For Love, or Money? The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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For Love, or Money?

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about Jay Gatsby's constant quest to win over his love of the past, Daisy Buchanan. To Gatsby's misfortune, he finds that Daisy is married to the wealthy but cocky Tom Buchanan. Daisy is a modern day "gold-digger" she fails to realize her own arrogance, and the success of her relationship with Tom is measured upon the size of his pocketbook. Tom's secret lover, Myrtle Wilson becomes the victim of a hit-and-run. Tom shows Myrtle's husband to the door of Gatsby. Gatsby is shot while swimming in his pool for the first time. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, witnesses Gatsby's failure to relive his past and recapture the love of his life. Although Nick admires Gatsby's effort to use his newly acquired wealth for the intentions of love as opposed to Tom's use of it to be reckless, he thinks Gatsby's obsession is foolish.

Before the war sent him packing, Jay Gatsby was seeing Daisy Fay. At that time Jay was not very wealthy, but he had high hopes as to what it would take to win over the girl of his dreams. After the war Gatsby was shocked, but not set off track when he found that Daisy married another man. Nick is constantly in awe of Gatsby's undying affection towards a woman that is married to another man, and is the same woman that betrayed him in the past. At first Nick thinks that Gatsby is not able to see through Daisy's lack of emotion until Gatsby says, "Her voice is full of money."(127). Gatsby says this because he realizes Daisy is a different person than he once knew. Gatsby can almost hear the difference in the odd cheerfulness in her voice.