Have you ever heard the tale of a hobbit named Sméagol? It all started with the creation of a ring. Long story short, the ring got in the hands of some bad people and it was lost for many years. One day, 2,000 years after it was lost, the ring was found in a river by a hobbit named Deagol. Sméagol obsessed with the idea of the ring killed Deagol, his own friend, for it. Later, Sméagol went mad because of his obsession with the ring. The poor hobbit became a monster. He didn’t realize what the ring was doing to him because his obsession masked the ring’s true identity. Having an extreme obsession with something or someone, can make you oblivious to what is truly happening and lead you down a destructive path. The characters in the Great Gatsby really depict and go through this as well.
The character Jay Gatsby is a great example of what obsession can do to you. The story opens up with a man named Nick, telling a story of his past. Nick is the neighbor of a mysterious man known as ‘Gatsby’, whom everyone thought they knew, but no one really did. On page 21 Nick meets his neighbor for the first time. “–He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, as far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward- and distinguishing nothing except a single green light.” In this passage, Nick catches Gatsby staring over his dock at something, or maybe at someone. As the story progresses, you find out that there is a green light at Nick’s cousin house. Nick’s cousin happens to be Daisy Buchanan. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” On page 180 we confirm that Gatsby was obsessed with his lover from the past. The green light in the story symbolized Daisy. On page 110 Jay struggled with the difference with the new Daisy and the one that he loved from his younger years. “I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.” “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can.”
When you take a look at Daisy Buchanen, she portrays two different types of characters. In the years with Gatsby she appeared to be a young foolish girl full of innocence, life, and love. This is the Daisy that Mr. Gatsby became obsessed with. The new Daisy is older now with a family, but yet still foolish. She seems lovely by the way Nick describes her on page 9. “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget.” For a while, we begin to believe that Daisy truly loves Gatsby back. “‘Gatsby? What Gatsby?’” Daisy seems to recall all of the wonderful memories from her younger years by how surprised she is to hear of...
