Analyse Gatsby’s attitude to Daisy in aiming to achieve his own version of the American Dream. Refer to the extract as a starting point.

Example paragraph:

The extract initially describes Baldwin’s departure from a building, and the particular language choices aid us in relating the text to Gatsby’s intense business lifestyle and how this affects his attitude to Daisy. The verbs throughout the extract telling us that Baldwin “hurried” and “trotted” imply a fast pace to his actions, much like the life of Gatsby, recalling how his Rolls Royce “scampered” to pick up party guests from stations, and how Gatsby rapidly rose to great wealth within just five years of leaving Daisy. Moreover, the verbs “straightened” and “brushed” emphasise the business-like, official approach to this event. These specific language choices can be easily compared to Gatsby and the path he has chosen to pursue: that of the ‘American Dream’. This term refers to the national ethos and set of ideals in the United States in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity, success and an upward social mobility. This is achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. This ethos was prevalent in the time at which ‘The Great Gatsby’ was set and written, but was in the ‘roaring twenties’ being corrupted by decaying social and moral values, greed, the empty pursuit of pleasure and reckless jubilance. Gatsby as a character embodies many of these devaluations of this ‘Dream’, by throwing his opulent parties and achieving such affluence through bootlegging during the prohibition of the 1920’s. However, it could be interpreted that Gatsby’s corruption of the ‘American Dream’ in fact shows that his is not meant to follow the generic pattern. His version is warped because he has the goal of Daisy Buchanan in mind, rather than the goal of prosperity through hard work. The fast-paced manner in which Gatsby climbed the social and economic hierarchies is inextricably applied to other aspects of his life. His professionalism and “resolves” that were seen from an early age encroach upon his relationship with Daisy, and this is seen most pointedly in the confrontation in the New York apartment in chapter seven. He formulates a deal, in which he instructs Daisy to “just tell him the truth – that you never loved him – and it’s all wiped out forever”, and that after this Daisy can leave Tom to start a new life with Gatsby. He approaches Daisy like one would a business transaction, bargaining and compromising to achieve the result he has wanted ever since he left her. His relentless pursuit of wealth and success since his early years has resulted in an objectification of anything he desires in relation to its worth to him as a consumer, with Gatsby being unable to separate his personal and professional life.