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The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby Essay
Alaura Gartner

What are personal desires? How do we make the decision to decide between our desires and choosing to conform? When making a decision between desires and conforming it is a difficult choice that we all face in our lives. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzerald it demonstrates the difficult conflict between what we want and conforming. When we have personal desires it can be difficult to conform.
The first way in which Fitzgerald shows the idea of the choice between our desires and conforming is through The Valley of the Ashes. The Valley of the Ashes is a place created by the dumping of industrial ashes where people of a lower class live and work these people who live there have a desire to live "The American Dream". The people in the valley have to chose to either pursue their dream or to conform to the lifestyle. It is a difficult choice to decide to pursue the desire to live a different life style so many choose to conform to the lifestyle that they are living in.
The second way in which Fitzgerald shows the idea of the choice between our desires and conforming is through the green light. The green light is at the end of Daisy Buchanan's dock and it represents Gatsby's love for her. Gatsby has a desire to be with Daisy. Gatsby has the choice between his love for Daisy and conforming to the social norms and accepting that Daisy is now married. The choice between love and conforming to what society sees as right is a difficult choice for Gatsby.
When we have personal desires it can be difficult to conform. This idea is present in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald through the symbols of The Valley of the Ashes and the green light at the end of the Buchanan's dock.
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