Looking for a reason to continue living with beautiful phantoms to fill the inner emptiness may explain Gatsby's obsession with Daisy. The green light on the other side of the bay is not even Daisy Mu Ren, but the only meaning of his life. It sounds sad, but the fact is that Gatsby himself is a sad figure. In love, he deserves sympathy. Because he gave all his love with his simplicity, but he couldn't melt Daisy's secular and indifferent heart. As for his life, it can only be summarized by the word "nothingness", but not by "greatness".
If we want to find the root of this five-year-long love, we have to talk about Fitzgerald's original Daisy. Against the background of Gatsby's gray childhood, Daisy shone into his humble life like golden sunshine. She is elegant and beautiful, like jumping notes, lively and provocative, and full of feelings.
From then on, he began to sketch and imagine a perfect daisy. I'm afraid it's because Gatsby never knew or admitted the real her. Daisy kept a close relationship with Gatsby with very clear "means", even when they met again. They met in the fog, so in Gatsby's eyes, Daisy's vague outline made him yearn for it, but it was an illusion that could never be touched, just an illusion.
Five years' separation didn't cool that feeling, but it was ridiculous. Gatsby reached the extreme of Daisy's imagination, and he loved her more and more every day, so that he couldn't help falling into a crazy situation. Recalling and imagining her has become a habit. In those days when he was engaged in smuggling and selling, she was the only light. More than once, the novel mentioned Gates' great ambition for the future. Then, he should dream and imagine his ideal life more than once. Daisy comes from that imaginary world. No one can make him feel closer to his ideal than her.
Daisy is the driving force of his life. This should be a good thing, at least not too empty. However, instead of pulling away in time, he made Daisy the only one to live on.
I remember the book mentioned that Gatsby looked at the opposite bay with empty and lonely eyes on the night of his reunion with Daisy. The green light that night has no special meaning for him. In order to win back Daisy, he became a rich man in a short time by illegal means, bought a mansion across the bay where Daisy lived, and squandered money at luxurious dinners ... He used these hours to fabricate a luxurious life for himself. When he was about to reach his ideal, he suddenly felt lost.
Gatsby is sad, not only because of the above. More because of his cowardice, after the reunion, he obviously discovered the change of Daisy, but he dared not admit disillusionment. There is a rare sentence in the book. Instead of indulging in praise, Gatsby evaluates Daisy's words in a deep and even disappointing tone: "All she says is money." However, although he realized it, he died because of her indifference.
Generally speaking, this novel reflects the loneliness behind the prosperity of Americans at that time with various occasions of indulging in money, whips indifference with Gatsby's tragic ending, and conveys an empty life with an imaginary love.