Nick, the narrator, is the opposite of Gatsby; he is a realist. Through his objective perspective, the reader is able to see that Gatsby has very little chance of attaining his dream of winning Daisy's love. The most obvious hurdle that Gatsby would have to overcome in order to carry out his ultimate fantasy is the fact that, when Jay Gatsby and Daisy were involved in high school, Daisy Buchanan was Daisy Fay. Tom Buchanan, Daisy's husband, puts a major strain on their relationship. The second major flaw in his plan is the fact that Daisy still loves Tom. Not only is she bound by law, but also by love.

     Gatsby, in the back of his mind, sees and understands these problems, but he disregards them. All he knows is that when he and Daisy went out as teenagers, he was happy, and he wants to feel that way again. Gatsby, however, does not realize that what he wants is happiness, not necessarily just Daisy. He connects Daisy with the exuberant experiences of his young life, and, therefore, he will do anything to get her back again.

     Gatsby connects Daisy with the green light across the water. He thinks of how happy he was when he was with her. He idealizes her memory; he puts her on a pedestal, so to speak. Gatsby's love for Daisy is not genuine; it is more like an adolescent crush. Gatsby loves the past and is former life, and since Daisy was part of it, he wants her back.

     Jay Gatsby, having been mentioned earlier to want to do anything to "get" Daisy, goes to the limits of extravagance. He buys a house that is close enough to let him view her green light nightly, and he throws parties to try to attract Daisy's vain side. This plan does not work, so he has to use other means. After Gatsby is reconciled with Daisy via Nick's invitation of them both to his house, Gatsby finds out that Daisy really does love her husband, and this disillusions him a bit. Later in the story, Gatsby and Tom Buchanan have an intense exchange of words, and Tom seems to win Daisy back over to his side. Gatsby can see more of the reality after this episode; he can see that his dream is not realistic, and he can also see that Daisy is not what he hoped for, even though he still claims to love her. He can see that Daisy is not what he thought she was, and this disillusions him further.

     Since Gatsby is one of the two protagonists and the theme of The Great Gatsby is general disillusionment with american living and the American Dream, his personal disappointment in not getting Daisy contributes greatly to the whole theme of the novel. Gatsby's own feelings of unrequited hopes and dreams tie in with other, smaller-scale personal let-downs. Nick's sadness because of the absence of people at Gasby's funeral, Mr. Wilson's nervous breakdown after losing his wife, and the partygoers who arrive at Gatsby's fiestas with bright eyes, charming temperaments, and smiling mouths and leave drunk, mad, and/or unhappy.

     Gatsby is the victim of very strong nostalgia, and he longs for his whole past when he was happy before his higher education, but he focues too hard and to much on the aspects of his past that included Daisy. If too much hope and expectation is put into any one idea, the hoping person will more than likely be disappointed. If a person expects nothign and gets something, he or she will be pleasantly surprised. But Gatsby, being not only an idealist and a shiftless dreamer but also a romantic, cannot help but expect and hope. Because of his very nature, he set himself up for disillusionment.

[Note: I got an A-minus on this paper, and the teacher said it had good detail but seemed repetitive. I agree!]