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Kerima Amer
Mr.Janosch
Ela 1
03-30-17

When you love something, and it isnt yours, you do anything in your power to get it. Even if

it means waiting. Marxism is an economic and social system based upon the political and

economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The proletariat is the working class,

including farmers and low-skilled factory workers. They do not own any means of production.

The bourgeoisie are the capitalist class, the wealthy, who own most of the means of production.

When applied to The Great Gatsby, a story about a millionaire in love with a girl named Daisy,

its obvious to see the abuse of power and money. All the money in the world could not change

the past, as gatsby soon realized that time is much more powerful than materialistic things.

Throughout the story Jay Gatsby has a strong belief in which he could go back and change

the past. He claims that everything will go back to normal like how it was five years ago with his

lover daisy.

"'I wouldn't ask too much of her,' I ventured. 'You can't repeat the past.' 'Can't repeat

the past?' he cried incredulously. 'Why, of course you can!' He looked around him wildly, as

if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. I'm

going to fix everything just the way it was before,' he said, nodding determinedly. 'She'll

see.'" (Fitzgerald 110)

The conversation he had with Nick, shows his confidence on how he strongly believes he can

change things. He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: "I

never loved you." After she spent four years with Tom, Gatsby wanted to decide upon more
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practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they would go back to

Louisville and be married from her housejust as if it were five years ago. (Fitzgerald 109)

Gatsby, not taking into recognition that Daisy has a whole separate life apart from him wants to

change the past and get married just like he always wanted.

Gatsby has done everything in his power to try and win daisy over, but fails to realize that

in five years a lot can change.Gatsby and I in turn leaned down and took the small, reluctant

hand. Afterward he kept looking at the child with surprise. I don't think he had ever really

believed in its existence before (124 Fitzgerald) Gatsby Is now starting to realize that Daisy and

Tom have their own life and a child. In these five years that Daisy and Gatsby have been

separated she has become a different person with different responsibilities. Throughout the story

Gatsby is confident that Daisy never loved Tom and that she used him as a void for Gatsby

while he was gone."Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now isn't that

enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once but I loved

you too." (132 Fitzgerald) In this part of the novel Gatsby starts to realize, that Daisy didnt only

love him but she loved her husband Tom, he is now starting to finally get a sense that the past

cant be changed, in his case.

Materialistic things, didnt bring Daisy back, as much as Gatsby tried, it worked for a while but

not long term. Gatsby thought that material possessions were more important than his actual self.

"It was a strange coincidence," I said. "But it wasn't a coincidence at all. "Why not?" "Gatsby

bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay." (63 Fitzgerald) All the parties

Gatsby threw in hopes to have Daisy come to one didnt work. She soon realizes that he wanted

to win her over by becoming rich. She already came from a wealthy family. Her voice "is full of
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money," as Gatsby says. She was already married to a rich man, and she knows that wealth

doesn't bring happiness, but you can't escape from wealth if you have it and come from a family

with it. When he makes a showcase of his wealth and money with his shirts, hes doing what the

old-money rich people do in a more subtle way. She sees that money can't really buy much but

luxuries, which doesnt usually keep a person happy forever and that she herself could possibly

be one of those luxuries. This could be part of the reason for her outbreak of tears.

"He must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long

with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and

shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the

scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing

dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about...like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him

through the amorphous trees." (162 Fitzgerald) Everything Gatsby did to try to get Daisy back

fails, and he soon realizes it. When he says He must have felt that he had lost the old warm

world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream This means that he lived most of

his life dreaming for one thing, which was Daisy even after doing everything in his power to win

her over he fails, making him lost in the old warm world. There is also a contrast between the

ending of this chapter and the beginning of the story, when Gatsby looks out across the water at

the green light, waiting for Daisy. The green light represents the hope that Gatsby will have a

relationship with Daisy. Nick leaves Gatsby standing there in the moonlight - watching over

nothing (145). This symbolizes that his dream is shattered and it foreshadows that Daisy and

Gatsby will not end up together. For Gatsby's American Dream is over.
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Citation Page

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.
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