gatsby

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The love triangle of Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby comes to their emotional climax during the trip to New York. Gatsby’s long dreamt of plan is finally coming to fruition as Tom confronts him and Daisy about their apparent feelings for one another. In Gatsby’s mind, this is a moment that will bring Daisy to him as she finally can tell Tom she never loved him. Until this moment it seemed that it was a foregone conclusion that Daisy would proclaim her love for Jay Gatsby and they could start their romance over again. Yet, Daisy hesitates and attempts to talk around the statement that Gatsby expects her to make, “Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom. It wouldn’t be true” (Fitzgerald, 133). Daisy’s inability to say that she never loved Tom reveals a conflict that rages inside of her. The indecisiveness of Daisy brings her to a point where she must rectify in herself what is truly important to her. The entire culture that surrounds this love triangle exists on the idea that manipulating people’s emotions and playing games are the norm. Yet, Daisy finds herself in a place where these games are no longer available to her and she discovers that the hard decision is before her. Her heart is pulled in two directions, “I did love him once -- but I love you too” (Fitzgerald, 132). The reasons for the conflict between these two “loves” is that they are very different from one another. Daisy’s decision is not merely one of the heart. There is great sincerity to Daisy’s indecisiveness that only confuses Gatsby while he still lives in his illusions of recapturing the past. Mrs Buchanan’s love for Gatsby is real and profound, but Daisy struggles to let go of the aristocracy that she has become accustom to while married to Tom. The revelati... ... middle of paper ... ...had always known the truth about Jordan, but it was hard for him to not admire and love such a beautiful woman. Jordan plays the role of socialite well and lives in the world that Nick dreams of being a part of, that is until Nick sees the price of self-indulgence. These people, Jordan included, barely mourned those who died because of the upper class’s selfishness. Nick cannot love a woman that lives such a lie. There is a point when Nick has to decide if he is living a lie or being as honest as he believes he is. Jordan’s parting words of, “I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward man. I thought it was your secret pride,” alludes to how dishonest a person she has become because she can’t understand truth when it is right in front of her (Fitzgerald, 177). Nick is not hurt by these words. Instead, it reinforces that he made the correct decision.

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