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What do we really desire in life? Your emotions and especially love can push you to do good things in life but sadly, can also push you to make negative choices or even become obsessive. As was the case for Gatsby in this novel. In the book, ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, love and desire are big motivators for almost nearly every character, but especially for Gatsby. The good the bad and even the ugly can come out in relationships especially when there are strong feelings involved. We have all been in a relationship or have known someone who has had a relationship pull on all of their emotions. Love is usually at the root of the things that make us happy along with the things that can make us crazy too. Sometimes love can make people blind and not let them see what is really going on. Is it really love that Gatsby is looking for? Or is it just the idea of loving Daisy that he is longing for. Love can be many different things and make a person do many things for love or desire or what they think is true love.
In ‘The Great Gatsby’, we get Gatsby's backstory at the beginning of the book. He lies and tries to make it seem like he has always had money. But that is not a true reality. He fakes that his parents died and he inherited all the wealth from them. We soon find out that his parents were actually poor farmers and he was very poor throughout his life. He was about to go into war when he met Daisy. He fell for Daisy and had what he thought was a love for Daisy, but as we find out in the rest of the story, this love was a falsified love based more on a status he was trying to build for himself. At the time when Gatsby first met Daisy, he promised her when he got back, he would fulfill her life, take care of her, and love her forever. Daisy was from a rich family and that was the lifestyle she wanted for herself. When Gatsby went away for the war, Daisy decided to go ahead and marry a man named Tom. He was from a good social status and had money. He had the lifestyle she wanted and he fulfilled her needs and what she wanted in life. So, she stays married to Tom even though their love is not a committed and faithful love.
When Gatsby returns from the war, he craves the love he thinks he has for Daisy so he strives to get her back and the idea of her, which Gatsby so wanted. In the book, Gatsby stares at a green light between the west and east egg across the sea at the end of Daisy's dock. The green light represents the hope and future that Gatsby has with Daisy. Gatsby would throw wild parties in West Egg in hopes that Daisy would return. During the parties he hosted, they were never the same, since his beloved Daisy was not with him. Without her, his parties had no use, no purpose. He would stand outside peering at the green light across the water, where he knew Daisy lived, wanting someone he could never have, wanting the same love back he once had but knew he may never get. “So, we beat on, boats against current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (pg. 180) Only fools fall in love and the biggest fool in the story is Gatsby himself. Throughout the story, Tom and Gatsby get into a quarrel over Daisy, Gatsby wants Daisy to be with him and leave Tom. But Tom and Daisy have an unusual relationship, they have an affection for each other and some type of loyalty but it isn't actually love. Gatsby tells Tom that he loves Daisy, but Daisy has never truly loved either of them. Gatsby tries to force Daisy to say that she has never loved Tom and that she only loves Gatsby because that is what he wants to hear. Daisy finally says “I did love him once- but I loved you too” (Chapter 7, Fitzgerald, pg. 132). But in reality, she truly only loved herself and the material things.
Gatsby thinks he can now win Daisy over by showing her what he has to offer in his home. This doesn’t win her over though. Daisy is only in love with herself and her status in life, no one else. We can see this by the way she acts within the story. Gatsby thinks he is still in love with Daisy. And he would do anything to get her back, but that love has turned into an obsession, and that obsession takes over his life. For Gatsby this obsession becomes strong and we see this in the book when Gatsby would do anything for Daisy no matter the cost. Daisy kills one of the characters in the book, yet Gatsby says he would take the blame for Daisy because he claims that he loves her and would do anything to keep her safe. Gatsby is letting what he thinks is love get in the way of right and wrong and it compels him to do something for someone that doesn’t love him back and is not a good healthy choice. Gatsby has a very skewed, messed up and unhealthy obsession for Daisy at this point.
Love is a very strong emotion. In the book, love is misconceived and isn’t based on what love really should be about. The characters have an idea about what love is, but miss the point of what true love is really about. True love should be healthy and have boundaries but should also be where you hold someone dear to your heart. You show them you care about them in good and positive ways. You show this through giving of yourself and doing things unconditionally without expecting things back. Love will also have hard times where we as humans have to go through ups and downs with those we love. But love also has to let go and let the other person learn a lesson if that person is making negative choices that might jeopardize love. Love is also about forgiving but sometimes if a person we love is hurting us or causing us to not be our best then you may have to pull away and trust that if it is meant to be that person will come back and recognize their unhealthy ways and grow and mature. We can still feel a love for them but have to have a boundary. This isn’t always easy and lots of other feelings and emotions can come into play. Each person in life has to find their own idea and understanding of love but love is not supposed to be hurtful. Yet a lot of times it ends up doing just that because as humans we drag a lot more into our ideas of what love is truly supposed to be. Fitzgerald showed us this through the book with many different ideas of love throughout each character. Almost every human has to learn and understand healthy ways to express love and a lot of times there are things that get in our way and path and lead us down a more destructive path of love. Lots of times people end up getting hurt and other feelings play out which causes a lot of damage. This ends up being the case in ‘The Great Gatsby’. Love is believed to be a lot of things it is not, and Gatsby’s view of love is very confused by his desires for himself.
In the story of ‘The Great Gatsby’, Fitzgerald portrays themes of desire, love, and obsession through the character Jay Gatsby. He confuses his idea of love with the reality of what he actually wants to achieve by having Daisy in his life. Most people want to find love in their lives and it should be a healthy good love but in a lot of cases, other feelings and people or material things get in the way and make love seem like it is something it is not. For Gatsby, it's showing that he can achieve the wealth he desires, and he feels having Daisy is a part of this love he pictures. She helps fill his desire for status and completes this picture, therefore he feels he loves her. But this love he thinks he has for her, ends up being the death of him and drives him to an obsession that is unhealthy and is not at all what true is actually supposed to be.
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