F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Great Gatsby is a symbolic novel of the disintegration of the American dream in an era of extraordinary prosperity and material excess. On the surface, we see that it is a story about the love between a man and a woman but the overall theme is the collapse of the American dream in society. We find that every character in their own way is searching for their American dream but as a result, their desire for wealth and pleasure, caused them to find themselves lost in the corruption of the aristocrat society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Daisy is one of the characters that is trying to search for her American dream but the readers don’t really notice this because it seems that Daisy has everything already – wealth, a husband, love and family. It is everything she could possibly want but as we get to know Daisy, the reader sees that there is something else Daisy desires besides wealth and luxurious material. â€Å"I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.† - Pg 21. Daisy’s America dream is to be this â€Å"beautiful little fool† she envisions. Daisy is beautiful and it is told through the characters that she is charming and beautiful but they could see right through her. They knew what she wanted in life and the fact that she was void of any loyalty or care. Daisy sought after this image of being this â€Å"beautiful little fool† so that she could hide her selfish ways and put on this fake faà §ade so the other characters would see she is innocent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the novel, Daisy acts snooty and stuck-up around the other characters as if she is better then them. She also acts very child-like when she cries over â€Å"beautiful shirts.† â€Å"They’re such beautiful shirts,† she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. â€Å"It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such – such beautiful shirts before.† – Pg 98. From this it shows that she only cares about luxurious material. Through her actions, we see that Daisy is not this girl that we should sympathize or look up to as â€Å"great† compared to Gatsby. â€Å"Even if we are cousins. You didn’t come to my wedding. I wasn’t back from the war. That’s true. She hesitated. Well, I’ve had a very bad time, Nick, and I’m pretty cynical about everything.