Fear or Desire?

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic The Great Gatsby is about a man, Jay Gatsby, who drives himself to success in a vain attempt to win over the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. Jay Gatsby starts out as a simple man who falls in love with the beautiful, upper class Daisy, but finds that his simple upbringings will not be enough to win her hand in marriage. After five years of acquiring a fabulous amount of wealth, Gatsby returns in hot pursuit of Daisy. Unfortunately for Gatsby, his downfall was inevitable from the start. It was Gatsby’s ambition, desire, self-deception, and greed that ultimately brought about his own demise.
The characteristics that contributed to Gatsby’s downfall were his ambition and desire for Daisy. Gatsby’s desire for Daisy spurred on his lifelong goal to one day become successful enough to finally have her. Gatsby spent his whole life acquiring money and trying to gain a high status in society so that he would be worthy of Daisy because ...