Characters in The Great Gatsby have a difficult time seeing past their own hopes and dreams and into the truths of what is happening. Daisy Fay ignores reality; in fact, Daisy herself is pictured as unreal. She flutters and floats about the room, and seems "buoyed up [on the couch] as though upon an anchored balloon" (12). Daisy cannot admit that her daughter is real- she refers to her as "'[A] dream...[an] absolute little dream'" (123). Tom Buchanan is an extremely ignorant man who cannot come to terms with his own stupidity. He tries to prove his intelligence by reading "all scientific" (17) books that are "deep" (17) and have "long words in them" (17). Tom is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson, a would-be upper class woman who is destined to stay on the wrong side of the tracks. She tries to assume a social position by having an affair with Tom, who has extraordinary wealth and a magnifi

cent social standing. She pretends to be of a high class several times; she "raise[s] her eyebrows in despair at the stiflessness of the lower orders [and says,] 'These people! You have to keep after them all the time'"(36). Her husband George is equally delusional as he tries to ignore his wife's affair. Because he lives in the valley of ashes, he is covered in and taken over by the ashes. He fades into the valley, into nothingness, and out of reality.

Politicians can be great liars and can live deluded lives, but eventually it will catch up to them. In the 1800's, the North and South of the United States were arguing over Missouri's admission to the Union: should it be admitted as a slave state or a free state? Henry Clay came up with a compromise that allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state, pleasing both the North and South. Only Thomas Jefferson saw the problem with this compromise: it merely prolonged the fight by momentarily calming a dispute. The rest of Congress decided to ignore the soon-to-be tremendous problem. Most recently, President Clinton was accused of having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, an intern at the White House. When questioned, Hillary

Mr. Henry Gatz, father of Jay Gatsby, emerges at Gatsby's funeral, unable to accept the fact that his young Jimmy has

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 905
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)