The Great Gatsby Essay

Stephen Simmons AP English/ Mr. George 8/1/09 Essay Topic #2
Unforgiving Happiness
The chance for happiness, prosperity and a slice of the American Dream are reasons why many individuals come to our country. They come to meet a significant other, get a job, start a family, and be happy. Americans also seek their own American Dream and it is this hope that we can move from where we are to somewhere better that keeps us going. As much as we would all love this however, some things we can not decide for ourselves. As portrayed, in grave detail, by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the novel, the Great Gatsby, there is no such thing as being happy and achieving the American Dream You cannot have it all and if you try to be happy and get everything that you want, you will end up like the main character in the novel, Jay Gatsby. Who lost his hopes and happiness because he did not play by life’s rules.
As the pages turn in the novel, The Great Gatsby, all of our attention is drawn to the protagonist, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a very interesting character that we see develop physically and emotionally from his first appearance in the novel to his early and spontaneous death in the end. We also gain a better understanding of what it is like to live, through him and the author. When the reader is first introduced to Gatsby, the reader is drawn to his mysterious nature and concealed past, as well as his overwhelming amount of riches. Many questions formulate in our head about his John Doe before we begin to read about the curious case of Jay Gatsby.
In the early pages of the novel, we sense that Gatsby is a very mournful and solemn person. Even though he throws large parties and has all of the wealth in the world, we are struck by his melancholy and mysterious manner. Myself, like Nick in the novel would wonder why Gatsby would do certain things such as “[stretch] out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way,” (Fitzgerald 20) when there is nothing to see but a lonesome green light. It is almost as if he was gazing off into the distance, as most people do after they lose someone. This image leads us to believe that even with all the riches and the appearance of the fulfillment of his American Dream, Gatsby is depressed and there is something missing from his life. According to Sheila Graham, as told by Fitzgerald, “there was no such thing as happiness.” We, as Americans seek our own American Dream which is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, often find that we are not truly happy, no matter what wealth or power we have. There is always going to be something, no matter how big or how small, that will move our emotions one hundred and eighty degrees from better to worst. Jay Gatsby had everything anyone would kill for, money, popularity, both good and bad gossip, and friends. Yet, he was still depressed because the one thing that he so desperately desired, but was out of reach, was his lover from years ago, Daisy Buchanan. It is Daisy he seeks to complete his dream but she is now married. Fitzgerald does a phenomenal job of portraying through the characters in the novel, how there is no such thing as happiness in life, because even the wealthiest people such as Gatsby, the Buchanan’s, and the majority of the East Egg population, are still troubled by small things such as, the social boundaries of their society, past lovers and current “secret” lovers. These people may seem like they are living the life, when in reality they struggle with the same issues many poorer, less-privileged individuals do, but they have more time to wallow in their riches and fame.
“…the sense that life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat and redeeming things are not ‘happiness and pleasure’ but the deeper satisfactions of the struggle” (Scott Fitzgerald). In the second part of this life theme portrayed throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, explains how life is never going to turn out the way you want it to be, and by trying to fix things and redeem ourselves, we are digging a deeper grave for ourselves. As Nick reflects at the end of the novel, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, [and] stretch out our arms farther,”(182). He says that, after Gatsby’s unlawful death, in which he was accused of hitting a woman with a car, Gatsby strongly believed in Daisy, and that some day they would be together. Nick goes on to say that his behavior and nature got us at first, but now that he is gone, tomorrow is another day, and tomorrow we will be better than we were today, because of Gatsby. This is the most pivotal point in the novel, where Fitzgerald’s theme really comes together and is explained in those few lines when Fitzgerald basically says that Gatsby was living because he was unhappy, and by trying to recreate the past and redeem himself, he only struggled more and figuratively dug his own grave. There are many moments in the novel that explain in grave detail Fitzgerald’s theory on life such as the gazing at the green light across the water (the light on Daisy’s dock), Gatsby’s death, and most importantly, Nicks last words on The Great Gatsby. Death at any time is an unsatisfying thing to experience to those around you., but in this case, the death of Jay Gatsby was a mere reminder that if you try to change the things that you physically and emotionally cannot, than you are the one who is going to change. America, and those in it, like Gatsby, will never live up to their hopes or dreams, because that is all that they are just hopes and dreams. For the characters in the novel, they desire happiness that is beyond their reach. After acquiring the wealth and power they desired they look for something more, they reach for other dreams that test their morality and circumstance. It is these hopes and dreams that never appear, and that eat away at their happiness. Without these dreams, though, we would be nothing and like Gatsby, when his dream died, he did as well.