Longings In The Great Gatsby - 1295 Words

Mayson Ho ENG4U Ms. Smith 20 July 2017 Is it truly your real longing? F. Scott Fitzgerald has a famous quote: â€Å"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.† According to dictionary.com, longing is a strong, persistent desire for something and universal means applicable everywhere or in all cases. In other words, universal longing means a strong feeling of wanting someone or something that is shared by everyone in the world. However, contrary to Fitzgerald’s quote, longings are not universal because different individuals may have totally different longings that are important to them as demonstrated by Gatsby’s longing for†¦show more content†¦Then he began asking people casually if they knew her† (85 Fitzgerald). Finally, the ending of the novel shows that Gatsby is so desperate for Daisy’s love that he is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for her. When Nick asks Gatsby who was driving the car that killed Myrtle, Gatsby tells Nick that Daisy was but he will take the blame for her: â€Å"‘Was Daisy driving?’‘Yes,’ he said after a moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was’† (154 Fitzgerald). This is how far Gatsby is willing to go in his longing for love from Daisy. Although Gatsby’s longing for Daisy’s love is crystal clear and he even sacrifices his life for her, Daisy ultimately rejects him and decides to stay with her unfaithful husband instead. Gatsby never gets the love that he longs for from Daisy. His longing for wealth and social status is just a means to satisfy his longing for Daisy s love. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy longs for wealth and social status rather than love. She chooses wealth and status not just once. Daisy was born into a rich family. When she was young, Daisy knew that Gatsby was poor but she still loved him. She promised to wait for him to come back from fighting in Europe. How ever, she breaks her promise later and marries Tom Buchanan, a wealthy man instead. She wants to continue the upper class lifestyle she is used to. She decides she does not want to marry a poor man like Gatsby.Show MoreRelatedThe Great Gatsby Compared to the Wasteland1255 Words   |  6 PagesFitzgerald s Great Gatsby and Elliot s The Wasteland are two stories that similarly express the modernist post-war disillusionment. Both stories comment pessimistically on the direction that our world is moving in from the post-war modernist perspective. Both men looked past the roaring twenties, and realized that this time period was actually a moral wasteland. The final paragraphs of The Great Gatsby sum up their mutual lack of faith in American culture to improve. Fitzgerald uses a numberRead MoreEssay about F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby1480 Words   |  6 PagesF. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby Any American is taught a dream that is purged of all truth. 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