What Makes The Great Gatsby Successful

Superior Essays
How does someone become a success? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby brilliantly portrays a man who accomplished his dream of becoming a success through the title character himself. Since a young age, Gatsby had always aspired to become prosperous, even though he came from a poor farming family. From the moment he changed his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, he was set to move ahead throughout his life. Everything Jay Gatsby did was in an effort to rise from his background and become a successful man. He made small endeavors to reach his goals, until he finally caught a break with Meyer Wolfsheim. Then, he met Daisy, which because the final step of his life’s mission. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby portrays one man’s efforts in achieving his dream of success through Gatsby’s initiative, means, and devotion.
Jay Gatsby, despite his meager background, has found
…show more content…
At last, Gatsby has reached his dream of becoming rich and powerful, but has fallen hopelessly in love with Daisy and her lifestyle. Nick comments on Daisy and Gatsby’s past in saying “Gatsby was amazed by Daisy’s house and wanted to achieve it” (148). Gatsby, from the first time he glanced upon her ginormous house to the present, was engrossed in Daisy’s life. He wanted …show more content…
Gatsby was prepared and dedicated, kept a positive attitude, and always made a great first impression. These things led to many opportunities for Gatsby such as his internship with Dan Cody and his month long romance with Daisy. Afterwards, Gatsby gained his wealth from illegal business with Meyer Wolfsheim then kept it through secrets and lying. He became successful and powerful, but still he was missing the final piece- Daisy. Daisy was the most important aspect of his endeavor because she was the trophy he needed to finally show everyone he

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Gatsby’s feelings for Daisy in this situation are also emphasized as Nick states that “He spoke as if Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Gatsby Final Essay Power is defined by the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. F. Scott Fitzgerald should have titled this book The Great Gatsby and the Balance of Power. Throughout the novel the reader sees many characters go through the struggle of power whether it is there own or what they are facing because of someone elses power. In the novel the character Daisy is a recurring focus and its seems all her problems go around the idea and abuse of power.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American Dream” (Bruce Springteen). The American dream states that anyone can achieve their dreams no matter their race, gender or social status. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, fighting for the American dream is the biggest source for Jay Gatsby’s sadness and despair. Chasing after a dream that is unattainable only causes pain and ultimately results in destruction. Throughout the story, Gatsby craves Daisy Buchannan’s love and though he was a poor boy, that didn’t stop him from pursuing her.…

    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Holden fears the possibility that he may spend the rest of his life as an outsider looking in. Although Holden attempts to change his social position, his mindset is out of place, preventing him from relating to how a normal individual would feel. Therefore, Holden struggles immensely in terms of making lasting connections with others, mainly because he cannot see eye to eye with them. “He focuses on the danger and potential death instead of love and a personal relationship” (Edwards).…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jazmine Jones Gatsby Paper Adv. Eng 11 B6 26 January 2018 The American Dream Characters in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby achieve the American Dream by having the perfect family and love life with their spouse, having a lot of money and material goods, and being wealthy. Towards the end of the novel the main characters become obsessive over this perfect lifestyle.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, society has a fixation with the famous and wealthy; this fixation also seems to hold true in real life. The events of Gatsby’s life, such as his busy parties versus the number of people at his funeral, his impartial relationships, and the gossip about his past versus the truth about his start to wealth, convey a different message. Gatsby’s abundant materialistic fortune alternative to his meaningless life, and his driven want of an empty dream leads one to believe Gatsby’s life is not genuinely what it seems to be. Gatsby comes to show that in reality, distinguished people often do not have the ideal life that is perceived, but rather a lonely, hollow life with a facade. One of the first…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He wanted this life for a girl, not for himself. He wanted Daisy, but his elegant lifestyle enamored the narrator, Nick Carraway, and Nick’s close knowledge of Gatsby’s life led him to question Gatsby’s seemingly great life, ¨there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life…. -[he] was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which is not likely I shall ever find again. No--Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men” (Source A). This quote shows how Gatsby’s life enamored many until they saw his sadness and that with all he had, he still wasn’t happy.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “The Great Gatsby” Gatsby is really obsessive about Daisy, who he was in love with 5 years earlier but, the war separated them and she got married to another man named Tom. He goes to excessive lengths to try and win back Daisy. Gatsby has been obsessed with trying to win back Daisy Buchanan so much that he uses his neighbor Nick to help Gatsby meet Daisy once again. He throws extravagant parties, bought a house across from Daisy’s, and has his bed facing the window that looks over Daisy’s house.…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From then on, Gatsby had worked hard to gain money to be able to move to the West Egg. The house that he bought had been across from Daisy’s dock, and he was able to look out every night yearning for her. Gatsby would also hold house parties to try to get Daisy’s attention to go; eventually over time after they met again. His goals in life had always revolved around Daisy and tried to get her to be his again. She had been his motivation to his success of obtaining the wealth he had and where he wanted to live (Fitzgerald,…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gatsby desires a life with Daisy, and amasses an incredible amount of wealth because of his objective. Gatsby purchases a house right across from Daisy, and holds lavish parties just in an attempt to fulfill his dream. It is later discovered that Daisy is just an extension of Gatsby’s dream to become great; Nick in regards to Gatsby’s statement about Daisy, states “It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it…. High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 128). It turns out Gatsby was attracted to Daisy, largely because of her wealth and status, and by being with her, he elevated himself; Gatsby wanted the American Dream, and being with Daisy would symbolize his “divine ascension.”…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This characteristic manifests in Gatsby’s obstructed view of the world due to his own naive idealism. The reader is exposed to his idealistic views when Daisy and Nick are at his house and Nick reflects on the events of the afternoon. Even Nick, who has always defended Gatsby, realizes that “Daisy must have fallen short of Gatsby’s dreams一not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (101). Gatsby met Daisy five years prior. She was a girl with wealth, with connections, she embodied everything a seventeen-year-old boy would hope to have one day.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In reality, Gatsby was a fraud who only wanted to win Daisy back. Therefore, his success becomes questionable. How was Gatsby successful at all? The truth is, Gatsby was not successful at all. Everything he had done in hopes to win Daisy back failed.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although it is debatable whether F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is truly one of the greatest novels of American literature, one thing remains certain: the classic novel is infused with a multitude of sententious statements that touch the hearts and minds of readers even to this day. Among the countless meaningful quotes the novel has to offer, there is one in particular that continues to echo not only in the mind but throughout time. This statement is none other than the closing line of the novel, as narrator Nick Carraway reflects to himself that “...It [the orgastic future that lays before us] eludes us then, but that’s no matter... So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (ch.9,…

    • 1200 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When they last saw eachother five years before, Gatsby did not think he was worthy of her love. He was not wealthy at the time and had little except for his experiences in the army to make of himself. Once Gatsby had earned a large sum of money and built an impressive life for himself he knew he could finally try to win her love. When Daisy moved back from Chicago, he did whatever he could to get close to her. Gatsby 's motivation with his money is hard to follow until the Narrator, Nick Carroway learns of his true motivations.…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Roaring Twenties was an era full of extravagance, soul, and change. In 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified, which gained women the right to vote. Although the women 's rights movement was taking many strides during this period, women were still viewed as inferior to men. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan is married to Tom Buchanan. Tom as well as Daisy are from old money, making them extremely rich and sophisticated while Jay Gatsby comes from new money.…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays