How Does The Green Light At The End Of The Great Gatsby

Throughout The Great Gatsby, Daisy demonstrates that she cares most about her wealth and status. Right from the start, she tells Nick that she hopes her daughter will be a fool, because “...that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17). This guides the readers the believe that Daisy thinks girls should be pretty, but unintelligent, so they can marry a man who’s rich, instead of a man who loves them. If they are a beautiful fool, they wouldn’t necessarily notice or care that the marriage isn’t based off of love. Daisy could be saying this because that’s how she wishes she was viewing her own marriage. She married Tom because he was rich, but now he is cheating on her and she knows it, so she could be wishing that she wasn’t bright enough to care. Nick as a narrator doesn’t explicitly state anything about Daisy wanting her daughter’s marriage to be to a rich man, but Fitzgerald manipulates her speech in order to communicate that idea to the readers.

This lovely rich girl is known Daisy Buchanan, a women married to Tom Buchanan and also the love of Jay Gatsby’s life. The two met five years prior to her marriage, but were separated when Jay was forced to go off to war. The root of his desire for wealth occurs back to when Daisy’s parents did not approve of Gatsby for their daughter due to the fact that he came from a poor family. Jay is once again blinded, this time by the beauty and grace of Daisy and fails to see that Daisy is not who she appears to once be. He craves her for the realization of his golden family in his perfect dream, but really Daisy is far from that.

All in all, as presented through this work, Gatsby was indeed in love with Daisy for the most part, in the beginning of their relationship, but it all change when Gatsby lost Daisy and so he let himself believed that his past was the one to blame for this circumstances. It is after this, that Gatsby became rather obsessed with the idea of Daisy and having a lovely future with her, because having her meant having it all: stability, confidence, love, happiness and so on. Also, it meant that he had succeeded in life as a whole. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . And then one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (Chapter 9) All his life, Gatsby intended to escape

The first dream that does not get fulfilled is the one of Gatsby. He starts off as an underprivileged boy and struggles his way to the top. We make his acquaintance when he is on the top of his life. He is enjoying his big house and his vast wealth. The one thing he cannot have is his lovely Daisy. Gatsby’s story reflects the “classical” American dream: Anyone can make anything of himself/herself with just elbow grease, spirit and a whole lot of confidence. Jay loves Daisy and, sadly, she is the one thing which he cannot procure to his “perfect life”.

Daisy also has her problems with the definition of True Love. Daisy thinks she is in love with Gatsby, but in actuality she is far from being truly in love with him. They knew each other when they were younger, but Daisy, although she had strong feelings for him, let her family’s expectations keep them apart. Because Gatsby did not come from money and was merely an enlisted soldier he was not fit for Daisy who came from an upper class family. This cannot be true love because true love comes naturally and above all other things and nothing should ever

It’s a common misconception that money is equal to happiness, and Daisy is a sad, bored woman, afraid of the future. She is selfish and self centered, caring so much for the wealth that she believes will make her happy that in Chapter 7 her voice is said to be “full of money” (pg #). All the worse, when she kills Myrtle, she feels no remorse whatsoever, as she is incapable of caring for anyone but herself. Gatsby cannot see any of her bad qualities. He simply sees a beautiful young woman that he thinks he deserves. In chapter 8, Nick says that “It excited [Gatsby], too, that many men had already loved Daisy - it increased her value in his eyes.”(pg#). Gatsby is blinded by his desire for Daisy, fueled by the wants of other men, that he sees nothing bad about her. Daisy loved Tom and Gatsby equally and for the same reason: Their wealth. With Gatsby dead Daisy returns to Tom not even shaken by his death, and just as nick says they would do, they retreat from the chaos they cause into their money when they move away.

The first example of the failure of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby is the fact that Jay Gatsby could not buy Daisy’s true love despite his efforts to show off his wealth. Most people interpret the American Dream as the ability to “...rise by their own efforts,” (Cathbury 70). This ethos is prominent through The Great Gatsby and essential to the novel’s plot. Gatsby puts on a show for all to see, but most especially Daisy. In one scene, he orders a “greenhouse of flowers” for his home the day before Daisy arrives. Gatsby built an extravagant house just across the lake from her house in an effort to catch Daisy’s eye.

Despite Daisy being a dislikeable character, there are some instances in which the reader feels sympathetic towards her. A big factor is the affair that Tom has with Myrtle. Daisy knows that what her husband is doing, but she still stays with him for the fact that they have a daughter together and for financial support. When Nick first sees Daisy's daughter, she says, "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." By this she means that if her daughter is in the same position she is in her marriage, she won't know of the affair that her husband might have. The reader feels bad for Daisy because she is not being treated the way a wife is supposed to be treated. That is why she is yearning for love, and Gatsby was there to give it to her. Another time is at the hotel suite scene. She doesn't know who to choose from-Tom or Gatsby. She's torn between two lovers, and both of them have their own reasons for loving her, and why she should choose them. Gatsby has a lot to offer her, and loves her for who she is. He succeeded in life just to be with her. Although Tom is having an affair, he questions her about their love, and that Gatsby cannot take his place.

Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are many ways that love is purchased, three of these include, Daisy staying married to Tom because of his wealth and title, Gatsby trying to impress Daisy with the things his money has purchased, and Tom buying Myrtle the dog and apartment. Daisy loves Gatsby and prefers his company over anyone else's, in the novel it says, "I knew that except for the half hour she'd been alone with Gatsby Daisy wasn't having a good time" (112). Although Daisy cares for Gatsby, she has a strong title, lots of money, and a child with Tom. Daisy seems like the type of girl who would choose life-long wealth and class over her own heart's true desire.

It can also be seen that she is very mature as Jordan states, “She went with a slightly older crowd—when she went with anyone at all” (81). This willingness to go with individuals with more “experience” and therefore, more maturity, show how important collecting status is to her. Her past ultimately reveals that she has always aimed for a sophisticated lifestyle and strived to be a respectable figure in society. When Gatsby is introduced, he threatens the image that Daisy upholds in society as it would have forced her to disregard the three years of marriage and the child that she had with Tom. Therefore, Daisy’s choice to leave Gatsby, both while he was at war and after Tom confronted the two about their love, demonstrates how she is fixated on collecting status for herself. It may seem that Daisy collects men rather than status, but Nick disproves this when he describes Daisy and Tom’s marriage: “They weren’t happy … and yet they weren’t unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture” (155). Although Daisy may not be happy with Tom, he provides her with the proper status that she needs for others to regard her properly. Therefore, Daisy does not collect men specifically as she focuses more on the status and influence that men provide rather than the men themselves. By marrying Tom, she collects both stability and status in order to fulfill her desire for sophistication in society.

     The statement made by Marius Bewley’s critical essay “Scott Fitzgerald: The Apprentice Fiction”, “Fitzgerald’s ultimate subject is the character of the American Dream in which, in their respective ways, his principle heroes are all trapped.”, can be justified through Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and his short story “Winter Dreams”. In both pieces of literature, Fitzgerald explores and comments upon Americans and their pursuit of the American Dream through Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green’s pursuit of their “golden girls”.

He felt their presence all about the house, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions” (149). Gatsby felt that Daisy’s glamour and wealth must have made her attractive to other men, “it increased her value in his eyes” and held more appeal than her love for him. However, at the same time, Daisy 's desires are also driven by wealth, but she is not attracted to the new money that Gatsby has. Tom’s old money is much more appealing to Daisy. The two men fight over Daisy and in the end she chooses Tom because of his historic wealth.

What is love? Is love when someone is obsessed with someone to the point of doing anything for them or idolizing everything they are to a point of extremes? Can someone love someone else when they could actually be in love with the idea this certain someone has of this object of their affection? Gatsby idolizes Daisy as this perfect being rather than a person that Gatsby actually loves. He is tied to her in her past without any of the constraints of the social world as if he loves her back when they first met. Gatsby is in denial that Daisy has moved on with her life and doesn’t even seem to realize most of the time that she is married and has a child or social responsibilities. Gatsby thinks that he can just be with Daisy without any conflicts

Wealth, material possessions, and power are the core principles of The American Dream. Pursuit of a better life led countless numbers of foreign immigrants to America desiring their chance at the vast opportunity. Reaching the American Dream is not always reaching true happiness. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby achieves the American Dream, but his unrealistic faiths in money and life’s possibilities twist his dreams and life into useless life based on lies.

Daisy Buchanan has a similar lifestyle to Tom, she’s wealthy ‘voice is full of money’ and always wore ‘white’ symbolising her purity and wealth. However as a woman of a higher class, there not much she can do in her ‘shallow life’, as she has the money but doesn’t know how to plan events ‘what do people plan?’. This shows that she is not content with her knowledge and understanding of life therefore even with money she isn’t ‘happy’. This leads her to ‘have an affair’ with an ex-lover whom she so adored before she married Tom ‘I did love him once – But I loved you too’. In the novel, Daisy only every seeks true love when she’s with Gatsby but ‘a rich girls don’t marry poor boys’, so due to this social difference between them, she knows the only place she will ever have security is with Tom. Tom describes their affair as a ‘presumptuous little flirtation’ because to Daisy, she knew she was never going to marry Gatsby but to Gatsby it was just never