Maisa ShiraziMrs. GehbauerEnglish - pink20 April 2014Illusion vs RealityWhat distinguishes a dream from reality? Many combine the two, often creating confusing and disappointing results. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the impact reality has on an individual by examining the life of Jay Gatsby. This piece of 20th century literature holistically portrays the Jazz Age and accurately captures life in the 1920s. This decade was a time when many people worked to achieve the American dream. The extravagant and lavish lifestyle lived by many people represented their romantic desire for wealth. This constant greed and artificial attitude have consequently produced fantastic misconceptions of reality. Jay Gatsby's life parallels that of those who lived in the 1920s because, similar to Gatsby, they also did not have surprising beginnings and created deceptions that were the only way to achieve the American dream. The importance of understanding the difference between what is fantasy and what is reality is crucial, as Gatsby is the epitome of the result of dreams dictating a person's actions. Fitzgerald suggests that fantasy never corresponds to reality and successfully demonstrates this by comparing the fantasy that Gatsby creates with reality. Daisy Buchanan, in reality, is unable to live as the illusory Daisy that Gatsby invented in his fantasy. After Daisy and Tom Buchanan leave another of Gatsby's splendid parties, Fitzgerald gives the reader an idea of ​​what Gatsby's expectations are. Fitzgerald states that he “wanted nothing less from Daisy than for her to go to Tom and say, 'I never loved you'” (109). Here it is revealed that Gatsby's main wish is for Daisy to leave voluntarily... in the center of the paper... this shows Daisy's intention all along as she would never leave the life she knew for Gatsby. Daisy would never choose Gatsby over Tom, even though this was what Gatsby expected. In reality, the results were harmful to Gatsby unlike the jovial results in Gatsby's imagination. Fitzgerald suggests that fantasy never corresponds to reality by looking at the consequences of Gatsby's confusion between dreams and reality. Gatsby creates a highly illusory Daisy, so these expectations of Daisy cannot be met. This can also be seen by noting as Gatsby nears the end of this journey to acquire Daisy, the journey becomes pointless and the results in his fantasy differ from those in reality. Countless people today make the same mistake of confusing dreams and reality, and looking at Jay Gatsby as an example, this mistake could harm them in the future..