Life revolves around the quest for comfort. Wealth makes us comfortable without the stress of making money or worrying about affording life's necessities, which keep us safe. Comfort in a partner to marry, start a family, and share one's life with, to have companionship on a primitive level, is also a significant factor in our pursuit of comfort. In "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller, the protagonists pursue comfort through wealth and family yet are too focused on perfection, and refuse to settle, leading them to self-destruct.
In "Death of a Salesman," Willy Loman is consumed with pursuing the American Dream and attaining wealth and success, believing it will bring him happiness. His obsession,
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Jay Gatsby's home describes how grand his house is with its fantastical appearance as "a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden." (5) The imitation of a European structure of wealth shows Gatsby's flashiness and his attempt to recreate a castle of which a king would live in, presenting a powerful appearance. This, of course, is in pursuit of Daisy and a comfortable life alongside her in the fortune he has amassed. Jay Gatsby's obsession with wealth and social status is evident not only in his lavish mansion but also in his extravagant parties. Gatsby hosts extravagant parties with an endless supply of food and alcohol, which attract the wealthiest people in town. Gatsby throws these parties in the hope that Daisy will attend, but it also reflects his desire to be accepted by society's elite. Additionally, Gatsby's car, described as a "circus wagon," is another symbol of his wealth and his need to impress others. The car is a symbol of his power and his desire to stand out from the crowd. Overall, Gatsby's pursuit of wealth and status reflects his desire to win back Daisy, believing money will buy her happiness and showing his insecurities about his …show more content…
Gatsby's obsession with Daisy Buchanan and his love for her drives him, despite presenting the illusion of being wealthy for his own doing. Throughout the novel's beginning, Daisy seems to have reactions every time Gatsby's name is mentioned, and it is revealed that they had a relationship in the past. Gatsby's house sits across from the lake where Daisy and Tom live, and he throws the parties with the hope that Daisy will attend and he will be able to win her over with the spectacle of a party; he also displays his interest and how he was driven by daisy with the dock that stretched out to her like a hand reaching out to her: "Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy, it had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock" (93) The green light to get Daisy's attention is a great reference to the Shakespearean idea that the color green was associated with jealousy. The light shining was not only to Daisy but also inadvertently directed to Tom, who was with the woman he loved and didn't demand
Gatsby's house and possessions are both extraordinary and show how much wealth Gatsby has. For example, on page 7 it says, "It was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side." This example shows how luxurious and high status his mansion is because it looks like a fancy hotel from Europe. Additionally, on page 99 it says, "He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk. "
Gatsby continues to have more and more interactions with Daisy through the constant awkwardness with Tom (Daisy’s current husband). This only allows him to understand how much he truly loves Daisy. It also let Gatsby realize further that Tom was never meant for Daisy and rather Daisy is Gatsby’s soulmate. Fitzgerald showcases Gatsby’s self reflection by mentioning,“You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock” (Fitzgerald 92). Gatsby’s love for Daisy remains powerful nevertheless, and he will not give up on it.
Nick says Gatsby’s house was a “factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy”(5). Gatsby copies classical French architecture for his own home because he knows it would be pleasing to others who liked the grandeur. However, Gatsby never really wanted the lavish house, and was satisfied with keeping his personal bedroom “the simplest room of all”(). Because he came from a lower class, Gatsby’s true nature is to live with very little. His house is designed to appeal to society and create a link to their favor.
Gatsby tells Nick “daisy comes over quite often” late in the afternoons. (Fitzgerald 120) Daisy is cheating on Tom with Gatsby making her no better than Tom when he cheats with Myrtle. Furthermore, Fitzgerald links the motif of the green light to Gatsby as it is not appearing to be a simple green light to him but a symbol of hope and dreams he wishes to accomplish.
He continues to notice a now-married Daisy from afar, and his attraction to her begins to show again. His desire of having the dream life he created when he was young never truly leaves him, therefore his desire to be associated with Daisy never leaves either. Fitzgerald uses the green light on Daisy’s dock that is across the bay from Gatsby as a symbol of the not only physical but also emotional distance between the two of them. When they finally meet again, and rekindle their previous relationship while walking around Gatsby’s house, it is said that “the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever” (Fitzgerald), implying that the desire for status through Daisy isn’t as prominent anymore. The people surrounding Daisy, such as Tom, were born into wealthy families creating their place in society early on, whereas Gatsby’s money and reputation came from his own self doing.
