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How Is Gatsby Relevant Today

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Just because a book may be outdated does not make the book irrelevant. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place in the 1920’s yet the story still tremendously impacts and relates to today’s society. Gatsby blindly pursues former lover Daisy and revolves his entire life around her needs. Daisy does not match his expectations and instead acts carelessly with little regard for the feelings of others. Well aware of her husband Tom’s not so secret affairs, she continues to act oblivious and stay with him in fear of ruining her image, even though she has someone who would do anything for her. Throughout the book, Tom and Daisy constantly step over people as if they do not matter and only care about themselves and Gatsby loses himself by …show more content…
These characters all come from wealth but none of them live a satisfying life. The ideas of someone doing everything to capture the attention from the person they desire and that people who seem to have it all still acquire maladaptive behaviors and experience feelings of emptiness are both familiar and applicable to today’s society. The Great Gatsby is a timeless work of literature that can be appreciated outside of the time that it was written. People act in crazy ways to gain the attention from someone they desire. After Daisy leaves Gatsby's party he expresses to Nick, “‘She didn’t like it,’ he said immediately. ‘Of course she did.’ ‘She didn’t like it,’ he insisted. ‘She didn’t have a good time’”(Fitzgerald 109). Almost every night, Gatsby throws extravagant parties in the hope that Daisy will make an appearance. The one day she shows …show more content…
Gatsby demonstrates this idea when he shares his feelings about Daisy to Nick “‘What’s the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do’” (Fitzgerald 150). Although he lives this lavish lifestyle, with a dream home, and millions of dollars to spend, none of this matters if he does not have anyone to share it with. One of life’s greatest mysteries is love. Even those today that seem to have it all can still experience loneliness and dissatisfaction with their life regardless of how others may view them. Before Daisy reappears in Gatsby’s life, he never feels complete and fantasies of a future with her consume his mind and when Daisy abandons him he feels distress and constantly asks Nick if Daisy has called to check up on him. Nick describes his opinion on Tom and Daisy to Nick “‘They’re a rotten crowd’” (Fitzgerald 154). Although Nick disapproves of Gatsby at first, he realizes that Tom and Daisy are self absorbed and reckless people. After Daisy hits Myrtle, she feels no guilt over the death of Tom’s mistress. Daisy’s lack of conscience makes it easy for her to move on and live with herself and since Myrtle does not come from the upper class, her life does not matter to Daisy. Tom and Daisy carelessly abandon the city and Daisy does not care to inform Gatsby, the one who truly cares about her, of her whereabouts. At the end of the novel,

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