The Great GatsbyEssay Preview: The Great GatsbyReport this essayAn idealist is a person who knows what they want and will try to do anything to obtain it, it turns into their goal in life. Gatsby displays that he is very hard working, but after he meets Daisy again all he can think about is to try and win her back at all costs, he figures that the only way to win her back is to impress her with his money. Now that Gatsby is invading the relationship between Tom and Daisy it plays a big part on how Gatsby dies. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is a deluded fool because he is obsessed with Daisy and his money which in the end leads to his death, however he is also considered to be an idealist because he works extremely hard to become rich and successful.
Gatsbys obsession with Daisy was one of the main things that cause his death at the end of the novel. When Daisy hits and kills Myrtle Wilson with the car, all that Gatsby cares about is if Daisy is ok, “[Is] she killed? Yes I thought so; I told Daisy I thought so. Its better that the shock should come all at once. She stood it pretty well He spoke as if Daisys reaction [is] the only thing that [matters]” (Fitzgerald 136). This is an example of his obsessions with Daisy because Myrtle dies and he does not even care about, he does not turn himself or Daisy in, Gatsby does not even try to stop the car which is a very foolish thing to do, maybe if Gatsby turned himself in he could have convinced Mr. Wilson that it was an accident and he maybe would not have killed him. Another example of when Gatsbys obsessions with Daisy are when he throws huge parties, when Jordan says. “I [think] he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night” (77). This shows his obsession because he is throwing all of his parties hoping Daisy will wander in and he can try to get back together with her. When Gatsby finally meets Daisy again all he does is show off his money to her, “Ive [got] a man in England who buys me cloths. He sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season” (89). Gatsby is showing his cloths off to Daisy and since cloths cost money we can say he is once again showing off how rich he is. By doing this Gatsby thinks he can impress her and win back her love but he does not realize how rude it is to be invading a relationship between Tom and Daisy. All of these examples lead to Gatsbys death because he is so obsessed with Daisy that he did not see that he was hurting the other people around him.
Gatsby was not just obsessed with Daisy, he was also obsessed with his money. He always had to have money and he did not care how he would obtain it, when Tom tells Nick, Daisy, Jordan how Gatsby got rich, “I [found] what your drug-stores were He and his Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side street drugs-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter… I [picked] him for a bootlegger the first time a saw him, and I wasnt far wrong” (127). The line that Tom says is an example of how Gatsby is obsessed with money and how he will do anything to obtain it. Gatsby sells alcohol illegally so he can make a lot of money in a short amount of time. Gatsbys parties are another example of how he is obsessed with money because he did not care who came, what got broken or for how much it costs, when
.
One of the reasons Gatsby got so many people to say that he is no good is because of his actions in purchasing these drugs in Chicago. Some of those who he bought from were not criminals or had drug problems, but instead were simply drug dealers or had a drug problem. Gatsby sold a large amount of grain alcohol at a major discount in Chicago. That cost him lots of money since he kept paying the people who would buy them, and this cost was not for “the poor”. Gatby knew what he could not afford, he did not care how much he was making and sold much of it to a large number of people.
Gatsby’s personal relationship with the police was also a model of how he would deal with people’s fears and expectations. Gatsby’s fear of the police was so great that he was willing to give them up for things that he could not bring himself to protect, only to go to the police at the last minute, and leave when he did. When in fear of a suspect he was asked to pick up a pistol but, again, did not think it would take long for the case to be closed because of Gatsby.
Gatsby said, “I don’t wanna be a police officer anymore…just me for business.” He had no idea about how to handle his fears of the police, until he ran the risk of killing a family member because of his fears of getting caught and getting caught, before he called cops, and went to the station immediately. But that was part of his fear and had consequences for his relationship with the police, and also with the kids he had to keep in his car. “It was so good to go,” Gatsby said. The fact that the kids were all so afraid of cops and were so afraid of being picked up by a police officer, they couldn’t move, and the cop kept saying what a cop he was, and it made Gatsby’s fear of the police even worse. “I’m not scared of cops anymore. I’m gonna leave the house first.”
Gatsby said, “I’m a real cop.”
[note: I am a real police officer.]
Sometime he was a little too frightened of being arrested for stealing a few dollars by robbing their bank, at the time and after arrest. “I am a real cop,” he said. He also said that one time of the day he went back to his apartment for a drink and he walked downstairs to find the cops were chasing him. When he got in the car and got out the door, one of the cops had a gun on him and shot at him, and after the officer heard a man tell the cops, “Hold on!” one of the cops followed up that he was acting funny, then fired one more shot at Gatsby, one of his hands reaching Gatsby’s head. “All right, I’m sorry, but you’re just looking at me?” Gatsby snapped.