Eastern Desires (An Essay On ‘The Great Gatsby’) Essay, Research Paper

Eastern Desires

The roaring twenties. Cars were the things to have and

a party was the place to be. Everybody wanted something.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, describes the

events that happen to eight people during the summer of 1922.

In the book, people went from west to east because something

they desired was in the east; unfortunatly in the end those

’somethings’ were unattainable.

…I decided to go east and learn the

bond business. Everybody I knew was

in the bond business so I supposed it

could support one more single man. All

my aunts and uncles talked it over as

if they were choosing a prep school

for me…

Nick went to the east to make money. He was from the

midwest, and even though his family was doing pretty well in

the money department, Nick wanted to make his own money. By

going from the midwest to the east, Fitzgerald shows Nick’s

desire to have more money. After spending the summer in the

east and seeing how money affects people, he decides to go

back west.

I see now that this has been a

story of the west, after all-Tom

and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and

I, were all westerners and and

perhaps we possessed some deficiency

in common which made us subtly

unadaptable to eastern life.

In other words, after finding out what the east was really like,

Nick lost his interest in being in the east and returned to the

west.

Gatsby came east looking for another type of money –

Daisy. Gatsby and Daisy had last seen each other about five

years before, when they were dating. Then Gatsby had to go

to war. While he was away in war, Daisy met Tom and then

married Tom. Daisy had always been rich and thought that

in order to get Daisy back, he need to have money and be able

to give Daisy anything she wanted. He found out that Daisy

was in the east and went to go try to get her back.

…I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when

he first picked out the green light

at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had

come a long way to this blue lawn and

his dream must have seemed so close

that he could hardly fail to grasp it.

What was never realized by Gatsby was that he could never have

Daisy again. He just couldn’t accept it.

[Gatsby said] “…Just tell him the

truth-that you never loved him-and

it’s all wiped out forever.”

…”Oh, you want too much!” she

cried to Gatsby…”I did love him

once-but I loved you too.”

Gatsby’s eyes opened and closed.

“You loved me ????” he repeated.

Nick realized what Gatsby didn’t. Right after he spoke

of Gatsby seeing the light on the dock, he said this:

…He did not know that it was already

behind him, somewhere back in that vast

obscurity beyond the city, where the

dark fields of the republic rolled on

under the night.

Gatsby finally stopped trying to win Daisy because, well,

he was shot and killed.

Tom and Daisy came east to escape from Tom having

to take responcibilty for his actions.

[Tom said] “And what’s more, I love Daisy

too. Once in a while I go off on a spree

and make a fool of myself, but I always

come back, and in my heart I love her all

the time.”

“You’re revolting.” said Daisy. She

turned to me and her voice, dropping

an octave lower, filled the room with

thrilling scorn: “Do you know why we

left Chicago? I’m surprized that they

didn’t treat you to the story of that

little spree.”

Daisy is referring to Tom having an affair with another woman.

Something must have happened to her that involved Tom and to

escape it he came east. They were looking for a refuge,

someplace where they could start again, but they didn’t find

it. Tom botched it up again by seeing Myrtle and now Tom and

Daisy have to return to the west to escape ???? predicament.

In the end it was shown that the things that Nick,

Gatsby, and the Buchanans wanted to have were out of their

reach. The cars were still there, and the parties were still

there, but what they had wanted was gone.

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