Jay Gatsby longs for the past. Surprisingly he devotes his adult life trying to recapture it and dies in its pursuit. In the past, Jay had a love affair with a young rich girl, Daisy. Daisy and Jay had fallen in love with each other in spite of knowing that they could not marry because of the difference in their social status. For the first time in Jay's life he was truly happy. During their courtship, Jay was sent off to war. Upon returning from the war, Jay found out that Daisy had married a wealthy man by the name of Tom Buchannon. Jay then spends his life acquiring wealth to reach her economic standards, in hope that he can marry her and rekindle the happiness that he once had.

His love for Daisy was impossible in society because "he was at present a penniless young man with

Throughout the whole story marriage is never taken seriously. Catherine Jordan, Daisy's friend, said that Tom and Daisy could not stand each other. Gatsby accepts the fact that marriages rarely represent true love, and does not hesitate to tell his love to Daisy right in front of Tom. Myrtle's love for Tom was doomed to failure due to her lower social standing. This large social gap appears when Tom "had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world" (130). The couple is never meant to be. Gatsby had experienced this exact situation with Daisy when he was in the army. One of the central themes shown here is that money and social standing is why people do or do not get married. On one side of the coin you have the rich that cannot be involved with the poor, and the poor who want to be involved with the rich. Obviously the lack of true love, principles, and morals is why none of these people are truly happy.

Tom became very angry and Jay and Daisy left in his car. Nick, Tom, and Catherine left some time after. On the way home Daisy was so distraught that she did not see a lady running towards them from the road. The lady was Myrtle, Tom's lover, and thought that Tom was the one who was driving. She was trying to escape from her husband George who had found out about her affair. Daisy hit Myrtle and killed her, but instead of stopping she drove away.

To some people the American dream is to make money, to some people it is to become famous. To Jay, it was to be married to Daisy. Jay's dream was forbidden to start with because she was married. Jay's dream was diluted because he wanted things to be as they were in the past. And finally, Jay's dream was his own death, in that the rest of his life was spent trying to relive the past. His dream consumed his life so much that it had changed him to the point where he was no longer a human. He was more of a zombie who was driven to do anything it would take to realize his dream.

All the people that surrounded Nick were determined to achieve a sense of happiness, no matter whom they hurt. They all saw something that they wanted, and they all used each other to obtain their idea of happiness, no matter how temporary. The sad part of the story is that nobody ever reached his or her dreams of happiness.

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Approximate Word count = 2496
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)