The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald And A Streetcar Named Desire

Gatsby is then reminded of his low status when Daisy’s mother“…had found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say goodbye to a soldier who was going overseas. She was effectually prevented, but she wasn’t on speaking terms with her family for several weeks.” (75) From that moment Gatsby becomes motivated to become one of the wealthy elite in order to win Daisy and her family.

He has gone to great lengths to make himself appear as appealing to a girl who never proves herself to be worthy of sacrifice. Gatsby creates a facade for himself in order to appear as a man who- in his mind- would be worthy of Daisy’s affection.

In the beginning of the novel, Gatsby is shrouded in mystery and all that is known about him is simple gossip. He appeared to be this complicated individual who threw glamorous parties and drowned in wealth and women. In reality, however, he is a lovesick young man who grew up in poverty, and became fabulously rich through organized crime, like selling

Gatsby and Daisy used to be together up until the point where he left for the war. Daisy waited for him until Tom along came and snatched her away. Daisy is a character who puts high importance on the wealth of her spouse which is why she left Gatsby for Tom in the first place. “Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’(Fitzgerald 106). Gatsby does not realize the motive behind Daisy’s actions and continues to dwell in the past. Tom "bought" Daisy for an expensive necklace worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Gatsby was poor in his youth but now that he is one of the wealthiest people in West Egg and a symbol of "new money", Daisy wants to be with him again. “ Tom may be insensitive to people, but Gatsby hardly seems to be aware that anyone other than Daisy exists.” (Wasiolek 15). Gatsby is not great because he does not realize the shallow and selfish behaviour of Daisy. Gatsby lost her to Tom because of his money, and money is the exact strategy that Gatsby uses to get her back. “I want you and Daisy to come over to my house,’ he said, ‘I’d like to show her around.” (Fitzgerald 87). Daisy becomes interested in Gatsby again once he shows her around his lavish mansion and shows her how wealthy he is now. Gatsby’s greatness is once again put into question as he is blinded by the past and cannot see the huge flaws in Daisy’s

which allows him to fit into the society he wishes to be a part of. He

“You cannot open a book without learning something” (Confucius). Through numerous years of reading and comprehending texts, it’s needless to say that through each text, I overcame another road block. I have learnt to spell simple words, find morals in stories and understanding how important the Australian identity is to its country. Through my experiences of different text types, it has further shaped and moulded my personal attitudes, values and beliefs when a hurdle in my life was encountered, which is inevitable. The opportunities and experiences that I have studied has prepared me for the next stages of my journey. Each challenge and tribulation provides a fundamental foundation for the texts that we enjoy, immerse ourselves in and have further influenced all of us. In particular it has influenced my understanding of my past, present and most importantly my future.

      Gatsby's tragic flaw lies within his inability to see that the real and the ideal cannot coexist. Gatsby's ideal is Daisy. He sees her as perfect and worthy of all his affections and praise. In reality she is undeserving and through her actions, proves she is pathetic rather than honorable. When Daisy says "Sophisticated-God I'm sophisticated" (18), she contradicts who she really is. The reader sees irony here, knowing she is far from sophisticated, but superficial, selfish and pathetic. Gatsby's vision is based on his belief that the past can be repeated, "can't repeat the past? Why of course you can" (111)!  The disregard for reality is how Gatsby formulates his dream (with high expectations), and the belief that sufficient wealth can allow one to control his or her own fate. Gatsby believes youth and beauty can be recaptured if he can only make enough money. To become worthy of Daisy, Gatsby accumulates his wealth, so he can rewrite the past and Daisy will be his. He establishes an immense fortune to impress the great love of his life, Daisy, who can only be won with evidence of material success.  Over the five years in which Gatsby formulates this ideal, he envisions Daisy so perfect that he places her on a pedestal. As he attempts to make his ideal a reality things do not run as smoothly as he plans. Daisy can never live up to Gatsby's ideal, though

