The Great Gatsby High School Essay
The Dream 1
Wealth and Pursuit – Daisy vs. Gatsby
The American dream is usually portrayed as an inviting, perfect aspiration. In Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, it is shown as corrupt and unattainable for characters such as Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby and Daisy crave the American dream with different motives, but in both cases it is shown to be hollow and unfulfilling because it has disintegrated into solely material wealth and lacks accountability for actions. They are both preoccupied with wealth as a measure of success, which results in both Gatsby and Daisy having spiritually empty goals.
Daisy is extremely enigmatic and unworthy of Gatsby’s unlimited devotion. Despite her charm and beauty, Daisy is shallow. Fitzgerald associates her character with light and innocence. Daisy is portrayed as an angel on earth in Gatsby’s eyes. She is always linked to the color white; her name represents a white flower, she wears a white dress, drives a white car, and lives in a largely open white mansion. However, as the novel progresses, she later presents herself as the opposite of what Fitzgerald has made her out to be. Her only true love in life is money. She will do whatever is takes to maintain the wealth she has pursued. She appears pure in a world of cheats and liars, but in reality, she shares the deficiency of morals just as every other faulty character in the novel. Regardless of her love for Jay Gatsby prior to him leaving for the war, she still chose to marry Tom Buchanan because he promised her a wealthy lifestyle. After she realizes Gatsby has become incredibly rich over the past 5 years, she bends her head into his pile of shirts and cries, “they’re such beautiful shirts. It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such beautiful shirts before (Fitzgerald, 98).” Without money, Daisy would not acquire the aura of charm, wealth,
Wealth and Pursuit – Daisy vs. Gatsby
The American dream is usually portrayed as an inviting, perfect aspiration. In Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, it is shown as corrupt and unattainable for characters such as Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby and Daisy crave the American dream with different motives, but in both cases it is shown to be hollow and unfulfilling because it has disintegrated into solely material wealth and lacks accountability for actions. They are both preoccupied with wealth as a measure of success, which results in both Gatsby and Daisy having spiritually empty goals.
Daisy is extremely enigmatic and unworthy of Gatsby’s unlimited devotion. Despite her charm and beauty, Daisy is shallow. Fitzgerald associates her character with light and innocence. Daisy is portrayed as an angel on earth in Gatsby’s eyes. She is always linked to the color white; her name represents a white flower, she wears a white dress, drives a white car, and lives in a largely open white mansion. However, as the novel progresses, she later presents herself as the opposite of what Fitzgerald has made her out to be. Her only true love in life is money. She will do whatever is takes to maintain the wealth she has pursued. She appears pure in a world of cheats and liars, but in reality, she shares the deficiency of morals just as every other faulty character in the novel. Regardless of her love for Jay Gatsby prior to him leaving for the war, she still chose to marry Tom Buchanan because he promised her a wealthy lifestyle. After she realizes Gatsby has become incredibly rich over the past 5 years, she bends her head into his pile of shirts and cries, “they’re such beautiful shirts. It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such beautiful shirts before (Fitzgerald, 98).” Without money, Daisy would not acquire the aura of charm, wealth,