american dream

Gatsby realizes that his own capacity for hope made Daisy seem ideal to him. He does not realize that he is pursuing an image that has no true, lasting value. This realization would have made the world look entirely different to Gatsby, like "a new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about" (169).
             Daisy and her unfaithful husband Tom live in a large East Egg mansion directly across from Gatsby's estate. In this environment, Gatsby's destiny with Daisy becomes his individual version of the American Dream. .
             Fitzgerald uses the wealthy New Yorkers that surround Gatsby and Nick to criticize the intrinsic motivations necessary to acquire the American Dream. There is a chain reaction of events, which inevitably lead to a tragic conclusion. Seeking a position or status and emulating each other becomes an obsession for these New Yorkers. As a result, greed, jealousy and envy have a destructive effect on the social fabric of their social classes. .
             When Gatsby meets with Daisy, he easily impresses her with his luxurious estate and posh manor. Gatsby does not recognize that Daisy's image of the American Dream has been so distorted by the superficiality of her surroundings. To Daisy, the most impressive aspect of Gatsby is his inordinate amount of silk shirts: "Theyre such beautiful shirts, she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. It makes me sad because Ive never seen such beautiful shirts before" (98). The Long Island scene has caused its blue-blooded inhabitants, especially Daisy, to become nothing more than insincere and single-minded people who live in a fast-paced, impersonal environment. Daisy is able to take her position for granted and she becomes for Gatsby, the epitome of everything he invented "Jay Gatsby" to achieve. As Nick realizes, Gatsby's dreams have been tarnished by the people that surround him: "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" (7).