But Daisy's materialism, for Gatsby, is not a negative quality. "Her voice is full of money," he says (94). This indicates that Gatsby sees Daisy's obsession with wealth as a good thing, a kind of a way to egg him on to make something of his life. Daisy is Nick Caraway's second cousin but unlike Nick, she is obsessed with money to the point that she ignores human feelings. When Gatsby left to go to war, she ended their relationship. Tom Buchanan at the time was much more financially stable than Gatsby, and even though Tom strikes almost everyone who comes in contact with him as a rich, superficial person, Daisy loved Tom's money.
Daisy has aspirations to be loved and appreciated, of course, but between love and material goods, material and external trappings are ultimately more important, even though she is unhappy. When her daughter is born she says: "All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool" (17). Better to be rich than to know one's folly in marrying a man for his money. But she does not leave her financial and social security with Tom. Although Daisy's life also embodies the American Dream in the sense that she aspires to greater wealth, sexuality and desire are less confused for her, than they are for Gatsby. Money will always win, in Daisy's mind, even if it does not provide happiness like the American Dream promises.
The motivations and true aspirations of Nick Carraway are the most ambiguous of any character...
Great Gatsby The Negative Side Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby The Lure of the American Dream The American Dream is the promise of a better life that brought people from all over the world to the newly discovered continent so that they could populate it and contribute to the development of the land and of their personal lives too. The concept of the American Dream still continues to attract immigrants from countries
Great Gatsby -- a Theoretical Analysis The Great Gatsby is one of the legendary novels written in the history of American literature. The novel intends to shed light on the failure of American dream that poor can attain whatever he wants and emphasizes on the hardships presented by the strong forces of social segregation. In order to understand this novel, there are various theories which tend to be helpful in order
Gatsby had built up this incredible illusion of what Daisy really was, and had gone off the deep end in throwing himself after her. Weinstein (p. 25) quotes from pages 102-103 of the novel: "There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion." It is typical of Fitzgerald to
Great Gatsby -- the American Dream The Great Gatsby is a novel that uses the theme of the American Dream in a number of ways, and it is not a stretch to explain that F. Scott Fitzgerald was showing the dark side of the elusive American Dream. The themes used in The Great Gatsby revolve around those issues in the Roaring Twenties that were linked to the newly wealthy people; and
Even after Daisy commits murder, Gatsby remains unmoved in his emotions towards her. What's more, he assumes responsibility for her actions. Or consider the statement: ' Of course she might have loved him, just for a minute, when they were first married -- and loved me more even then, do you see?' (Fitzgerald, p. 133). Gatsby clings to this hope despite Daisy's professed loved her husband. Such explanations indicate
However, his single focus on getting Daisy's green light, something he cannot have, creates a motive of greed in Gatsby that he is unable to control and eventually destroys him. For example, Nick talks of Gatsby's idealization of Daisy by saying: "There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his
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