The Grail of Gatsby’s Fantasy
“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one” (Anonymous). Why do we focus so much on the unchangeable past which is so out of our control instead of looking towards our changeable future. If more people focused on improving their futures instead of their pasts, the world would be a happier place, because then we would be able to learn the value of acceptance in the things we cannot change. If someone had imparted this wisdom on Jay Gatsby his life would have been significantly different. Instead, every thought, action, and consequence in his life stemmed from past events in his life, specifically a past relationship with a girl named Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby and Daisy …show more content…
Fitzgerald reveals the disastrous result of holding onto the past in the novel through Gatsby 's obsession with Daisy.
When the poor Jay Gatsby met the well-off Daisy his heart was immediately taken and thus began his unquenchable thirst for her love. The two hit it off as soon as they were introduced, but as fate would have it, they were separated. But after having even just a taste of life with Daisy, Gatsby felt they were destined to live their lives out together. At first just the fact that he was able to be with someone like her was remarkable to him and, “He had intended, probably, to take what he could and go—but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail” (149). But what started out as a harmless fling turned into a lifetime commitment …show more content…
Seeing Daisy again was the spark that reignites the fervor of his actions. Those actions being anything to lure Daisy into being with him including, but not limited to: becoming wealthy as to equate himself with her, buying a house across the bay, and throwing elaborate open-house parties with an array of guests. From the outside it looks as though Gatsby is merely a wealthy man who enjoys using his wealth to throw parties at his elaborate mansion, and the fact that it led him to Daisy was just a coincidence. However, “it wasn 't a coincidence at all… Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78). Through buying the house, living in the right place, and meeting the right people, Gatsby was able to deliberately draw Daisy back into his life unperceived to her. Once reaquainted the sparks flew again and Gatsby’s hope grew along with the fervor of his obsession. When they are together Gatsby loses himself in her, focusing only on what she does, making sure everything is up to her standards. Making sure all of the effort he put into putting up this facade was working. During her visit to his mansion, “He hadn 't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eye... as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real.” (91). The man strived to impress
“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one” (Anonymous). Why do we focus so much on the unchangeable past which is so out of our control instead of looking towards our changeable future. If more people focused on improving their futures instead of their pasts, the world would be a happier place, because then we would be able to learn the value of acceptance in the things we cannot change. If someone had imparted this wisdom on Jay Gatsby his life would have been significantly different. Instead, every thought, action, and consequence in his life stemmed from past events in his life, specifically a past relationship with a girl named Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby and Daisy …show more content…
Fitzgerald reveals the disastrous result of holding onto the past in the novel through Gatsby 's obsession with Daisy.
When the poor Jay Gatsby met the well-off Daisy his heart was immediately taken and thus began his unquenchable thirst for her love. The two hit it off as soon as they were introduced, but as fate would have it, they were separated. But after having even just a taste of life with Daisy, Gatsby felt they were destined to live their lives out together. At first just the fact that he was able to be with someone like her was remarkable to him and, “He had intended, probably, to take what he could and go—but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail” (149). But what started out as a harmless fling turned into a lifetime commitment …show more content…
Seeing Daisy again was the spark that reignites the fervor of his actions. Those actions being anything to lure Daisy into being with him including, but not limited to: becoming wealthy as to equate himself with her, buying a house across the bay, and throwing elaborate open-house parties with an array of guests. From the outside it looks as though Gatsby is merely a wealthy man who enjoys using his wealth to throw parties at his elaborate mansion, and the fact that it led him to Daisy was just a coincidence. However, “it wasn 't a coincidence at all… Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78). Through buying the house, living in the right place, and meeting the right people, Gatsby was able to deliberately draw Daisy back into his life unperceived to her. Once reaquainted the sparks flew again and Gatsby’s hope grew along with the fervor of his obsession. When they are together Gatsby loses himself in her, focusing only on what she does, making sure everything is up to her standards. Making sure all of the effort he put into putting up this facade was working. During her visit to his mansion, “He hadn 't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eye... as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real.” (91). The man strived to impress