In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, there are many
scenes that pull at the reader's attention and hearts but the most relevant is
a flashback scene. In this flashback, Gatsby's character is further revealed.
This specific scene recounts Gatsby's meeting Daisy to his leaving her for
reasons that are suddenly made clear.
What started off as a quaint fling between a nice young
woman and a lieutenant suddenly developed into so much more than that, which
was enough to make my heart beat ninety times faster. When Gatsby and Daisy
first meet, he is about to go to war and the two begin a relationship they know
will never last when he is gone. Nevertheless, they become entwined with one
another and their relationship blooms; Daisy loves him because he is like her
and he knows how to treat her. Yet, Gatsby feels hollow. He knows Daisy is
above him and that he can’t keep pretending to be part of her world. But he
does.
Normal people would hate themselves for pretending to be
something they’re not, but Gatsby lets the fling continue. The next step in
this is him deflowering Daisy because he has no claim to touch her hand,
meaning that even he sees himself as unfit to marry her but he’ll take her
innocence either way. Perhaps this is why the color white is abundant
throughout the story.
To risk further deviating, I don’t believe that Gatsby
really loved Daisy at first. I think he was rather in love with the idea of
being in love because love can’t be left behind so easily. “When they met again
two days later, it was Gatsby who was breathless, who was somehow betrayed.”
This is the epitome of Gatsby’s character development. Despite his ruse of
caring, loving man, he is selfish deep down and believes that Daisy somehow
betrayed him by letting him in. It’s almost as if he is disregarding all of his
own actions. Thus this brings me to my final thoughts on Gatsby: while a
charming and debonair man, he is really insecure and doesn’t know how to let go
of the past, as displayed in the flashback scene that displays his leaving
Daisy for minor reasons.
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