The epigraph in the beginning of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald refers to a "Gold-hatted high-bouncing lover" who seems to foreshadow Gatsby's relationship with the love of his life, Daisy throughout the novel. He seems to think that by metaphorically wearing his gold hat (new found wealth) that is will move her and she will be convinced that he is the only man she wants. Gatsby the real person, James Gatz, isn't as extravagant as his counterpart Jay Gatsby, who eludes only a shadow of himself to society. Gatsby throws parties he never attends, why have a party if not for your own enjoyment?.
Gatsby accessorizes his house and himself in expensive, materialistic items and "Such beautiful shirts" ( 98 ). Only in an attempt to try and impress Daisy. To some extent his strategy is a success because not only is Daisy so impressed by his shirts that she cries, but she proceeds to partake in an affair with Gatsby. The false front or mask that Gatsby wears is not enough to fully attain Daisy's love and affection. Before Daisy, Gatsby was a simple guy, and now even though his house is extravagant Gatsby is the same, he's still simple. So it is no surprise that "His bedroom was the simplest room of all" ( 97 ). At one point in the novel he takes Daisy to his room to show her his room, and subtly trying to let her in and show her more about the true James Gatz although she never quite realized it. .
Gatsby would have gone to the ends of the earth to have Daisy again. Even after five years, even after he had made her image so perfect in his mind, even after that image of her "Tumbled short of his dreams" ( 101 ) he still longed for her. Gatsby never could quite see her, even at the end, his image of Daisy remained in contrast with reality. He was in love with a woman who would never simply love him for his inner self. She couldn't possible love him, not Page 2only did Daisy not know the real man underneath the mask but, "She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand" ( 114 ).
