Selfishness

Selfish people always seem to want everything for themselves. They never care about anybody else’s feelings or problems, they are in it to benefit them self. Like in basketball, when a player hogs the ball he tries to do all the work himself without using his other teammates. He is being selfish by hogging the ball. When people tend to be selfish, others tend to not be as attracted to the person, thinking they are stuck up. In the great Gatsby daisy and tom seem to be selfish people. Tom is selfish in the way he only wants daisy to himself, yet he can go mess around with other women thinking its ok. Daisy is also selfish though in the way she talks about the things she has or the things she wants. Whatever either of them wanted they always got. Gatsby on the other hand was far from selfish. He would always have parties, having people over he never invited. Even though they were uninvited Gatsby would still treat them as if they were invited personally by him. When daisy came over to nick’s house for tea, Gatsby ordered flowers to be placed in nicks home to make it look more furnished and house warming. Most of the things Gatsby did were to benefit other and to make others happy. When daisy was driving the car and hit myrtle Gatsby took the blame for her and ended up getting shot by Mr. Wilson. When people seem to have money and have a higher prestige then others, they seem to be more selfish with things, then if a person were to make his money from hard work and come up from a lower class.

sources:

http://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/q-and-a/what-theme-selfishness-great-gatsby-how-similar-22863

The “green light” is not only a light at the end of daisy's dock at her house in east egg. To most people the green light would mean a warning sign to watch out for the dock, making sure nobody would crash into it. To Gatsby though, it was a sign of hope. Gatsby lived in west egg across the river from daisy's house. From Gatsby's lawn at night you could see the green light brightening up it surroundings. Gatsby planned to move into a house across the river from daisy. Every step he could take that would get him closer to being with daisy he would take. The green light was Gatsby's inspiration to keep pursuing daisy. It gave him hope that one day daisy and he would be reunited and everything would go back to how it was before Gatsby had left for the war. The light would lead him to his goal. The closer he was to the light the closer he was to daisy. Towards the end of the book nick also uses the green light as an example of early settlers seeking America seeing a light on Americas coast and perusing towards it keeping there hopes and dreams alive.

The women of gatsby

Women in The Great Gatsby are very materialistic, such as Daisy and Jordan baker. They were raised in very prestige families and have never once worried about money. Growing up around all the money gave them cockiness when they would talk about buying certain things and talking about things they already own. They were very judgmental on stuck up around many of the people they hung out with but didn’t really know, for example at Gatsby’s party. Daisy and Jordan were also very scandalous, daisy played Tom with Gatsby, and Jordan tried to play nick. But luckily for nick he learned from Gatsby's mistakes and stopped her right in her tracks. Myrtle on the other hand was not raised in a wealthy family nor married a rich man. She married Wilson who owned a repair shop in the valley of ashes. Myrtle always dreamed about being rich and living a wealthy life and when she met tom her dream came true. She started becoming materialistic and tom was getting her anything she wanted. She always wanted to have a good reputation and know all the wealthy and successful friends of tom. Myrtle would become extremely jealous of daisy thought because daisy was tom’s wife. She wanted to live the great life daisy was living unfortunately, by tradition, the rich never married the poor because instead of staying wealthy they would begin to lose money and become poor. Out of jealousy, ironically, when myrtle thought she saw daisy in the car with tom she ran out and tried to stop them, but instead gets ran over by a car driven by daisy but with Gatsby in the car. Myrtle was also scandalous though because she played Wilson, her husband, with tom. Wilson soon found out about it, but had no idea it was with one of his close friend, tom. The women in the great Gatsby were all scandalous and only wanted a man who had money, and if they had the money they were cocky and thought they were better then everyone else.

Sources:

Fitzgerald Scott F. "The Great Gatsby" New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1925

The Men of Gatsby

There are two types of men in Gatsby, you have the Mr. Tough guy tom, and you also have the ladies man Gatsby. Tom is a muscular man, who doesn’t care what others think of him. He is very intimating and if he asks for something to be done he expects it. He doesn’t treat women, or in this case daisy and myrtle, as they should be treated. He treats them as if they were his dog and he was the owner. Tom cheats on daisy numerous amounts of times knowing that he can get away with it because daisy lets him do such. While myrtle and tom are out in New York in a party myrtle screams out daisy’s name. He slaps her, as if he has anger issues, making he shut up and chill out. Slapping her across the face was like locking your dog up in a cage for digging a whole where it was not suppose to, so that next time they will know the consequences of their actions. Gatsby represents the nice guy that every girl dreams about. He treats a woman how she should be treated and would never in his life cheat on her if they were in a relationship. Gatsby and nick both have very similar personalities but the only difference is, nick knew when something was over he “got the clue.” Gatsby throughout the book is trying to bring back his past relationships with daisy after she had already moved on and married another man tom. Jordan and nick end up breaking things off and when they meet up again in the future nick realizes what they had is over and leaves there relationship status as “just friends.” Gatsby was also the romantic type. He always made sure everything was perfect for daisy. And he always knew if something was wrong. He was a great listener and only spoke when something needed to be said. Unlike tom Gatsby was very respectful and had great morals. They both were wealthy and successful, but Gatsby was more humble about it.

