In the Sound and the Fury and the Great Gatsby, William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald interweave the themes of community, family, past, and present, all of which shape the interactions of the men and women. Although the main roles in both of these novels are occupied by men, both Faulkner and Fitzgerald seem particularly interested in the provocations and drives of females. Fitzgerald presents Daisy, wife to Tom Buchanan, a showoff from an aristocratic family who gives Daisy a wealthy lifestyle and who helps her maintain her image of properness. Caddy, Faulkner’s creation, on the other hand, is a young woman who recognizes the hypocrisy and phoniness of the society around her and chooses to reject it. Neither Daisy nor Caddy tell their own story; rather the reader perceives them through the eyes of others, notably the men.

The two women, despite living in seemingly very different environments, share similarities and differences in their views on promiscuity, reputation and marital relationships. These women do drive the stories, but their attempt to exercise free will leads to their personal destruction. The presence of Caddy and Daisy are central, but they are trapped by their destructive connections to the men and the patriarchal society around them.

Daisy, the romanticized fantasy woman for Gatsby and the conveniently beautiful and socially skilled wife of Tom Buchanan, personifies how Daisy’s sexuality stimulates desires in men and often leads to destruction. Daisy Fay captivated Gatsby when he was a soldier ready to leave for war. They met in Louisville where Daisy was debutante who was enchanted by a man in uniform. At the time, she was unaware that Gatsby was the son of poor farmers and that “his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people – his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all”(64). Although they had come from from such vastly different backgrounds Daisy and Gatsby sleep together before he leave for war.

On the last afternoon before he went abroad, he sat with Daisy in his arms for a long, silent time. It was a cold fall day, with fire in the room and her cheeks flushed. Now and then she moved and he changed his arm a little, and once he kissed her dark shining hair. The afternoon had made them tranquil for a while, as if to give them a deep memory for the long parting the next day promised. They had never been closer in their month of love, nor communicated more profoundly one with another, than when she brushed silent lips against his coat’s shoulder or when he touched the end of her fingers, gently, as though she were asleep.(150)

That act to Gatsby, was the thing that seal the deal between the two. It is also an example of Daisy’s willingness to accept Gatsby’s physical attentions without understanding very much about who he was or what his expectations would lead to. This is also an example of Daisy showing that she is willing to be the object of desire, and is not as innocent as she appears. Although she promised Gatsby she would return to him, upon his return, he discovered Daisy had already married Tom Buchanan, a man from an affluent family. Daisy’s social status dictated this choice and it is understandable that she would not push back against her family's expectations. This loss was the most significant in Gatsby life and continued to feed his obsession for Daisy.

From the very beginning he believed she was everything he had ever wanted. Though Daisy does does marry Tom after Gatsby leaves, there is evidence that she did have real feelings for him at one point, but it was her family which ultimately destroyed her fairy tale. Jordan reveals to Nick that “wild rumors were circulating about her – how her mother had found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say goodbye to a soldier who was going overseas. She was effectually prevented, but she wasn’t on speaking terms with her family for several weeks. After that she didn’t play around with the soldiers anymore…” (75). Although she eventually succumbs to the expectation of what a woman is supposed to do and love, it is still an internal battle for her. “She groped around in a wastebasket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. “Take ’em down-stairs and give ’em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ’em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say: ‘Daisy’s change’ her mine!’”( 76). In this passage Daisy has to suppress her true emotions, and reject her impulse for independence, in order to do what is expected of her. Daisy can only demonstrate her rebellion by throwing away a string of pearls.

Unlike Daisy, Caddy is a life force, who refuses to curb her high spirits and spontaneity. Caddy refuses to suppress her sexuality even though in Faulkner’s Southern white world, women of Caddy’s station in life are not expected to have personal desires and passions. The reader struggles to understand her because she can only be viewed through the eyes of the male characters, and is allowed not even one small section of her own in the novel. This does not mean Caddy is unimportant to the novel. In fact Caddy is the central point in the Benjy and Quentin section, and in the Jason section her daughter is the main focus which inadvertently is her basically.