James Gatz being born poor with unsuccessful parents had always dreamt of being rich, creating a persona to fit the ambitions he wished to reach. This persona, Jay Gatsby is everything Gatsby wanted to be, a wealthy, unbound, and powerful person. He never really accepted his parents believing they “were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people,” and that “his imagination never really accepted them.”(Fitzgerald 95) Gatsby rejects the classism in society and uses his persona as a drive to change his life to something more fulfilling, and a place where he can be together with Daisy. This wealth Gatsby desperately wants leads him to his own demise, losing any other ambitions he had, only focusing on his desire for Daisy. The moment Gatsby remembers of Daisy is when “she vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life… leaving Gatsby overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery,” that “Daisy proud above the hot struggle of the poor” (Fitzgerald 142) The senseless that comes with money is shown how Gatsby once gaining the wealth loses his mind into Daisy, making the second premise more evident in Gatsby as his desire not be alone drives him to the stage to attempt to take Daisy away from Tom. Nevertheless classism in society at that time played a big role in Daisy’s choice to be with Tom, as he truly is rich and has a secure wealth, unlike Gatsby born poor, and not truly rich, with an unsecure income. Overall Gatsby wasted all this time and money into getting Daisy back, following his desires which soon lead him to his death rather than choosing to use his money to do something else he imagined in his

Whilst Gatsby was very materialistic and amassed his fortune through dubious means just to impress Daisy, he represents

The Great Gatsby is about a poor man trying to get his love, Daisy Buchanan, no matter what it takes (“The Great Gatsby” 98). He was born poor in a small North Dakota town and through many adventures like sailing with Dan Cody, bootlegging, and fighting the world war one, Gatsby made his wealth, all of this made for Daisy (The Great Gatsby” 78). Gatsby, who is completely fascinated by his love finds out that she marries another, but still moves to New York for her(“The Great Gatsby”). While there he throws elaborate parties hoping that she will just wander in, this never actually happens, but Gatsby is able to find friends of Daisy’s (“The Great

To begin with, Gatsby’s desire to rekindle the flame between his dearest Daisy and himself causes a series of awful decisions to arise. For instance, after Mr. Carraway attends the grand party that Jay Gatsby was throwing, it comes to his attention the reason why the affluent man was living in West Egg instead of the elite East Egg. That reason being that“Gatsby bought [the] house so that Daisy would

Early in the book, the character Jay Gatsby, is introduced as a dreamer who is gracious, charming, and a bit mysterious. As the novel progresses we also learn that Gatsby is a self-made man who achieved the American Dream of rising up from the lower classes to the top of society. But to Gatsby, the desire for Daisy and love proves more powerful than money. Something that shows his obsession of her, is this example.

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

Gatsby is a “poor boy trying to remake himself” (McClurg). Gatsby comes from an impoverished family, so he leaves his family and starts looking for success. His first chance at being rich is when Dan Cody leaves him some wealth. Unfortunately, Cody’s wife refuses to give it him, so Gatsby makes it his goal to get rich without Cody’s help. Gatsby serves in the Great War then he joins the bootlegging business. The bootlegging business turns Gatsby to a really wealthy man. He becomes “mister nobody… who rise up out of the crowd” (McClurg). Gatsby tries to fit in with rich people by throwing extravagant parties, buying a personalized car, and lying about his background. Despite of all his generosity at his parties, people usually “came and went without having met Gatsby” (Fitzgerald 41). Additionally, his desire to be an upper class comes from his love for Daisy. For instance, Jordan Baker tells Nick that “Gatsby bought [his] house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78). Gatsby wants to show his wealth to Daisy and prove to her that “he has been cured of poverty” (Pidgeon 180). Nevertheless, Daisy leaves Gatsby “standing… in the moonlight – watching over nothing” (Fitzgerald 145). Gatsby’s hard work is all for nothing. Readers can infer that Daisy picks Tom over Gatsby due the fact that he does “not belong to the right club [class]” (Pidgeon 178).

There are different identities that Gatsby creates for himself, with all of them relating to each other in the end. The identity that he creates for himself is a wealthy man, who lies about his history to get to the top. He appears to be likeable by most New Yorkers because so many people attend his outrageous parties that he throws. The reason Gatsby throws these parties is all for one person, Daisy, as he “half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night, but she never did” (80). Because she never attended one of his parties, he sought out Jordan Baker to help him find a way to get together with his previous lover. For years, he worked hard to become successful in his “business”. With all of the money that he gained from this, he “bought a house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (79). Gatsby hoped that Daisy would notice him and his wealth, and therefore, leave Tom. He believed that if he was perceived as the “better” man, she would go back to him.