Sunday, May 17, 2009

18. Gatsby's Actions

Are Gatsby's actions believably motivated? Explain why or why not.
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. UnknownAugust 5, 2009 at 5:04 PM

    Are Gatsby’s actions believably motivated? They are probably not. Gatsby is sort of similar to Romeo from Romeo and Juliet. They are both madly in love and go over the line with what they do to be with their beloved. Romeo commits suicide to be with Juliet. Gatsby doesn’t do something as drastic as that, but he does spend more money on achieving his goal. Gatsby first spends an exorbitant amount of money on a house that is located in front of Daisy’s on the West Egg. He then spends hundreds of dollars each week to throw extravagant parties with the hope that eventually one day Daisy would just walk into the party and they would meet once again. Gatsby’s decisions are too foolish to be believable. No one would have gone through all this just to meet a girl he once knew five years before. The method he uses and to what extremes he goes to accomplish it are too farfetched to be credible. There are probably hundreds of other ways in which he could have accomplished his goal in a faster time and a cheaper fashion. His actions are simply too unlikely to be believably motivated.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael W. WomackAugust 7, 2009 at 5:25 AM

    Although Xavier raises an excellent point when informing us of Gatsby’s excessive spending in his hopes to win Daisy’s heart, he has wrote something that is near unbelievable in itself. He said that because Gatsby went to such lengths for love that this is a case where his character is truly unbelievable. I have to agree to disagree. Gatsby is unbelievable in the sense that he is like every other guy attempting to win the heart of a girl. His actions are motivated because they work to accomplish a goal. Just like us kids in school, most of us strive to go to college and will do everything we possibly can to get there, Gatsby is only fulfilling his task. Gatsby is incredibly believable because every man in his heart would do anything for the one he loves.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 11, 2009 at 7:55 PM

    I believe that Gatsby's actions are definetely motivated by Daisy. Both Gatsby and Daisy were in love with each other, and they promised each other that they would meet again in the future after the war. However, Daisy did not wait for Gatsby long enough while Gatsby waited years. If he had not been motivated, he would have been fallen into the temptations of the women around his wealth. He actually chose Daisy over all the women he could have gotten, which shows me motivation. He also had the money to throw his parties every week in the hope of getting Daisy to come to his party just once. I am sure that Gatsby was planning to do something like this if he had the money ever since he was waiting. However, I see his actions more of an obsession rather than motivation. He cannot get over what he remembers as 'first love.' If he really loved her, he would have gone to her, no matter the status and ask her if she loved him.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)