The Great Gatsby Essay Example for Free

The Great Gatsby Essay The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald argues that the novel is a perfect example of the great American love story, but that is a negative. The Great Gatsby is not a tale about perfect love, throughout the story we follow multiple corrupted relationships. Tom and Myrtle they are both objects to one another. Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby when the wait is longer than expected and he’s offering her fortune. This is a tale of love and lust corrupting individuals, and of an American dream that is never fulfilled. Many people dream of being rich and famous in this time era because they want to be honored and idolized by people. This is the goal of Jay Gatsby, the protagonist in The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby throws all these parties to get known as this â€Å"big timer† a well-known rich man he thinks that will attract Daisy. â€Å"If love is only a will to possess, it is not love†, there are three main relationships in â€Å"The Great Gatsby† and they are all unsuccessful because they are not based off of love, but on materialism. An example of an unsuccessful relationship in The Great Gatsby is the adulterous affair between Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan. Tom and Myrtle meet on a train when Myrtle was on her way visiting her sister that lives in New York and the two were both infatuated with each other’s appearances, and neither of them could take their eyes off one another. Myrtle is married to a man unsuccessful man named George B. Wilson. She joins into a conversation with Catherine explaining how she feels about her marriage , which I feel makes it so easy to cheat with Tom Buchanan. â€Å"Well, I married him,† said Myrtle, ambiguously. â€Å"And that’s the difference between your case and mine. † â€Å"Why did you, Myrtle? † demanded Catherine. Nobody forced you to. † Myrtle considered. â€Å"I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,† she said finally. â€Å"I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe. † â€Å"You were crazy about him for a while,† said Catherine. â€Å"Crazy about him! † cried Myrtle incredulously. â€Å"Who said I was crazy about him? I never was any more crazy about him than I was about that man there. † She pointed suddenly at me, and every one looked at me accusingly. I tried to show by my expression that I had played no part in her past. â€Å"The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out. ‘oh, is that your suit? ’ I said. ‘this is the first I ever heard about it. ’ But I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried to beat the band all afternoon. †(F. Scott Fitzgerald 34-35). Myrtle is unsatisfied, annoyed, and aggressive. She is disgusted with everything about her marriage because she has so much hatred towards her husband, he is poor man. Myrtle is a superficial materialistic vacuous bitch! That’s the only way I can put it. Myrtle deserves every bad thing that comes to her for the betrayal of her husband. Tom only uses Myrtle for sex that’s all she’s good for and in return she receives gifts and money, not because Tom cares about her, but because he just have money to blow. Myrtle believes Tom will leave his wife for her, but to Tom she’s just a sexual toy, sexual object, nothing just being used. Tom makes it pretty clear that he isn’t leaving Daisy for her from the way he treats Myrtle at the party, especially when he breaks her nose for having the nerve to mention his wife Daisy’s name. Daisy! Daisy! Daisy! shouted Mrs.  Wilson. Ill say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand (Fitzgerald 43). The pathetic nature of their relationship is reinforced when she dies. After a fight with her husband, Myrtle runs away towards a golden car that she thinks is Toms. The gold color of the vehicle symbolizes money, the fortune that Myrtle craves for. When Tom hears that she was hit by the car he has no emotional reaction to her death. He hurries to tell her husband that he was not the one driving the car so he can get away from the situation clean. The relationship between Tom and Myrtle is best symbolized by an expensive dog leash Tom bought for Myrtles puppy. It deliberates on the fact that Tom is her master, the one who controls his pet with money. As the dog, Myrtle is rewarded treats (gifts and money) for acting accordingly. The unequal status of Tom and Myrtle demonstrates that their relationship was bound to have a lack of success from the inception. Daisy and Tom Buchanan marriage is also a complete failure. Daisy only marries Tom because the war separated her and Gatsby. However, the most important reason for her marring him is because he comes from money. Tom is from a wealthy family and has statues. He also wins Daisy over by giving her everything she wants, especially at their wedding ceremony. â€Å"In June [Daisy] married Tom Buchanan of Chicago, with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before. He came down with a hundred people in four private cars, and hired a whole floor of the Muhlbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars (Fitzgerald 82). †