Jay Gatsby Essay

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The Great Gatsby Work Diary by: Max Pelchat

Jay Gatsby was born the son of poor middle-western farmers. Gatsby says he "sprang from his Platonic conception of himself" (104). When Gatsby was 17 years old working as a clam digger and salmon fisher he sees millionaire Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor on a dangerous stretch of Lake Superior. After rowing out to Cody on a borrowed row-boat and warning him that a coming wind might wreck his yacht, Cody employs Jay Gatsby for a couple years. Later Gatsby says he worked in the drugstore and oil businesses and said that he was involved in illegal bootlegging. Gatsby keeps his criminal activities mysterious and secretive throughout the novel. Gatsby falls in love with Daisy and says "And I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." (118) This show how he views Daisy and women in particular. Gatsby's love for Daisy may not be genuine true love and that he just views her as a statues object. This relates to the theme of money and the American dream, through the novel Gatsby is always chasing money and cant seem to get enough.

Daisy is Tom's 23-year-old wife, Nick's second cousin once removed, and Gatsby's true love or so he says. Nick comments repeatedly on Daisy's voice first describing it as "the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again," (13) and later calling it "a deathless song" (101). But, her voice becomes silenced as Gatsby and Tom's battle for her escalates rather than choosing one or the other she acts helpless and seems to ultimately remain with Tom because it is the easiest thing to do. In addition, she never acknowledges that she, not Gatsby was driving when Myrtle was killed. As Nick characterizes both of them by saying in the quote "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (188). This relates to the theme of time because although Daisy has spend and known Tom for longer Gatsby thinks he can buy back that time and rewrite history. One prevalent theme in this novel is The American Dream. The concept that hard work can lead you from poor to rich has been a part of western identity since its beginning. Settlers came west to America from Europe seeking wealth and freedom. The pioneers headed west for the same reason. The Great Gatsby shows the tide turning east, as many people head to New York City seeking stock market wealth. The Great Gatsby portrays this shift as a symbol of the American Dream's corruption. It's no longer a vision of building a life, it's just about getting rich. Gatsby is talking about Daisy to Nick when he says ""Her voice is full of money," he aid suddenly. That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals'
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