Question

1. daisy and gatsby have been reunited after five years apart. but the reunion is not as perfect as gatsby might have imagined. something isn’t right. what does gatsby need from daisy in order for them to be together? in a well developed paragraph, analyze how gatsby’s expectations compare to his reality. what do you think gatsby needs in order to realize his ambitions? should he abandon them altogether? support your analysis with evidence from the text.

Explanation:

To address this, we analyze Gatsby's expectations vs. reality with Daisy. Gatsby expects Daisy to fully renounce her past with Tom and love him as intensely as he idealizes her. In reality, Daisy is conflicted; she cries over Gatsby’s shirts (showing emotion) but also clings to her marriage, as seen when she can’t admit she never loved Tom. Gatsby needs Daisy to publicly choose him and reject Tom’s world, but Daisy’s hesitation (e.g., her comment about the “reality” of their reunion feeling different) shows she can’t fully meet his ideal. To realize his ambitions, Gatsby needs to accept that Daisy is not the flawless vision he’s constructed—she’s a product of her social class and past. However, abandoning his ambitions entirely would mean giving up his dream of recreating the past, which is core to his identity. Yet, his inability to see Daisy’s limitations leads to his downfall, suggesting he should confront reality, though his romantic idealism makes that unlikely. Evidence like Gatsby’s “colossal vitality of his illusion” (Nick’s observation) and Daisy’s tearful yet conflicted responses support this.

Answer:

Gatsby needs Daisy to fully commit to him by renouncing her marriage to Tom and embracing his idealized vision of their past. His expectations—of a perfect reunion where Daisy is solely devoted and their love recreates the past—clash with reality: Daisy is conflicted (crying over shirts but clinging to her marriage, unable to fully reject Tom). To realize his ambitions, Gatsby needs to accept Daisy’s complexity (she is a product of her social class and past, not the flawless dream he’s built) and the impossibility of recreating the past. However, abandoning his ambitions would mean losing his identity, as his dream is central to him. Yet, his refusal to see reality (e.g., Nick’s note that Gatsby’s illusion has “colossal vitality”) leads to his downfall, suggesting he should confront truth, though his romantic idealism makes this hard. Evidence like Daisy’s hesitation to admit she never loved Tom and Gatsby’s desperate pursuit of a bygone moment supports this analysis.