as some would say “happy home”. After the death of his wife, Mr. Wilson was determined to find out who owned the yellow car that had killed his wife. He was angry and intoxicated the night he went to find his wife’s murderer. In chapter nine (pg.121), Tom stated that he had told Mr. Wilson,” What if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to him.” Indicating that he had, in fact, told Mr. Wilson that Gatsby had murdered his wife when that
To understand the nature of Gatsby’s death, first you must know the circumstances that precede it. Myrtle, Mr. Wilson’s wife, was run over by Gatsby’s car, which Daisy was driving. Driven by vengeance and the mistaken belief that Gatsby had killed Myrtle, Mr. Wilson proceeded to murder Gatsby and then himself.
Eventually, both protagonists are murdered in cold blood. To illustrate this fact, at the end of Bodega Dreams, most of the characters are killed by someone or disappear. Vera and Edwin Nazario, Bodega’s associate, plan to kill Bodega and Vidal, Vera’s husband. In this case, Nazario has played everyone and poor Bodega gets killed for loving someone and trying to fix up his Latin neighborhood. The reader would notice Bodega’s death from Chino saying, “I wasn't thinking about anything else but Bodega. Bodega was dead” (Quiñonez 195). Likewise, Gatsby gets shot by George, the husband of Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle Wilson is Daisy’s husband’s mistress who Daisy ran over by accident. Even though Gatsby takes the blame to protect Daisy, he is finally killed by someone at the end of the story. Accordingly, both Gatsby and Bodega feel a sense of emptiness of life without their
After his mistress, Myrtle is hit and killed by Daisy driving Gatsby’s car, Tom informs George Wilkins; newly deceased Myrtle’s husband, that it was Gatsby who killed his wife, and then gives George Gatsby’s address. George then goes to Gatsby’s house and shoots him in the back, killing him. This is a great example of how dedicated Tom is to protecting his family and lifestyle. After Gatsby’s death, Tom and Daisy go on a vacation, running away from their problems, which is another way Tom protects himself and his family.
Myrtle is the fourth person responsible for Gatsby’s death. If she was not having an affair with Tom then none of this would have happened. Myrtle was taking advantage of her husband’s kindness and his lack of intelligence, “A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity-except his wife, who moved close to Tom” (Fitzgerald 30). if her affair with Tom was non-existent then George would not have known who Gatsby was and he might not have shot him to avenge his wife’s murder. If Myrtle had not run in front of the car that she would still be alive and so would Gatsby. She could have just waited until the next day to see Tom she did not have to run in front of his car.
The dramatic increase intensifies when Daisy overrides his husband’s paramour, Myrtle Wilson. Retaining his complete and unwavering loyalty to Daisy, Gatsby takes the blame upon himself, while Daisy is conspiring with her husband in the
Gatsby had told nick “Well, first Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and then she lost her nerve and turned back. The second my hand reached the wheel I felt the shock-it must have killed her instantly.”(143-144) Gatsby had suffered the consequences by deciding he would take the blame for the incident, daisy on the other hand had only left New York without suspicion. Moreover Myrtle Wilson is a naive character in the story, Tom’s girlfriend and George Wilson’s wife. She also is not very intelligent about her choices for she decides to cheat on her husband with a man that he knows and is currently married. As Daisy’s actions had big consequences, Myrtle’s consequence was her life taken. Myrtle decided to run into the street, hoping to get Tom’s help, but instead it was daisy who intended to hit her and keep going. Some factors explaining the reason this was a terrible decision, running onto the middle of the street without paying attention to the traffic is dangerous, even worse is to expect the car to stop, it may but there is a possibility it will not stop as there have been rumors that myrtle had been going out with tom, this could have made Daisy want to kill her by seeing her.
She, however, takes advantage of the fact that Gatsby is willing to do anything for her, and convinces him to take responsibility for Myrtle’s death, which she caused! Gatsby is so blinded by his love for her that he does not even realise that he is being manipulated. For example when questioned by Nick as to whether or not Daisy was driving when the accident causing Myrtle’s death occurred, Gatsby responds by saying: “Yes... but of course I’ll say I was.” This lie eventually leads to his death, and Daisy does not even have the decency to attend his funeral.
Daisy accidently ran Myrtle over in Gatsby’s car, and Myrtle died (Hays, “Oxymoron”). Wilson walks to Gatsby’s estate, kills him and then kills himself (“Great”... Fitzgerald). Daisy was the one that took Gatsby’s car without knowing and was Myrtle and Daisy hit and kills Myrtle at the scene of the crime. (“Great”... Fitzgerald). When Myrtle died, Gatsby saying how he feels about Daisy (Farrant).
Good morals and values are considered to be good qualities in most people’s perspective. In Fitzgerald’s, morality is something that many characters lack. Murder, bootlegging, and adultery are all traits that the characters in the novel possess. Myrtle Wilson is one of the two characters that is murdered in the story. In this conversation between Nick and Gatsby, “’Well, I tried to swing the wheel—‘ He broke off and suddenly I guessed the truth. ‘Was Daisy driving?’ ‘Yes’” Gatsby reveals the truth about who was driving (Fitzgerald 143). This proves that Daisy was driving when Myrtle was hit and killed. Gatsby is also murdered in the story. George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, kills Gatsby because he is told that Gatsby is who killed his wife. Hickey writes, “He shot Gatsby and killed himself,” talking about George when he goes to Gatsby’s house in pursuit to Murder Gatsby (4). This proves that George murdered Gatsby.