Once something is in the past there is no retrieving or recreating what already once happened, there will always be a difference. When Gatsby was an adolescent he knew even then that he did not want to grow to be a farmer, he wanted to be someone greater than that. He even had a list of events that he was supposed to do every day, to make sure he stayed on track so that he would reach his dream of wealth. Once he met Daisy, and they fell in love that only filled his fire more. He wanted her because he could not have her since she would not marry a poor boy, for that would go against tradition. He became convinced that once he became rich, they would marry and happily live out his idea of the American dream together, as deeply in love, wealthy people. However, his dream slowly became corrupt as he got closer to achieving it, what had started as an innocent child’s idea, turned into organized crime and the wish to buy Daisy’s love, instead of earning it. Gatsby’s great mistake was assuming that once Daisy saw him for the first time in five years that she would drop everything, leave her husband, Tom Buchannan, and daughter to start a new life with him.
Gatsby, now living in the East Egg, is now in control of enormous abundances of money, yet it is obvious to the reader even in the beginning of the book that he is not happy. The narrator of the story, Nick, first sees Gatsby at night reaching across the bay, shaking and trembling, towards a green light at the end of Daisy Buchannan’s dock. As the story goes on this light becomes a clear symbol of hope that they will once again be reunited. At first he tries to lure her over to his house by throwing extravagant parties, but of course this was doomed to fail, because old money doesn’t correspond with new money. New money was portrayed as gaudy and reckless, while old money had social class and elegance. Gatsby did not want to be new money, he wanted old money and the way to attain this social standing was sitting across the bay, on the greener pasture, not even knowing that her teenage love was trying to grab her attention.
There is a fine line between love and obsession, and Gatsby during those five years of time had crossed that line. When Daisy did finally see Gatsby, she failed to see this, believing that he was truly still in love with her and she adored the attention he gave her. At one point she even wept over the expensive shirts he showed her. Her shock of seeing him again led to them continuing to see eachother, but she never really did seem to give thought to the idea of leaving her safe, comfortable life with Tom to live with Gatsby. Gatsby did not see this though; he was blinded by denial that Daisy was not the same and had a family now. He wanted her status, and thought that he was days away from achieving it. He stopped his wild parties, simply because she did not like them, he fired all his servants to prevent gossip and even stopped having guests over to visit. So when Gatsby openly speaks to Tom about his love for Daisy, he is shocked that she does not stand up for herself and tell Tom that she feels the same. Even after this Gatsby takes the blame for the tragedy of Daisy running over a woman, and this leads to Gatsby’s murder when this woman’s husband seeks for revenge.
The minuscule lines between money, greed, love, obsession and desire are all blurred in this novel. They turned a child’s fantasy of one day becoming a member of the upper class into a depressing wasteland. Gatsby’s goal was reached, but when he got there he never realized it. He was rich, had high social status and for a brief period of time he even had Daisy. Sometimes your wishes come to you in unexpected ways and what is imagined is different than reality. What stops a person from seeing that what they wanted is right in front of them, is the pressures of society to always climb higher, and to never stop pushing against the indefatigable current.
