Daisy Shadow upon the Great Gatsby

宋智慧

【Abstract】The Great Gatsby is a significant classic in American literature. The Great Gatsby tells the love story between young Gatsby and rich Daisy. From the moment they loved each other， they cherished their pure love； to the moment Daisy hurt Gatsby twice， fragile love and crushed American dream came into their life， which indirectly led to Gatsbys death. Daisy Shadow has swallowed Gatsbys soul and destroyed his whole life. The sarcasm of the novel also makes people try best to find a good or proper ending to Gatsby， while so many possibilities lead to nothing proper.

【Key words】American Dream； Daisy Shadow； a proper ending

Pure Love and the American Dream in the Initial Times

The two main characters in this novel are Gatsby and Daisy， the destined lovers when they were both poor. It was the year when Gatsby was 17 years old. At that time， Gatsby and Daisy were both pure in the initial time. Daisy loved Gatsby when she knew he was rather poor. In that war time， he was a junior officer in the army and was ordinary like the ones from the countryside. But after five years of training in the Army， he was brave enough to embrace love， and then Daisy came to his life.

Daisy was a great lady， beautiful， lovely and was protected by all people around. When she knew the boy Gatsby， she was excited and she felt love inside. While Gatsby should return after war， he was sent to England and lost contact with Daisy. At that moment， Tom appeared in her life. After their first meet， Tom sent Daisy a pearl necklace. God must be kidding that Daisy received letter from Gatsby in her marriage time. Then she chose pearl necklace and threw the letter at the same time.

What is American Dream？ It was that when you kept trying your best for your aim， through courage， determination， endeavor， you would finally achieve what you want to achieve， for example， money， status， property and other factors. For Gatsby， the American Dream is positive to him and he treats Daisy as his American Dream.

Fragrant Love and Crushed American Dream in the Mid-time

After Gatsby got rich， he found Daisy and tried to get her love back. The crushed American Dream was equal to Gatsbys love with Daisy. Gatsby achieved his American Dream by the moment he got rich and Daisy loved him again in his house. What a silly Gatsby！ Just when Gatsby was rich and invited so many people for the party， most people came to his house， but nobody came to his funeral. That was the biggest sarcasm and shadow of that society. A pure and stupid guy like Gatsby in that society would only be ended with that kind of ending， even worse. Money was not almighty. Money could not buy love， too. From the ancient times to nowadays， most men believed that all women could be owned as long as they had enough money. So they tried all merely for money. They did all things with deep faith in this belief of American Dream， including Gatsby， with no exception. There should always be the complex relationship between treasure and love.

What to be End is Proper for Gatsby

What ending would be the most proper one？ The answer was not clear. One possibility was that they both did not lose contact when Gatsby was in the army. Would there be a happy ending for Gatsby and Daisy？

Daisy received the letter almost at the same time with her marriage to Tom. If she waited for Gatsby or Gatsby came to look for her straightly， they two might go to wedding instead of the marriage of Tom and Daisy. But this could only happen in the condition of Gatsby not desiring money and Daisy loving Gatsby nothing to do with money or other things. How readers hoped that Daisy would not like money that much and could love Gatsby and wait Gatsby no matter who opposed them. Would there be a happy ending for Gatsby and Daisy？

All these I mentioned above showed the instability among their love. And I could imagine even more possibilities of their endings， good or bad. In my opinion， there would not be a happy ending between Gatsby and Daisy. The main reason for this was that their love was connected or mixed with materials and money. Gatsby would not love her if she was just an ordinary girl with no glory in herself. Daisy would not love him without the money and property he possessed at last. They were influenced and hurt by the American Dream at that time. As love between them was the only thing uncontrollable ， we should never wish for a proper ending because a proper ending would never exist. Love is pure love and love can never be bind to any condition.

Reference：

[1]Diao Keli.On the Theme of The Great Gatsby.Journal of Henan University.1994.