Crushes: All For Daisy

Crushes. We’ve all had them. On several occasions, these crushes can hold such a significant impact on our everyday decisions and influence us strongly. Jay Gatsby is a prime example of someone who takes this influence to an unhealthy level. Daisy Buchanan is his “crush”, the woman he toiled five years for; she is the basis of his wealth-the reason why he strives to achieve great economical success. His “crush” on her leads him to perceive her inaccurately, he envisions a more glorified version of her true persona and falls in love with this idea of her rather than the actual her. Chapter Five of by F.Scott Fitzgerald is significant to the novel as a whole because it unveils and develops more on the character of Jay Gatsby, who Fitzgerald previously established vaguely with an aura of mystery, and the significance that Daisy Buchanan has on his life, the crux of the novel.

As mentioned in the previous chapters, Fitzgerald introduces Gatsby with a shroud of mystery. People who went to his extravagant parties did not know much about him at all, even though they attended his parties every weekend. Some believed Gatsby “killed a man once…[and] was a German spy during the war” (29) and that “he’s a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s”(22). These farfetched speculations help falsely build Gatsby’s character up to be some mysterious and dangerous individual. In this chapter, however, Fitzgerald reveals a Gatsby that completely contrasts all of the aforementioned descriptors. As he gets ready for Daisy’s arrival, Gatsby is frantic, nervous and very doubtful of himself. This is a stark contrast to the calm, cool and collected Gatsby that Fitzgerald characterizes in preceding chapters. The vulnerable, more flawed side of Gatsby is fi...

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...hat Gatsby has an underlying reason for holding those parties other than just enjoyment. At each party, Gatsby stays back and watches the crowd: not to see if the people are satisfied or enjoying themselves, but to see if Daisy happened to stumble in. He can finally show her that he’s not the young soldier from five years who had nothing to his name. Now he’s

Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s only goal the last five years was to become rich enough for Daisy’s standards. Fitzgerald alludes that the sole reason why Gatsby worked so hard for a fortune, the reason why he threw crazy, extravagant parties was to get back Daisy. )

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 1993. Print.

Thomas, Inigo. "Just Dandy." Slate Magazine. The Slate Group, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013.

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