The Great Gatsby and Impossible Dreams

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As people, we all have things we desire, sometimes impossible but we don't care because we want to achieve our goals. We sometimes work hard for our goals even when it seems impossible, or we know when it's time to quit. While Jay Gatsby has worked hard to achieve his dreams, In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, Jay Gatsby, is chasing an impossible dream because everything he has done is to get Daisy Buchanan but he still ends up losing her, Jay Gatsby told too many lies to achieve his dream, and Jay Gatsby's dreams were unrealistic.

First, Jay Gatsby is chasing an impossible dream because everything he has done was to get Daisy Buchanan, but he still ends up losing her.

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Jay Gatsby's dream has always been to be together with Daisy, so he schemed up so many ways to make her his. Gatsby disappeared, got rich, came back into her life, and threw big parties all to impress her.

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One of the problems is that Daisy is married to Tom, so there's a wedge to prevent him from achieving his goal. Gatsby has told to many lies and has a very mysterious backstory. Even with all his fame and his wealth he couldn't get Daisy to leave Tom for him. , William Voegeli a contributing editor to The Claremont Review of Books, states "No woman of flesh and bone could be worthy of such idealization, and both men turn out to be more in love with love than with their beloved.

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"In any case, it was just personal,"(Fitzgerald.116) says Gatsby when he tries to take in the knowledge that Daisy never loved him the way he loved her." This statement from William Voegeli's article explains that Gatsby had lost something that he never had in the first place. Gatsby is trying to recapture something that wasn't there in the beginning. I agree with what Voegeli's statement because throughout the whole novel we see Gatsby stubbornly go after Daisy after he sees there's no chance of them being together. I believe that it was nothing personal for Daisy not wanting Gatsby because Gatsby had disappeared for a while and she is already married to Tom.

Additionally, Jay Gatsby told too many lies to achieve his dream. Jay Gatsby has told many lies since the beginning of the novel. Gatsby has made up so many different stories on how he came to accumulate his wealth, but in reality, he achieved his fortune illegally, through the use of bootlegging, and with his connections to the mob. There were stories of Gatsby owning several drug stores that were untrue. In the novel The Great Gatsby, it states "I found out what your 'drug-stores' were." (Fitzgerald.7.103) He turned to us and spoke rapidly. "He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That's one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn't far wrong." (Fitzgerald.7.103) This quote shows Gatsby getting caught in a lie and being called out for being in an illegal business. After he gets caught he doesn't seem to care about it. Gatsby also lies a lot to Nick Carraway, who happens to be Daisy's cousin, by using him to get closer to Daisy. This could be proven by the simple fact that Gatsby's main goal is to get back to Daisy and Nick is the gateway to her. He is always seen as being extremely nice to Nick. He doesn't actually want a friendship with Nick he just wants a relationship with his once true love. He manipulated Nick just to try to be closer to Daisy. Gatsby makes Nick invite him for tea and he made sure to make Nick invite Daisy. This is another way that Gatsby is manipulating Nick just to get closer to Daisy.

Finally, the most important reason In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, Jay Gatsby, is chasing an impossible dream is Jay Gatsby's dreams were unrealistic. Once again mentioning his desires to be with Daisy and to have his dream was incredibly unrealistic. Gatsby kept convincing himself that the dream was obtainable. "You can't repeat the past? Why, of course, you can!" (Fitzgerald.6.85). Gatsby was very delusional about this dream. "Oh you want too much,' she cried to Gatsby. 'I love you now, isn't that enough? I can't help what's past. I did love him once - but I love you too."(Fitzgerald.7.102) This quote is Daisy explaining to Gatsby that his dream is so impossible to obtain because he's asking for too much, this ultimately crushes his dream. Gatsby ultimately drops everything for Daisy and does everything for her just to accomplish his dream, even though Daisy even knows that it's an impossible dream to attain. We could also see Gatsby's delusion when he states he felt married to Daisy already. "She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby - nothing. He felt married to her, that was all." (Fitzgerald. 8.149) This quote from the novel is explaining the relationship that Gatsby and Daisy had he left out of his life and into his regular rich life, a life without Gatsby. He's left with nothing, but he still feels married to her. Another stand out the quote was when Gatsby was standing on the Dock, looking at the light by Daisy's dock. He reaches out for the green light and then it slowly fades away. This is very symbolic, the green light represents his and Daisy's relationship. With the evidence provided, we can see that Gatsby was very delusional and wouldn't give up his dreams.

Indeed, while Jay Gatsby did whatever he could to achieve his dream, In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, Jay Gatsby, is chasing an impossible dream. His dream was impossible because everything he has done was to get Daisy and he still lost her, he told too many lies, and his dreams were unrealistic. With all of these reasons, it's clear to see why Gatsby's dreams failed and were very impossible to obtain.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F.Scott. The Great Gatsby. Penguin Books, 1950.
Ward, Jesmyn. "Jay Gatsby: A Dreamer Doomed to Be Excluded. The Novelist Jesmyn Ward Explains." The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Apr. 2018,
Voegeli, William. "Gatsby and the Pursuit of Happiness." Claremont Institute, William Voegeli, 17 Dec. 2003,
www.claremont.org/crb/article/gatsby-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness/.
Basu-Zharku, I. (2011). The Great Gatsby's Relation to and Importance as a Work of Art. [online] Inquiries Journal. Available at: [Accessed 17 May 2019].