Examples Of Reality In The Great Gatsby

Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald the theme of The American Dream and Illusion versus Reality are interlinked and are also evident within the novel. This is seen through the protagonist Jay Gatsby, recently changed from James Gatz, who once lived with a poor lifestyle, strived for greatness and luxury in order to achieve The American dream, and is now living in West Egg. This is where people of new wealth go to live their lives. Gatsby’s tale of rags-to-riches can be seen as living The American Dream, however Gatsby always wants one thing in order to complete this desire; Daisy Buchanan. She is first introduced as an innocent and generous woman who is genuine in all the things she says and does. Gatsby was once

Arguably one of the finest works of American Literature, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays an satirical United States taking place in the early twenties in New York. The roaring twenties often portrayed a happy time immediately following World War 1 however, it gave of a false feeling of joy and many people were truly unhappy. Even though Nick Carraway shows a realistic image of himself, The Great Gatsby encompasses an illusion created in this time period and portrays this image through the atmosphere surrounding the actions of its characters; it ultimately shows a conflict against reality, identical to that of the early 20th century.

Regarding Gatsby, it is his lack of emotional satisfaction that shapes his obsession and greed toward Daisy. Gatsby’s goal is to regain his former romantic relationship he shares with Daisy, as he truly believes that it is possible to repeat the past (Fitzgerald 110). In fact, during the last five years, he builds himself a facade through illegal means to impress Daisy. Nevertheless, his greed for the exclusivity of Daisy backfires. Daisy says that “ ‘[he] [wants] too much!’... ‘[she] [loves] [him] now--- isn’t that enough?’ ” (132). When Gatsby asks Daisy to affirm that she only loves him, she could not confirm the statement truthfully, thus reducing Gatsby’s efforts throughout the years to naught. Gatsby’s commitment for Daisy’s affection is the very cause of Daisy’s rejection.

Years later and she is unhappy in her marriage to Tom, he has money but yet she still is not happy. Her affair with Gatsby begins and from the beginning it is far from pure. Not simply because of the fact that she is married but that she seems to not be quite happy unless he is lavishing all of his time, attention, and money onto her. When Gatsby’s authenticity as a wealthy established man is called into question by Tom she immediately begins to draw away from Gatsby, “It passed, and he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been made. But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself” (Fitzgerald 134).

In the 1920’s, American citizens were pursuing their dreams. Between desires of wealth and fame, many of these aspirations are outlandish. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows us the consequences of chasing these unique American dreams. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald clearly communicates to the reader that people are failing to accomplish their dreams. The characters of Nick, Gatsby, Tom and Daisy all have ideas for a perfect life; however, none of them are able to obtain it. Fitzgerald shows the pursuit of the American dream as deceitful because it leads to poverty, depression, moral and social decay through highly unrealistic standards.

The human condition is the idea of all the questions, concerns, and theories people have on what it takes to be human. The concept of life and death, and everything people have to deal with in between, all count as subjects related to the human condition. It is a wide topic and it is something people have been mulling over for thousands of years. Authors take advantage of the human condition, and all its separate parts, knowing that the characters and situations will always end up being that much more relatable to readers. It is a very smart strategy, and it is one that seems to work time and time again. Out of the stories “The Great Gatsby,” “Everything Stuck to Him,” Everyday Use,” and “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” the overarching

Throughout the novel Fitzgerald demonstrates struggle in the lives of characters of lower class, especially through Gatsby’s experiences. Although during the story Gatsby was made up of money and had spent it carelessly, before, he was just “ a penniless young man without a past”(Fitzgerald 149). Gatsby served in the military and when he got back he “journey[ed] to Louisville on the last of his army pay”(Fitzgerald 152). With nothing but his passion and determination to reunite with Daisy he put himself out there to go after the woman he loved, only to discover “Tom and Daisy were still on their wedding trip”(Fitzgerald 152). He loved her and gave up everything for her but still he was rejected.

The Great Gatsby is a film that is starring a man by the name of Jay Gatsby, but originally named James Gatz, who grew up in a low status household. Being an officer in the war, Jay met the love of his life, Daisy, who he could not marry due to his low status and the fact that he was in the war. Later, after war, Gatsby disguises himself as an upperclassman who is rich and tries to get Daisy back- through the work of her cousin, Nick Carraway, who is also Gatsby’s next-door neighbor- who at this point is married to Tom Buchanan. The film finishes with the death of Gatsby. Midnight in Paris is a film about a man named Gil Pender, who is traveling to Paris with his wife. While in Paris, Gil goes out every night at midnight and travels back to the 1920s. While he in the 1920s, Gil meets a woman named Adriana, who was splendid during her time. Gil ended up having a short romance with her. At last, Gil decides to stay in the future and confront the reality. The effectiveness of the

The notion of the ‘American Dream’ is one of the repeated aspects portrayed in this book, since Gatsby’s entire life is dedicated to achieving this. The ‘American Dream’ comprises of grand opulence, social equality, wealth; more specifically, a big house with a big garden, the newest model cars, the most fashionable attire, and a traditional four-peopled ‘happy’ family. To Fitzgerald, the ‘American Dream’ itself is a positive, admirable pursuit. We can see this when Fitzgerald uses personification, “flowers”, to background positive connotations behind the idea of the ‘American Dream’. In regard to Gatsby, he achieves the wealth aspect of this ‘dream’, “he had come a long way to this blue lawn”; however, he was yet to be satisfied because he did not have Daisy. Ever since the very beginning of the story, Gatsby always associated Daisy with magnificent affluence, the white house, and the grand quality of being rich. Gatsby wanted everything ever since he was first introduced to the higher status. But Gatsby felt incomplete and unfulfilled even after getting everything he dreamt of, so he sourced this emptiness as not having Daisy, where in reality, “he neither understood or desired” the motives he thought he once had.

