Examples Of Illusions In The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby Matt Fielder P.5 English The roaring Twenties is really a time of discontent. The American dream may have just been in illusion in the minds of people across the world. The book “The great Gatsby” shows how illusions ultimately ruined the American dream of the characters in the story. Nick Carraway is the narrator of the book and is the cousin of Daisy Buchanan and he lives on west egg. Tom Buchanan used to be a star Quarterback at Yale. He is extremely rich and lives on east egg. Tom wants to keep the lives of people below him full of stagnation and always has to keep himself occupied because he has nothing to do. So he has an Affair with Myrtle Wilson. Daisy Buchanan is…show more content…
When Tom was with Myrtle they went to the apartment that Tom had bought for the affair with Myrtle. They were throwing a party. When Tom and Myrtle arrived at the house Myrtle went and changed into a very fancy and expensive dress that Tom had bought her. When Myrtle put on the dress she started acting snobby and rich. Myrtle started acting like a rich person just because of a material object. This is materialistic because Myrtle acts rich just because of a dress. Myrtle shows her materialistic qualities when she says “It’s just a crazy old thing; I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t care what I look like.”(pg31) This leads to Myrtle thinking of George in a materialistic manner in the next example. Because George didn’t have enough money to buy a fancy new suit for his wedding day he borrowed one from someone. When Myrtle finds out about this she gets mad at George. She thought that George wasn’t a good husband just because he borrowed a suit for their wedding. She thought that George was a bad husband because he couldn’t afford a material object. The materialism comes in when Myrtle says “I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.” (pg34) Materialism is shown again but this time in a voice. When Tom, Jordan, Daisy, Nick and Gatsby were all standing around discussing what they should bring to the city. Daisy say’s to bring…show more content…
A perfect example was the illusion that Jay Gatsby was trying to create not just for people on west or east egg but one person especially; Daisy Buchanan. The reason Gatsby wanted to create an illusion for Daisy was because they were a couple before Gatsby left for the war. After Gatsby returned, he and Daisy were supposed to get married, but things didn’t work out that way because while Gatsby was away Daisy married a wealthy man named Tom Buchanan. In order to get Daisy’s love back Gatsby built a house on West Egg right across the bay from the Buchanan’s so that Daisy would recognize the house. Gatsby tried to give Daisy the illusion that his house was a luxurious hotel as nick explains “It was a factual imitation of the Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivory, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and Garden.” (pg5) This great illusion that Gatsby created in the way of his house for Daisy leads us to the next illusion Daisy imagines for her daughter. Daisy knows that Tom is having an affair. She really doesn’t love Tom but stays in the marriage just because of the money. When she finds out they are having a girl Daisy was relieved. She was relieved because she doesn’t want her daughter to know that she is bored and unhappy. She doesn’t want her daughter to know that she is unhappy and because the
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