However, his single focus on getting Daisy's green light, something he cannot have, creates a motive of greed in Gatsby that he is unable to control and eventually destroys him. For example, Nick talks of Gatsby's idealization of Daisy by saying:
"There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion." (Fitzgerald, p. 101).
Even Gatsby himself recognizes this fatal flaw, namely that following his first kiss with Daisy that he "forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God." (Fitzgerald, p. 117).
This comparison to God is also symbolic of the American Dream. America was founded on the belief that this was a country that would act as God by setting moral examples to the rest of the world, like a beacon on a hill. This beacon on the hill was the American Dream. Interestingly, the green light across the dock in the novel represents the American Dream and, like the notion of being God, is utterly unobtainable and will lead one to their demise as they try.
Gatsby never realized the...
Prior to this, everything he wanted he succeeded at getting. However, with Daisy, his desire only became stronger the more he tried and failed. It is during this pursuit that Gatsby reaches his breaking point, realizing that the American Dream is utterly inaccessible.
As a book, the Great Gatsby is perhaps the great American novel. Interestingly, the great American novel is a story about the failure and disappointment of the American Dream. As seen from the above cited references, the Great Gatsby is a book about society's destruction at its constant failure at obtaining the unobtainable- the green light- the beacon on the hill. The American Dream.
Bibliography
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner Classics, 1925.
Tanner, Bernard R.F. Scott Fitzgerald's Odyssey: A Reader's Guide to the Gospel in the Great Gatsby. New York: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2003.
Tredell, Nicholas. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: Essays, Articles and Reviews. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Wyly, Michael J. Great Gatsby. Farmington Hills: Thomas Gale, 2001.
