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The Great Gatsby Obsession

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The Great Gatsby: In Love or Obsessed? “Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.” - Ann Landers
The true definition of love is an intense feeling of deep affection, but the meaning of obsession is an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind. Throughout the book, Gatsby's feelings towards Daisy were not love, but an obsession. There are a few reasons to consider that support this topic, for instance, Gatsby's craving to achieve wealth just to win Daisy over, Daisy being married, which still didn't stop Gatsby from trying …show more content…

Gatsby spent a long time trying to become rich and did things you would not expect a normal person to attempt. For example, since Gatsby was in the illegal business of bootlegging, he was willing to do whatever it took to accomplish what he wanted, “I found out what your 'drug-stores' were.” He turned to us and spoke rapidly. "He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here( where is here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That's one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn't far wrong" (Fitzgerald 284). To go through all of that to become wealthy makes you ponder whether this was for “love” or the fact that he had an obsession with becoming successful. An exemplification of Gatsby’s obsession with being successful would be when his father “fills Nick in on Gatsby’s early life, showing him a book in which a young Gatsby had written a schedule for self-improvement” (sparknotes). “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind?” (Fitzgerald 182). Jay Gatsby’s preferable outcome through all of this was to achieve the goals he set out to attempt and not let anything get in his

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