Great Gatsby Essay
Wide Awake and Dreaming
Hanna Chait
T.E. Lawrence stated “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” In The Great Gatsby, the central theme is realizing that creating your own dreams and living in your reality is extremely different. Myrtle dreamt of having money, yet knew Tom would never leave Daisy, Gatsby dreamt of being with the Daisy he created, but realized she had changed, and Daisy dreamt of being in love and being with Gatsby, but would NEVER leave Tom.
Myrtle Wilson desires one thing in life, money. She lives in the valley of ashes, the desolate and barren land that lies between Long Island and New York. She wants nothing more than to become wealthy, leave the valley of ashes, leave her husband, and become a extravagant vapid housewife like she always dreamt of being. “‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally. ‘I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe’” Myrtle remarked of her relationship with George. She wanted so badly for him to be something else, someone with class. She wanted a perfect, wealthy man of high social standing. Myrtle discussed her wedding day to George, “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.” Myrtle was embarrassed and almost disgraced about the fact that George didn’t get married in a suit he bought for himself. Myrtle said she knew right away she made a mistake, so the question was why did she go through with it in the first place? That’s why Myrtle has Tom though: he was her fulfillment, her fortune, though in reality they would never truly be together. Tom was with Daisy and that is
Hanna Chait
T.E. Lawrence stated “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” In The Great Gatsby, the central theme is realizing that creating your own dreams and living in your reality is extremely different. Myrtle dreamt of having money, yet knew Tom would never leave Daisy, Gatsby dreamt of being with the Daisy he created, but realized she had changed, and Daisy dreamt of being in love and being with Gatsby, but would NEVER leave Tom.
Myrtle Wilson desires one thing in life, money. She lives in the valley of ashes, the desolate and barren land that lies between Long Island and New York. She wants nothing more than to become wealthy, leave the valley of ashes, leave her husband, and become a extravagant vapid housewife like she always dreamt of being. “‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally. ‘I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe’” Myrtle remarked of her relationship with George. She wanted so badly for him to be something else, someone with class. She wanted a perfect, wealthy man of high social standing. Myrtle discussed her wedding day to George, “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.” Myrtle was embarrassed and almost disgraced about the fact that George didn’t get married in a suit he bought for himself. Myrtle said she knew right away she made a mistake, so the question was why did she go through with it in the first place? That’s why Myrtle has Tom though: he was her fulfillment, her fortune, though in reality they would never truly be together. Tom was with Daisy and that is