an individual. “The dream involves attaining a balance between the spiritual strength and the physical strength of an individual.”(Lehan, pg.53) Jay Gatsby fails to reach his ultimate dream of love for Daisy in that he chooses to pursue it by engaging in a lifestyle of high class. Gatsby realizes that life of the high-class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby’s time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an enormously wealthy family, “seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind.”(Lehan, pg.60) Nick describes Tom’s physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a “hard mouth and a supercilious manner…arrogant eyes has established dominance over his face…always leaning aggressively forward…a cruel body…his speaking voice…added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed” (Lehan, p.61) The product of hard work is the wistful Jay Gatsby, who epitomizes the purest characteristics of the American Dream: everlasting hope. His burning desire to win Daisy’s love symbolizes the basis of the old dream: an ethereal goal and a never-ending search for the opportunity to reach that goal. Gatsby is first seen late at night, “standing with his hands in his pockets” and supposedly “out to determine what share is his of our local heavens” (Fitzgerald, pg25). Nick watches Gatsby’s movements and comments: “-He stretches out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and as far as I am from him I can swear he is trembling. Involuntarily I glance seaward-and distinguish nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might be the end of the dock.” (Fitzgerald,...
