Gatsby's personal dream symbolizes the larger American Dream 'The pursuit of happiness'. Jay Gatsby longs for the past. Surprisingly he devotes his adult life trying to recapture it and dies in its pursuit. In the past, Jay had a love affair with a young rich girl, Daisy. Daisy and Jay had fallen in love with each other in spite of knowing that they could not marry because of the difference in their social status.
While Jay Gatsby was in World War I, he was in love with Daisy. They were a loving couple, but Daisy left him because he was away at war and was also very poor. Daisy decides to leave him and marry Tom Buchanan because she wants a man who is wealthy. Gatsby is so determined to get Daisy back in his life that he moves to West Egg, a town next to New York City, to be near her. One reason that Gatsby's dream is never accomplished is because his wealth takes over his integrity.
Wealth is the key to a happy life along with love, however, love alone cannot provide happiness in marriage. Despite having loved Gatsby, Daisy has ended their relationship because Gatsby cannot provide her luxurious gifts, like the pearls that Tom bought her. After five years, Gatsby and Daisy have met and he has been changing his life in order to please her. Gatsby used Daisy as a motivation to become the man he is now, a prosperous man. We can see this in his house.
Jay Gatsby is one character that longs for the past. He devotes most of his adult like trying to recapture it and dies in its search. In Jay's past, he had a love affair with a wealthy woman named, Daisy. Knowing he could not marry her because of the difference in their social position, he leaves her to make his wealth to equal her status. Fitzgerald shows Gatsby using a corrupt form of the American dream to acquire the wealth he thinks he needs to win Daisy.
Gatsby’s remembers his past relationship with Daisy and wants her to love him like she had done before. He is a hopeless romantic because during the novel he never stops believing that he will get Daisy back and that he is the only man that Daisy ever loved. What Gatsby fails to see is that you cannot go back in time and rewrite the past. Gatsby eventually sees that even though he loves Daisy, and she loved him once she also loves Tom. Gatsby feels uncomfortable when Daisy expresses her love for both men.
Nothing is more important, to most people, than friendships and family, thus, by breaking those bonds, it draws an emotional response from the readers. Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan had a relationship before he went off to fight in the war. When he returned home, he finds her with Tom Buchanan, which seems to make him jealous since he still has feelings for Daisy. He wanted Daisy “to go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you” (Fitzgerald 118) Gatsby eventually tells Tom that his “wife doesn’t love [him]” and that she only loves Gatsby (Fitzgerald 121). But the unpleasant truth is that Daisy never loved anyone, but she loved something: money.
He meets a man named Dan Cody who teaches him everything he knows about how to dress and live the wealthy life. After Cody dies, Gatsby meets a young seventeen year old girl named Daisy who he is crazy for. Shortly after falling in love, Gatsby heads off to fight in the war leaving Daisy alone and lonely. When Gatsby returns from the war, he finds out that Daisy has left him for another man. Her leaving does not change the way he feels about her and even makes him try harder than ever to get her back.
She often held a front as pretending to be wealthy; rejecting compliments toward her dress saying “it’s just a crazy old thing,” (31) when in fact she had nothing to her name. She is tired of living with the poor and is now prepared to do what needs to be done in order to live the lavish life she desires without caring who she has to step on in order to get there. On the other hand, Jay Gatsby is the representation of every man trying to find the American Dream. He is looking for a life better than the one he grew up with, filled with fortune and wealth. When Gatsby meets Daisy, he finds what he is looking for.
When Gatsby first met Daisy in Louisville, he had to lie about his wealth and social status in order for him to win Daisy’s heart. After Gatsby left for the war he knew that he must be rich upon his return if he were to marry Daisy. So Gatsby dedicated his life to making a fortune through unlawful ways in order to buy Daisy’s love. She has been dealing with her husband’s continuous infidelity, which is always lingering at the back of her mind. After five years, Daisy and Gatsby reconnect at Nick’s tea party, which proves to be very awkward in the beginning, but by the end, the two are talking as if they had never been apart.
The reason he wishes to relieve the past is because he had a love affair with the rich Daisy Buchanan, who he had, fell deeply in love with. However, he knew they could never get married due to their difference in economic and social statuses. He wants to marry her, but because of this problem he leaves her in order to gain wealth and social status in order to reach her standards. Once he reaches this goal, he buys a house close to her in which he tries to "impress her." Jay thinks money will take care of everything, in which he realizes it doesn’t make life out like it ought to be.