He goes through extreme measures to try to reconnect with Daisy and achieve the American Dream. Once he is rich and famous, it would seem that Gatsby has achieved the American Dream. However, he is as far as possible from achieving what he believes to be his dream. Throughout The Great Gatsby, various characters express
Gatsby, at the beginning of The Great Gatsby, had told Nick about how successful he, and his family were, that he grew up with money, and that his family was also dead. That did not end up being the case as we later find out in the story. Gatsby had grown up very poor, unlike Dexter. Dexter did not lie about how he grew up. His family was in the middle class ranking because his father owned the second best grocery in the town.
Gatsby failed to realize that his dream was unrealistic. Before he left for war, Gatsby attained his hopes and dreams. He was happy, but he did nothing to keep his dream and did everything to lose it. Gatsby failed to dream again and to strive for a new dream. This lead to him thinking everything was perfect and heading off to war, leaving Daisy behind.
In chapter six of the great gatsby a lot of the motives, characteristics and other important attributes of the characters were revealed in the chapter. At the beginning of chapter six the reader and Nick learn that everything about Gatsby was a lie; even his name. We learn that he didn’t inherit any money, lived on a farm in North Dakota, and his real name is James Gatz. Gatsby’s motives were to become extremely rich and win the love of Daisy. He does this by lying to everyone to convince them that he is old money, putting him higher up the social ladder to get Daisy to notice him.
Both Jesus and Gatsby were sent here for a reason, Jesus was here for healing the sick and preaching the lord, while Gatsby's was “the service of vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.” There is a certain level of shame to Gatsby, reinventing a whole new persona to earn the respect from Dan Cody. Fitzgerald describes when Gatsby made this alter ego by saying that he was seventeen at the time, this proves that Gatsby has kept that mindset over the years, not letting go of it. This makes Gatsby look not only dedicated to his persona, but naive in the way he still had adolescent
Gatsby felt the school did not recognize the dream he had of himself because they were indifferent to his destiny. They did not care that Gatsby had huge dreams they still expected him to work and he chooses not to do the janitor work because he saw it as beneath him. Here we see Gatsby does not want to actually work for his wealth but wants it handed to him without it truly being earned. We later learn that to make his fortune Gatsby teamed up with Wolfsheim, a notorious crime lord, and they “bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores… and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (133). Here we see that Gatsby quickly fell into crime to make his money and used drug stores to sell illegal liquor.
Gatsby’s dreams and aspirations in life are rather interesting and amazing as he goes about his life in the book. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald helps highlight the social, moral, and political issue that were very present during the 1920’s and today. Gatsby is the focus of the book as before the book began, he was an ex-soldier who came to wealth by some rather illegal ways. Daisy a married woman is his person of interest, who was his ex-lover 5 years before the book started. Gatsby’s actions, and words demonstrate a clear obsession with Daisy that seems to have no end.
He wanted her completely but even she couldn’t give him that because while he was out of the picture she married her now current husband. Gatsby then came back into the picture and was reunited with Daisy but with Daisy came her husband Tom. Gatsby was talking to Daisy saying how they could live together Daisy replied, “... you want to much! ... I love you now- isn’t that enough?
They didn’t marry with love, they married for money, which had happened with Daisy. She got married to Tom Buchanan for his money, while she was waiting for Jay Gatsby to return from war. It’s not until Nick Carraway (Daisy’s cousin) becomes neighbors with Gatsby, (Daisy’s long, lost lover) when she discovers that Gatsby is alive, still in love with her, and has been waiting for her just across the bay. Nick helps them reunite with each other in secret. He says that it’s just the two meeting for brunch, but it is not.
"Mr. Gatz and the minister and [Nick] in the limousine, and a little later, four or five servants(pg. 182)" showed up to Gatsby's funeral. This shows that Gatsby did not find friends, happiness, nor love with all the money that he had. In the novel, Gatsby was "friends" with Mr. Wolfshiem, and had hundreds of people over to his parties, yet none of these characters showed up to his funeral; not even Daisy who told him she loved him. Gatsby had a fortune but he never found happiness with it.