Is Jay Gatsby Selfish

Believing the world will be fair to you because you are fair to the world is like expecting the lion not to eat you because you didn’t eat him; it is naïve and unrealistic. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby was hopelessly in love with Daisy Buchanan after years of being separated from her. He expected her to still feel the same overwhelming love for him that he had for her, but that wasn’t exactly the case. Daisy lusted for Gatsby, but her intentions were poles apart from Gatsby’s. Blinded by his undying love, he failed to see Daisy’s true colors. Gatsby is essentially an innocent victim who is destroyed by his inability to accept reality. Gatsby was unable to accept the fact that Daisy had moved on …show more content…
Gatsby gave, and gave, and gave to Daisy and she didn’t mind taking whatever it was he offered to her every time. Jay Gatsby mindlessly interpreted Daisy’s selfishness for requited love. He allowed Daisy to dictate his life and determine just how successful he is. “By extension, Gatsby’s life is only as successful as Daisy thinks it is, regardless of how successful Nick or any others may think it is” (Beauvoir Women in Love). He was so blind to his misinterpretation of true love that he couldn’t even recognize the fact that Daisy was determining the guidelines of his success. Only Daisy could decide just how truly successful Gatsby was in his eyes, and that is not right. Gatsby’s so-called soul mate took advantage of him time and time again. Regarding Myrtle’s death, Gatsby explained to Nick Carraway, “Anyhow – Daisy stepped on it. I tried to make her stop, but she couldn’t, so I pulled on the emergency brake. Then she fell over into my lap, and I drove on” (Fitzgerald 144). Daisy, knowing she was at fault, allowed the blame to fall on Gatsby’s shoulders. He loved her so much that it was to the point where he did not mind taking the wrath of a murder for her, and she didn’t love him or even have enough decency as a human being to do the right thing and own up to her faults. This whole ordeal led to Gatsby being shot by George Wilson and, ultimately, dying. Yet the whole way through, his love …show more content…
She was far from what he chalked her up to be. He assumed that when he returned from serving in the military he and Daisy would pick up right where they left off, even though it had been five years. A lot can happen within the time span of five years, but Gatsby expected that Daisy would wait around for him like he did for her. Jordan Baker once revealed, “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties one night, but she never did” (Fitzgerald 79). Gatsby had expected that once Daisy heard word that he was back, she would come back to him. However, Daisy’s intentions were evidently contrasting Gatsby’s expectations. Daisy was not what Gatsby believed her to be. What he had pictured her to be was merely a figment of his imagination. Hodin communicated, “His life revolves around something that he ultimately does not have” (Hodin Digication). Daisy was out of reach for Gatsby; she was at the tips of his fingers, but he just couldn’t grasp her. They may have been in love at one point, but people fall out of love sometimes. Daisy seemingly did so more swiftly than Gatsby, but he needed to realize that. He was so caught up in his thoughts of love and longing that he seemed to have lost touch with reality. While doing a character analysis for The Great Gatsby, Miller once vocalized, “But from these it is clear that the vague, inchoate dream alights on Daisy, and romantically transfigures