In the discussion of identity between two American Literature, one controversial issue is can a person change his life. On one hand, in the novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is not satisfied with his born life, he wants to reach the upper social class and be one of them no matter what it takes. On the other hand, in the movie Forrest Gump, the character, Forrest Gump, is optimistic with his life in spite of people making fun of him or treating him like freak, but unintentionally, Forrest becomes wealthy and famous. Although both The Great Gatsby and Forrest Gump argue that American Dream is possible for everyone to earn a opportunity to change their life, Gatsby argues that one’s effort can help him fill his desire and gain the status. while Forrest …show more content…
He met Daisy in Louisville before WWI, he was attracted by the beautiful lady who is heiress of her family. In order to get in touch with Daisy, Gatsby act like the one of the wealthy, and he keep the relationship with Daisy. He fall in love with her, and also the wealth she represents. Gatsby make a lot of money after going to the front, and he believe he can win her back even if Daisy is already married and has a child. "We haven 't met for many years," said Daisy, her voice as matter-of-fact as it could ever be."Five years next November." (5.69-70), For Daisy, Gatsby is just a memory, but Daisy is his past, present, and future. The comparison of memory is a good example; Daisy’s memory about Gatsby is abstract, but Gatsby has been so obsessed with her, he count the days and months until they reunion. We can see that Gatsby’s love for Daisy is more intense than her love him. For Gatsby, Daisy has come to represent all of his larger hopes and dreams about wealth and a better life, and she is literally the incarnation of his dreams. "Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now—isn 't that enough? I can 't help what 's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once—but I loved you too."Gatsby 's eyes opened and closed."You loved me too?" he repeated. (7.264-66) To Daisy, the feeling towards Gatsby and Tom is the same, she loves Gatsby, and also Tom.She …show more content…
People should discover the sense of self-value, and be satisfied with their position in the society. In the Great Gatsby, Gatsby was born in a poor family, but he has a dream to enter the upper class. Although he wasn’t come from a wealth background, he self taught and earn money from getting into bootlegging and other criminal enterprises. But this cannot change his identity in the society. In the novel, the social status was distinguished by different area. East Egg reflects high class society where the inhabitants are inherently wealthy, referred to as “old money”, but Gatsby lives in West Egg, which stand for the crowd that only become wealthy recently. Even though he mingle friends from higher class like famous director or state senator, he still cannot fit into East Egg. "I wouldn 't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can 't repeat the past.""Can 't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can!"He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand."I 'm going to fix everything just the way it was before," he said, nodding determinedly. "She 'll see." (6.128-131) Gatsby believe living in upper class can do as he want. But in fact, Gatsby is just accepted in a level of society who never would have accepted him in his poorer days. So he should recognize his self-worth that he cannot be the highest class in the society. His dissatisfaction and confidence cause he lose all the
This quote shows that Gatsby is living in a fantasy of the past that he can't seem to let go of. He is driven by his own selfishness to have Daisy for himself just like he did five years ago. It's seems like Gatsby is more in love by the idea he's made up of Daisy from the past than who she is
In the Great Gatsby, privilege comes into play. Privilege in this context means being born with advantages that you did not earn or work for. Some people have to work to get their money but others are born with money which means that they didn’t have to work for their money. Gatsby for example was not born with money. He had to make his own money by selling and dealing drugs and is now a very wealthy man.
Gatsby believes that money can buy him whatever his heart desires. Gatsby’s misunderstanding of the way money functions in the society he lives in results in the failure of his attempt to gain both status and the
Imagination, it cures desires and provides satisfaction to some people who can not have everything they want. Although providing a temporary positive effect, it also can distort the reality. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby spends five years watching Daisy from across the lake, creating an imaginary future for them in his head. Gatsby ultimately dooms their relationship by creating this abstract world and standards that they simply can not meet. The world in which Gatsby believed in, required the past to be repeated, something in which Daisy had moved far away from.
The two of them did everything, and would do everything for them. They thought they loved them, and one of the men even devoted his entire life to this woman. Both of the main characters live’s and choices surrounded these two women. Gatsby bought a house directly across from Daisy’s, and would throw these massive, elaborate parties just in hope she would come to one, and they would be reunited. Daisy never loved Gatsby to the extent that he loved her.
"I did love him once—but I loved you too." ( Fitzgerald pg.132). For Gatsby, Daisy has to come to show all of his greater desire and dreams about having a better life. “The novel’s elaborate use of light and dark imagery and shadow symbolizes emotional states as well” (Hermanson pg.1). Even though Daisy has deep feelings for Gatsby, she knows that she will never love him like he loves her, and that she will never be able to live up to the light that Gatsby holds for her,but only live in that shadow of what love use to be for the
Both Gatsby and Daisy appreciate appearance over true character. Gatsby is now part of Daisy 's world, and she falls back in love with him for his status, not for
(99) In this moment, Gatsby makes it clear to Daisy that he could easily provide her with the same lifestyle she shares with Tom. Once Gatsby captures Daisy’s affection, he becomes full of greed and doesn’t want to believe she ever gave any of her love to Tom. “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’” (118) When Daisy states “‘Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom,’ (142), Gatsby begins to feel a “touch of panic” (142). All of his parties, stories, and entire persona were all fabricated to win Daisy back.
In The Great Gatsby, social status is a significant element in the book as it separates the haves from the have nots. However more importantly, social status portrays the personalities of people belonging to different classes. In the end, you are stuck in the class you are born into, and attempting to change classes only leads to tragedy and heartbreak. In The Great Gatsby, there are three main social classes portrayed. These are old money, new money, and no money.
Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanan’s. Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I’d known Tom in college. ”(The Great Gatsby page 5). This explains the difference between the East and West Egg. People who lived in East Egg were valued more over the West Egg.
If Gatsby is to truly love Daisy, instead of destroying her marriage, he would have let her go. However, because of his extreme devotion towards Daisy, he dreams of a utopia where their feelings for each other is mutual. Thus, he demands her to say that she has never loved Tom to affirm that she loves him only, but Daisy does fall in love with Tom at some point in her marriage, in between the five years of Gatsby’s absence. Nonetheless, Gatsby does not give up. He “[clutches]
They were once in love, before the war. But, after Gatsby leaves Daisy finds a new man. A man with money that could give her anything she desired. Everything except love that is. Gatsby could give her love at the time, but not money.
Gatsby falls in love with Daisy the first minute he meets her and never stops loving her even though she has obviously moved on. Gatsby does everything he can to be closer to her like buying “that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78). Gatsby knows that if he can get the girl of his dreams he will not feel lonely anymore. " He talked a lot about the past… he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was” (87).
However, when Gatsby comes back as a mysterious millionaire with a lavish lifestyle, Daisy falls for him again. According to Daisy, the reunion with Gatsby is miserable not only because of the rekindled flame between the two past lovers, but also because Gatsby now has the upper-class lifestyle she yearns for, yet she is not with him (Gam). Her love is based on his attraction which comes not from Gatsby himself but from his money and material luxury. People around her gradually
“And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time” (Fitzgerald 138). These words, spoken by Tom Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, exemplify the personality traits that are omnipresent throughout the novel. Tom is Daisy Buchanan’s husband whom she marries after her first love, Jay Gatsby, leaves for the war.