Examples Of The Holy Grail In The Great Gatsby

35. Within this paragraph Fitzgerald crafts the allusion of the holy grail as a major part of Gatsby’s dream. As Gatsby’s dream is compared with the journey to find the holy grail, Fitzgerald depicts the inherent failure of the dream. That Gatsby has “committed himself” (149 Fitzgerald) to himself to an object which is unachievable for a man of stature. By being raised up in a rather poor family in the West, Gatsby seeks to gain the wealth of the East. He builds this dream around Daisy, who is his “holy grail” (149 Fitzgerald) not due to his love for her but because of his dream of wealth. Furthermore, attaining Daisy will serve as a symbol of his victory over his past portraying how his attainment of the prosperity and wealth held by the East.
Fitzgerald characterizes the love that Gatsby held for Daisy through a simile describing how Daisy was “gleaming like silver” (150 Fitzgerald). Therefore, Fitzgerald crafts Daisy to represent the vast amount of wealth held by the East, which Gatsby desperately seeks. That Gatsby’s dream has never been focused on his love for Daisy but instead seeks the plethora of wealth and status held by her. Furthermore, Daisy stands “above the hot struggles of the poor” (150 Fitzgerald) depicting how she lives in a position which Gatsby will never be able to reach. Likewise, due to his connections with the West, Gatsby has been born with a social status which will never be accepted by the East. Thus, he will never be able to reach Daisy, the epitome of Eastern
Consistently throughout the story, Nick has never truly complimented Gatsby on any characteristics of his. Likewise, Nick has had nothing but hateful scorn for the rich who have come to dominate society. That higher classes inhabited by Daisy, Jordan, and Tom is plagued by emptiness and corruption which destroys the purpose of life. However, the paradox arises in that Nick is not scornful of Gatsby even though he is rich. This is due to the fact that Gatsby is not part of the rich of the East as he is a self-made man from the West. That while he may have a similarity in corruption to the affluent East, he does not compare to them in any other way as he has a been brought up in entire circumstance which defines Gatsby. Moreover, Nick claims that he is worth the “whole damn bunch together” (154 Fitzgerald) which is the only compliment he ever gives to