Ambition In The Great Gatsby

Wealth, Love, and the American Dream It has been said that F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is about the pursuit of the American dream. It has also been said that the novel is about love, ambition, and obsession. Perhaps both are true. Combined, these themes may be understood in their most basic forms among the relationships within the novel. After all, each character's reason for belonging to a relationship speaks very strongly of what really makes him tick; each character's manifestation of his own desires is found within his lover. Throughout the novel, what universally unites each character beyond anything else is the love of a dream or position and involvement in relationships for the success of that dream. Jay Gatsby has loved
Tom represents old money, American aristocracy, and a level of decadence that Gatsby, despite his lavish parties, cannot simulate. Nick notes that "It was hard to realize that a man of [his] own generation" is quite as wealthy as Tom really is (Fitzgerald 10). After all, Daisy married for money instead of love. It's made clear that she loves Gatsby far more than she loves Tom, but grew tired of waiting before she finally decided to marry Tom. By the night before her wedding, it was too late for her to change her mind. "She groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on her bed and pulled out the string of pearls. ‘Take ‘em downstairs and give ‘em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ‘em all Daisy's change her mine. Say ‘Daisy's change' her mine!'" (Fitzgerald 81). Her pathetic, drunken attempt to break a commitment by returning a gift is too little too late; Daisy's desire to remain rich through union to Tom could not counter-act her love for
Tom describes him as being victim of a permanent anti-climax, the result of the echo of a forgotten football game long ago. Perhaps this is why he has decided to take on a mistress. His lover, Myrtle Wilson, is also in a state of discontent. She doesn't think much of her husband, George. "'I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,' she said finally. ‘I thought he knew something about breeding but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe'" (Fitzgerald 39). George Wilson may not be a very interesting guy; an auto mechanic doesn't offer much excitement. However, this does not make him disgraceful or poorly bred. After all, this criticism tells more about Myrtle's character than it tells about George's. It is not unfair to say that Myrtle is involved in her relationship with Tom for the sake of climbing the social ladder. On similar lines, their overstuffed apartment symbolizes their desire to stuff value without real structure or meaning. "Their apartment was on the top floor- a small living room, a small dining room, a small bedroom and a bath. The living room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles" (Fitzgerald 33). This ostentatious display of overstuffed, and florid possession shows a desire within Myrtle to make public her new