Dan Cody

If it was not for Dan Cody, James Gatsby would have never strived to become wealthy and successful. While Gatsby was fishing for salmon and searching for clams on his job at Lake Superior, he came across a yacht out on the water and felt the need to warn him about an incoming storm that was headed there way. Gatsby hopped on a row boat to give him the message. Dan Cody was a wealthy copper business man. Dan Cody was very thankful of Gatsby and gave him the nickname “jay” Gatsby. Dan hired Gatsby to be his personal assistant. They would travel the sea from the Barbary Coast to the West Indies. Throughout all the adventures they had, Gatsby fell in love with the wealth and luxurious life. Even though Gatsby was a bootlegger, Gatsby knew the health dangers of being drunk all the time and never became a heavy drinker. Gatsby watched Dan Cody drink constantly and it was as if Gatsby became Dan Cody’s care giver when he was too wasted to take care of himself. When Dan Cody died, he left Gatsby with 25,000 dollars, but due to Dan Cody’s mistress she was able to prevent Gatsby from having one cent of it. Because of Dan Cody, Gatsby dedicated to himself he would become a wealthy and successful man.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He had mixed southern and Irish descent in him, which possibly could have been the reason for his radical drinking habits in the 1920’s. His fathers name was Edward Fitzgerald who worked as a salesman down south. This southern gentleman unfortunately lost his furniture business leaving Mary McQuillan, his mother, is charge of all the family expenses. She worked as a whole sale grocer, which while F. Scott Fitzgerald was growing up, moved several times until finally settling down in St Paul in 1918. Just turning 18, F. Scott Fitzgerald fell in love with Ginevra King who was only 16 years-old. In “The Great Gatsby” the character daisy represents ginevra as the young rich girl with no intensions of marrying a man who is less of importance in society then herself. In 1917 F. Scott Fitzgerald drops out of his academic studies and leaves for the military because of his poor grades. While serving for the army F. Scott Fitzgerald never was involved in the actions over seas in France. When the war was over, he ended up meeting a lady by the name of Zelda Sayre, who was an aspiring writer. This was the turning point in his life. The book that F. Scott Fitzgerald is most famous for Is the “The Great Gatsby” published in 1925. F. Scott Fitzgerald received excellent reviews on his book but did not make the money he was expecting to make off of it. Throughout his life, F. Scott Fitzgerald became dependent on alcohol and while his wife Zelda was in the hospital each break down Fitzgerald would have of drinking, would lessen her recovery. F. Scott Fitzgerald died in Hollywood on December 21, 1940. Zelda died 8 years later in 1948

Unrequited Love

Unrequited love is when a man or woman is still in love with another person, but the person they have feelings for doesn’t feel the same way. In most cases, the relationship was ended, not because they wanted to but, because it was impossible to keep seeing each other. Unrequited love is awkward no matter what. An example of unrequited love can be when you and a girl are really good friends, but you want it to be more then just that. Even though you want it to be more then what it already is, she may feel different about the whole situation and only want to be “just friends.” Even thought the girl might have been flirty and giving off the vibe that she wanted more then just a friendship, you have to be for sure that it is something you both want. And if you began to make steps into making it a more then “just friends” relationship, she may think you’re crossing the boundaries ruining anything you ever had with her. In The Great Gatsby unrequited love is one of the many themes. Jay Gatsby, ever since he and daisy were separated, devoted to himself that he would make things between him and her as they use to be. He bought a house across the river from daisy mansion, dreaming that one day they could be together like before he went to the war. While Gatsby was fighting in the war, daisy had no choice but to give up hope on what they had and move on with her life. She met Tom and they soon married. When Gatsby got back from the war, he did whatever he had to do to get daisy back. He used Nick, Daisy cousin, to get in touch with Daisy. While Gatsby and Daisy were becoming close again, Gatsby was getting the feeling that Daisy felt the same way towards him and wanted things like they use to be. Little did he know, daisy just wanted to be friends and nothing more, because even though she did love Gatsby, she didn’t love him like the love they had before the war. Gatsby went to the extremes telling Tom that Daisy never loved him and daisy only wanted him, putting Daisy in an awkward position with her husband. In the end Gatsby didn’t end up getting what he long dreamed for, Daisy, and everyone moved on with their lives. Fortunately for Nick, after he met up with Jordan after their argument and breaking up, Nick learns from Gatsby’s mistakes and doesn’t go back to her even though he loved her.

Sources:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-unrequited-love.htm