The color green is one of the most distinguished colors in The Great Gatsby and it portrays the optimism, the hopes, and the dreams of the characters. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock symbolizes Gatsby’s longing for her and it also represents his commitment to obtain the American Dream. The green light is described as “minute and far away,” symbolizing that Gatsby's dream is slightly
Daisy and her husband, Tom, reside in the East Egg, where the upper-class populace resides, just across the water from Gatsby in the West Egg. At the end of Buchanan's dock rests a blinking green light, which Gatsby directly views from his dock. Nick Carraway, the narrator and Gatsby's friend notices that this is a metaphoric symbol when Gatsby "stretche[s] out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way.. he was trembling and [Nick] distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock" (Fitzgerald 19). Gatsby interprets the light as if it is his "American Dream" (Daisy), and the color green demonstrates the idea to "go," as previously established. Hence, he stretches his arms out to the idea of a revival of his past relationship with Daisy and now knows that he must pursue after her.
Living The Reality Rather Than Chasing The Impossible Willy Loman ultimate dream was to achieve perfection By Turki Al-Al-Suwailem Rational Throughout my report I have chosen to illustrate how Willy Loman in the story of Death of a salesman has lived by all his life by searching for perfection rather than reality. Willy lived to chase his unachievable dream rather than living the reality. His unrealistic connection between his reality and what he dreams to be has led him to death. His wrong judgments’ that are based on materialism and capitalism are a symbol of Willy’s dream to become a wealthy person.
It has long been said that money can’t buy happiness, but still people continue to use it’s acquisition to try to make themselves happy. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the title character struggles with this realization. The book is set in New York during the ‘Roaring 20’s’, a time famous for its parties and lavishness. The book examines the attitudes toward money within the upper particularly through the lense of the new-money title character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby dedicated his life to the acquisition of money with the goal of eventually acquiring the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan.
Wealth and greed can easily change a person’s lives. One of the major changes is that you can destroy your life in a way that can affect your decisions in the future. Just like how Tom and Daisy are, in The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that follows Jay Gatsby, a man who orders his life around one desire: to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. Gatsby's quest leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved, and eventually to death.
To begin with, the first glance we get of Gatsby is his extravagant parties. Gatsby uses parties to show off his wealth, hoping that it will grasp Daisy 's attention. " On week-ends his Rolls Royce became on omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains" (39; Ch 3). Gatsby throws extravagant parties to try to give off the illusion that he is old money.
To the Buchanan’s, the only meaning of this light is to allow boats to see at night, but to Gatsby, the green light is there to symbolize his distance from Daisy and his jealousy of her husband and their old money (Fitzgerald 93). Gatsby is the only person who perceives the light in this way, and because of this it is clear that “his dream of Daisy and the life she represents...is an absurd and vulgar illusion” (Way). The delusions, however, go even further than that; Gatsby convinces himself for certain that Daisy will end her marriage with Tom Buchanan to be with him, and even persuades himself into believing that she never loved her husband, but has always loved only him
Gatsby travels back to the first time he saw Daisy at her grand home and goes into vivid detail of her house, “There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than the other bedrooms of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year’s shining motor cars and of dancers whose flowers were scarcely withered”. Gatsby goes into the nitty-gritty details of Daisy’s home, calling it ‘beautiful’, ‘gay and radiant’ and ‘breathing’ in order to demonstrate how symbolic the home is to him. This is the first taste of the upper class that Gatsby has ever experienced and serves as the true epitome of wealth to Gatsby. He falls in love with the newness of her home and the activities of the rich. Because of Gatsby’s love for the home, when he sees Daisy become consumed by her own luxuries, he feels betrayed; “She vanished into her rich house, into her rich full life, leaving Gatsby-nothing”.
In both the movie and book when Gatsby reaches out towards this green light he is reaching towards Daisy. This detail is important to be shown in the movie just as it is in the book because what that green light at the end of the dock represents
In Gatsby’s eyes, the green light at the end of the dock represents hope and his dream. Obtaining the green light would mean that his “American Dream” is complete with Daisy in tow. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is trying to make it over to the other staircase and be a part of Daisy’s life as if he was in the past, but no matter how much money he has, he will always be lower on the social hierarchy. Similarly, Myrtle believed that Tom would leave Daisy and she would get her shot at wealth but in reality, Tom was just using her; once he got bored, he could move on to another woman who would also cherish him and want his money. At the end of the day, Daisy and Tom both returned to their lives in East