Analysis of the Great Gatsby

There are many themes in The Great Gatsby. However, in my opinion, the most significant theme is the corruption of the American Dream. The most representative characters are Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. The idea of American Dream emphasizes that someone can actually be successful if he or she works hard in pursuing his or her dreams. The author deliberately set the American Dream in the 1920's, a time period when the dream had been corrupted by the continuous pursuit of wealth and pleasure.

Jay Gatsby was representing the positive and optimistic American Dream. He knew that his lover, Daisy loved luxurious and materialistic life. For instance, Daisy was described as "Her voice is full of money". The dream became corrupted when Gatsby tried his best to work hard by even participating in illegal business and organized crime. At this point, Gatsby misunderstood that money could buy his dream. When he became wealthy, he thought he could marry Daisy. However, Daisy betrayed him and married Tom because of her materialistic desire despite that she did not love Tom at all.

Nevertheless, Gatsby still remained optimistic and he took Daisy to his large, luxurious white house and said "That huge place over there? Do you like it?" At first, Gatsby thought that his wealth could help him to regain Daisy's love, but he was wrong because money could not buy back the time he lost to spend with Daisy and her loneliness. In addition, the problem is that Daisy had her own family a little daughter to take care of. Initially, Daisy thought she could just abandon everything she had and then followed Gatsby, but she finally refused to go with Gatsby. One ironic quote by Daisy, "Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day of the year and miss it." This quote shows the lack of motivation to change which the empty rich society has encountered for. In this case, Daisy had her own family and she had no hope to think about her love towards Gatsby in the past. Why Gatsby refused to choose other women instead of Daisy after he was wealthy? It is because Daisy is the key person who gave Gatsby 'the dream' and desire to be wealthy and to be successful. In other words, Gatsby wanted to be wealthy for the sake of Daisy.

There is one interesting and encouraging quote from the novel, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year