Mingxuan Yue/Duidui

10/31/2016
Gatsby Essay
The Death of a Human Heart

What is the real meaning of death? Does it only refer to the death of physical bodies?
Looking back at the book The Great Gatsby, it seemed to emphasize how a romance tragedy set
up in place and died down with the mortality ends. Gatsby, as an ambitious young man, who
exhausted all to pursue his true love, and worked extremely hard to try to get out of his lowborn and limitation of resource to become successful in other peoples eyes, but finally was
killed in that drama. We all saw the falling of Gatsbys wishes, the death of different characters,
but by diving into the surface, the end of the American dream was the most tragic part among all
of those descriptions of mortality. The Great Gatsby reflects the pessimistic perspective and
criticism of American Dream, and his dramatic denouement showed the significant obstacles of
those who are born poor in trying to attain their American Dream.
First of all, American Dream is indeed rarely achievable for those people with a poor
background such as Jay Gatsby. Due to the limitation of resource, especially for social
relationships, social traditions, and capital, it is even harder to grant them the chance to have
helpful surroundings with opportunities that can aid in their success. From the description in the
book, Myrtle was a typical example to demonstrate this point. She was a beautiful, sexy and
ambitious young woman, who wanted to have a different life than the other girls surrounding her,
so she tried out to get together with Tom afterward. However, before they were in that secret

relationship, Myrtle had no choice but to marry Wilson because that was how she should do as a
person from low-born family. She was forced her to make actions and take that only choice, and
killed her American Dream from the very beginning. Not only because of the limitation of
resource, but also due to the relationships with the greed that exists in human hearts in-depth,
which made people waive their long-term interests but choose the temporary joy. Daisy used her
life to emphasize another perfect example to this. To have a relationship with Gatsby probably
was part of her American Dream, but she could not wait for Gatsby anymore since she was not
patient or tenacious enough to stay insisted. When Tom was trying to pursue her, she suddenly
gave up all of her great wishes and ambitions but married Tom right after. Rigid social status is
another factor that caused bias deeply root in peoples hearts. It was a massive wall placed in
between of different characters such as Myrtle and Daisy. One party night down in the apartment,
Myrtle shouted to Tom Buchanan, Daisy! Daisy! Daisy! I will say it whenever I want to! Daisy!
Dai, (F. Scott Fitzgerald P125-127) She seemed to be outraged because she was sensitive to
the rigid social status. She wanted to marry Tom, but because their family backgrounds were so
different, she was not as qualified as Daisy was to spend whole life with him, but she could
only be a secret mistress down in that dim forbidden garage. The difference in social status not
only murdered Myrtles American Dream, but she was also killed physically in the end, which
was paid with no attention by others because she was NO ONE.
Second, when the American Dream is related to sensitive emotions such as love, then it can
be even harder to achieve, and that was one of the reasons to kill Gatsbys American Dream in
the very beginning. Love is not a good excuse to make wise decisions since it will prompt people
to do things to get what they want in an improper way. Gatsby's success was from the drug stores
and partially from the heritage of Dan Cody, which could be regarded as illegal trades. He made

money in this wrong but a relatively simple way to attract attention from everyone, especially to
the girl that he loved for years. However, because of his way to earn money, he did not have real
friends, but everything was only based on personal interests. Additionally, after Daisy tried to get
back with Gatsby, he waived all those parties but just wanted to amuse that girl, which was also a
wrong choice since everyone else began to doubt his purpose and gossip all around that city.
Love can be a kind of motivation, but can never be the final destination for many. Although
Gatsby loved Daisy, and he chose to bear the accusation for his "real love" in the car accident, he
was also killed because of this decision. Wilson's hatred emotion led to his emotional action to
shoot Gatsby for an unrealistic hypothesis to his wife's death, which showed that Gatsby's love
buried himself till the very last. The hidden soft part always destroys the brave heart shell outside
of it. Daisy should not be responsible for his miserable story, but the affection between them
should not be out of consideration.
Finally, Gatsbys story did not show the process to attain American dream at all, so that it
cannot emphasize the synthesis of American Dream. The American Dream stands for those poor
people would work hard enough and make their effort count to lead their success. However, in
The Great Gatsby, there were not many people achieving American Dream because they did not
even want to be hard-working at all. Daisy married Tom because she could be even richer
without any extra work; Gatsby did illegal business to make him become rich overnight; Myrtle
would love to be the mistress of Tom since he could grant anything materialistic she wanted.
Almost every single character in this book emphasized different ways for them to get the things
they wanted regardless of the means they took, but no one demonstrated as a figure to achieve
his or her American Dream with hard work. Additionally, the drastic parties were another place
to prove that most of the people who came to the parties did not want to be motivated by

Gatsbys success, but they just wanted to participate in the fancy parties to make themselves feel
that they are a part of the upper class. They were paralyzing themselves to make that illusion last
longer, but none of them tried hard to attain their value or personal success. They were living
under the halo that other people created, and they obeyed to their destiny for a fruitless life span.
They do not worth sympathy because they chose their living way. The author tried to use the
green light as a symbol to indicate that Gatsby was not even pursuing his wishes, Jay Gatsby,
who obsessively stares at this light at the end of Daisy's dock, dreaming of reuniting with her.
(F. Scott Fitzgerald P180) His whole life was living up only for Daisy, which was diverged from
the concept of American Dream to achieve personal success, and the green light foreshadowed
that Gatsby would never achieve his purpose since there was a huge gap between Daisy and
himself. Although he tried hard to live the same life as Daisy and Tom could, he lived only in the
West Egg but could never be in the East Egg. He tried to use fancy cover to hide the truth that he
was from low-born, but the location of his house totally exposed his identities. Living for the
others could make people get the motivation, but it could not last long enough since everything
they did was not for their joy. American Dream could not apply in Gatsbys misfortune since he
was trying to escape the calling from his soul but sacrificed it to offer Daisy with joy.
Gatsby was great, just as the title indicated because of his persistence and infatuation.
Unfortunately, he regarded his life not as a part of his ultimate goal but considered his lovers
interests as the highest honor. Gatsby represents different kinds of situations that poor people
might encounter on their way seeking success, but he never stood for the point of view of
American Dream because he did not enjoy his success in a fair way. People might give sympathy
to him because of the things he devoted to the others, but his American Dream was decayed
throughout time till that horrible event ended his life. Everything became meaningless with the

runoff of Daisy and Tom. To achieve ones American Dream, the first thing is trying to live for
ourselves, but not only for the others. When we tried to recall everything happened in their life
when our hair turns white, there should not be things that are regretful. It would only be the death
of a human heart then, but it would never be the ending point of the spirit of the everlasting
American Dream.