So lately I have been planning my wedding. The big day is September 12th, 2015. As I have been planning, I have been thinking of the Great Gatsby a lot and what would happen if Gatsby achieved his goal of making Daisy his and marrying her.
The thing that so often brings Gatsby to mind, is that I am marrying into a family that (comparatively) is wealthy and would be considered by my family and maybe others to be upper class. It is sort of weird because they have worked to get to that point, and if you didn't know that you would never expect that was the case. Personally, I think one thing they like about me is that I am the Gatsby. I am self-made, successful, hard-working, dependable, and able to mingle and mix in with them easily.
How weird that is, because The Great Gatsby is all about achieving the American Dream. Yet Gatsby never achieves his dream beyond accumulating wealth. Now, it seems like the dream is to have it all. The Tom Buchanans of the world seem to respect the Gatsbys instead of finding reasons to mistrust them.
Anyways, I think there are maybe some subtle changes that have happened since back in Fitzgerald's day. Incidentally, the quote we are having at our wedding as part of the "theme" (besides 1940's glam Hollywood) is one by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
"I love her, and it is the beginning of everything."
I often wonder is Gatsby would have been happy if he had married Daisy, or if his dream was the thought of what he wanted Daisy to represent for him. Would he have found himself in even more of a tragic situation had he obtained her love in the way he wanted it, only to realize the vision is always greater than the reality. At least, in this ending, he died with the dream. What do you think?
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