Gatsby does not belong to his own class and he is not accepted by the upper class, therefore he becomes an exception. Because of disappointment of being looked down upon and impossibility of accept by the upper class, he has nothing left except his love, which is also his “love dream”. Gatsby’s love for Daisy has been the sole drive and motive of his living. Gatsby’s great love is also the root of his great tragedy, because he is desperately in love with a woman who is not worthy of his deep love. Fitzgerald offers Gatsby with the spirit of sincerity, generosity, nobility, perseverance, and loyalty. All his good natures can be seen

“There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind appearance.” Said Albert Einstein about the relationship between appearance and reality. Einstein is telling the readers that people are discovering new things that were hidden behind illusions of what had appeared. Humans have to use hat feeling to see threw those appearances to discover the elements that form the reality they live in. Scott Fitzgerald uses the creation of illusive appearance but also writes a discoverable reality for the most of the characters in his novels. In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates a strong relationship between the illusion of appearance

leading to a life of unfulfillment. Gatsby was seen as a great man with great dreams and ambitions, but when he losses his dream of being with Daisy Gatsby truly sees his life as uneventful. Gatsby thought that him and Daisy really had something, but really he was just living off of a memory. Daisy realizes that Gatsby does not fit into her world and they could never be together, even though she enjoyed the past with him. When Jordan, Nick, Gatsby, Daisy and Tom all go downtown for the day they end up at a Plaza and an aggressive conversation happened between Gatsby and Tom over Daisy. Gatsby believes that he knows Daisy the best and gets consumed with the past and thinks that is how she feels now. After some back and forth of Gatsby and Tom, Nick is describing Daisy. He explains, “It passed, and he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been made. But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, underspairingly, toward that lost voice across the room. The voice begged again to go.” (Fitzgerald 134). As Gatsby defends himself, Daisy cannot bring herself to defend him against Tom. Defending Gatsby would show that she loves him

Gatsby dedicates his entire life to Daisy. Without hesitation he devotes his own self towards her. When Gatsby realizes Daisy wanted money he immediately made as much as he could and flaunted his wealth to attract her attention. All of his actions are executed specifically for Daisy, and after all of that dedication Gatsby expects for Daisy to recuperate this unyielding love. The issue is that Daisy is married, she is not the perfect person Gatsby has imagined her to be, she has faults and over the years she’s changed. Gatsby is baffled at Daisy’s inability to “understand,” he wants her to be the same girl she was five years ago, and cannot comprehend that Daisy has changed (109). Nick persuades Gatsby “not to ask too much of her,” Gatsby disregards this claiming that she can always become who she once was (110). Gatsby choses to ignore the real world for the romantic fantasy he has of Daisy and in the end this drives her away. This internal conflict drives Gatsby throughout his life, and after five years of devotion towards Daisy he creates an unrealistic, romantic world he expects Daisy to fit in. The issue is that she is no longer the girl she once was, and now Gatsby must learn how to battle the internal conflict between his dream of Daisy and her

One of Daisy’s biggest sins included misleading her husband by marrying him. Tom Buchanan remained deceived with the impression of Daisy loving him. After she cut her ties with Gatsby, she set off on a new adventure, transforming her normal life into riches. Daisy “wanted her life shaped now, immediately-and the decision must be made by some force- of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality” and soon “that force took the shape of Tom Buchanan”. Tom’s kindness attracted Daisy the first time they met. But as time progressed, she grew infatuated with his money more than his personality. The little glimpse of greed from her youth developed into a powerful force which took control of her emotions. To Daisy, the importance of money overpowered her will to achieve happiness. Daisy’s love rang once for Tom but Jay Gatsby answered her call. She cheated on her husband Tom because she desired Gatsby more. On the day of Myrtle’s death, Daisy confronted both Tom and Gatsby with her true emotions by confessing “even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom… It wouldn’t be true”. She loved Tom but since Daisy’s with Gatsby, she doesn’t love him anymore. Daisy broke the vows she made to Tom when they married each other. Breaking the promise of marriage gave her the thrill she always dreamed of in her youth.

The Great Gatsby, a realistic novel gives us a glimpse into the high paced life of the 1920’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates life-like situations in the novel to portray the characters as a representation of his own life. Realism in this classic novel, often considered to be one of the greatest works of all time, is evidently shown in the plot, the setting as well as the characters. The story revolves around the romance of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, narrated by a character named Nick Caraway along with many subplots including characters like Jordan Baker, Tom Buchanan and others.