Jay Gatsby, the main character, embraces this dream of happiness in order to recapture his past love, Daisy Buchanan, who rejected him due to his economic standing. He achieves wealth and success through racketeering in hopes to win back Daisy. It is this point, which brings up a controversy among various critics. It is a fact that Gatsby uses criminal activity in order to become wealthy. The question is whether he uses this criminal activity to fulfill his idea of the American dream or is he just a common criminal dressed up in fancy clothes? I feel that Gatsby is an honorable person. He uses criminal activity only as a means to obtain the love and respect of his only true love. His criminal activity is not just to acquire wealth; it is to become one of the elite so that he may become worthy of Daisy's love. Jay Gatsby is not j

ust a criminal who manipulates others; he is a romantic who hopes to fulfill his own version of the American dream.

Gatsby might have attained his wealth dishonestly, but he does not fit a criminal's description. He is just a dreamer who hopes to reconnect back to his past. He cares for Daisy so much that he takes the blame for Myrtle's death to protect her from a punishment that he could not allow her to take. The critics, Dalton and Mary Jean Gross write, "Gatsby's inability to repeat the past is much more than the failure of an experience in romantic love...the essence of his powerful desire for a vaguely defined, self fulfilling greatness" (Gross 11). It is true that Gatsby is connected to the criminal underworld. Gatsby, however, steals for love, and to me, that does not make him a criminal. He just a romantic following his dream.

This is Fitzgerald's passage where Gatsby is trying to persuade Nick to think about working with Gatsby: "Why, I thought-why look here, old sport, you don't make much money, do you?" "Not very much." This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently. "I thought you didn't, if you'll pardon my-you see, I carry on a little business on the side, a sort of side line, you understand. And I thought that if you don't make very much-You're selling bonds, aren't you, old sport?" "Trying to." "Well, this would interest you. It wouldn't take up much of your time and you might pick up a nice bit of money. It happens to be a rather confidential sort of thing. (75) This quote is supports Pauly's idea

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1042
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)