Choose any topic of interest that we have discussed in class (or not discussed, if you have a new one) in relation to The Great Gatsby and explore it further. Use textual evidence to support your ideas.
One thing that we discussed in class that I really liked was how Gatsby only loved the idea of Daisy. Gatsby loved the idea of the girl he'd had a fling with when they were young, not the actual Daisy. Some reasons that are proof of this are: the fact that he "loved" her even though he hadn't seen her for a decade, he was so nervous to re-meet her because he had been in love with an idea of her for so long and not an actual physical being, and because he was so convinced that she hadn't changed, that she still loved him as much as he loved her.
Gatsby claimed to be "in love" with Daisy, yet he hadn't seen her since before the war. I'm not sure he even loved her then; he probably also just loved the idea of her, a rich, beautiful girl who would hook up with all of the soldiers. They might have felt something deeper than just like towards each other, but they couldn't see what could become of it; he had to go to war, and just writing letters isn't enough to fully love someone. Yes, you can love the idea of them, but not their full body and mind.
When Gatsby convinced Nick to invite Daisy over for tea, and have Gatsby there, Gatsby was incredibly anxious. He cut Nick's grass for him, when Daisy was one minute late he freaked, and when she finally showed up, he walked out of the house and back in. I think it was because since he hadn't seen her for so long, he was nervous to be with just not the idea of her, but the real her. Like I said before, he had been in love with the idea of her for so long, he had forgotten what it was like to actually love someone's physical being.
Gatsby was convinced during his whole affair with Daisy that she was still in love with him, even when he was arguing with Tom, Daisy's husband about it. He was so in love with Daisy that he couldn't even possibly imagine that she wasn't still in love with him after all this time. But she wasn't, she was also just in love with the idea of him, someone who would actually love her, someone that did love her, at least, in her past. And that's why this relationship would never have worked out because even though the other person is a lovely idea, being in love with that idea is never enough to maintain a healthy, strong relationship.
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