Caddy Compson is not the typical Southern belle. She is full of desire and hopeful freedom. From the beginning, it is evident that Caddy is not not one to follow the rules. Even as a child, she had a sense of curiosity and daring, which is shown as she recklessly climbs a tree on their property. Caddy’s desire to climb the tree and actually doing so, is an example of how she refuses to accept the societal norms in this place and time. To her brothers, her devilish behavior is an example of her wickedness. Her brothers yell, “you, Satan”(29) to try to get her to come down. Versh warns Caddy that her Mother will get angry if her dress is wet, “Your mommer going to whip you for getting your dress wet.” (2) However, Caddy is headstrong and does not listen to what Versh or her mother think or say. She declares her mother is not “ going to do any such thing." This scene takes place when Caddy is still very young, but it foreshadows the adolescent and womanly attitude that she will gradually develop. She refuses to be manipulated or corralled by anyone including her mother or the patriarchal structure that tries to close in on her.

Caddy is the main focus of all three sections of the book, and she is the only person in the book that really displays any true morals or compassion. The family focuses on what they view as her indecent behavior, but the way that she treats Benji, for example, stooping to his level to talk to him, reflects her human decency and actually sets her apart from the others. “ With Benji, Caddy is constantly gentel, loving, and teaching.”( Language and Act: Caddy Compson, pg. 50)

Similarly, telling her mother that Benji’s name does matter proves that she is, in fact, a good person. For Benji, she is really the most important person in his life, most likely the only one that cares for him other than Disley. She is constantly trying to make her brother happy, while her brother Quenten does not exactly hurt Benji, he really does not do anything specifically nice either. As for Jason he really does nothing good for Benji at all, in fact Jason teases him.

Although its is evident that Caddy has all these admirable qualities, all of that goodness is masked by her overwhemiling association with sextuality and that she does not follow the social norms of the South. In the novel, Faulkner tries to suggest that the social code of the South at fault for Caddy’s behavior. The question though of responsibility does arise when thinking about Caddy because though the eyes of her brothers she can be seen as irresponsible when it comes to herself and her body, since she sleeps around . On the other hand, when she finds out that she is pregnant, she makes the decision to marry Herbert, even though she knows that he is not the father. She doesn't care about ensuring pure blood lines. However when it comes to her child, she doesn't want her daughter to be stigmatised. This is an instance in which Caddy does not put her personal wishes ahead of the wellbeing of someone that she loves. Caddy’s promiscuity is a response to the hypocrisy of the Compson family pride and her assertion for independence. Nevertheless, she was willing to sacrifice her own values for the sake of her daughter, once again demonstrating that her capacity for love is greater than any of the other Compson’s.

Both Daisy and Caddy are a product of their time. Both women are alluring to men, and discover that their sexuality is their only currency. Therefore, they use it in order to maintain their sense of self. In the end, Daisy succumbs to her desire to maintain her status and privilege at all costs. Caddy, on the other hand, rejects what is expected of her and runs away even though it means abandoning her daughter and giving up any semblance of decorum. In the last analysis, the patriarchy wins in both worlds.

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A symbol is a sound, object, or image that is often used by authors to represent beliefs or ideas that they want the readers to understand. In The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbols to portray the kind of person Gatsby is and what would eventually lead to his end. Jay Gatsby is a rich man who obsesses over materialistic things in life and is trying to win young Daisy's heart. The symbols Fitzgerald uses in his novel are the green light and Gatsby's flashy, luxurious car to show what really mattered to Gatsby and how it affected him.

Fitzgerald uses Nick, Gatsby's friend, to describe Gatsby indirectly by commenting on his car. Gatsby shows up at Nick's house with his car, telling him they are going to grab some lunch together. Nick looks at Gatsby's car with admiration and describes it saying it is a ''rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes...'' (Fitzgerald 64).

Based on Nick's description of Gatsby's car, it is clear that Gatsby's Rolls Royce is meant to be a very showy and very over the top. Nick describes Gatsby's car as this monstrous thing that is very flashy. He says it in a negative connotation with his word choices. He uses the words swollen, almost as if to describe Gatsby for being as someone who is puffed up and materialistic. That same day, Nick goes on to say that the car is, terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns (Fitzgerald 68). The fact that Gatsby's car windshields were mirrored and reflective in the sun, represents Gatsby's own hidden secret identity. During the 1920's, the car you owned, represented where you stand on the social status. Cars were still new and just introduced to the world. If you had a nice car, it showed that you were living the American Dream. Gatsby hid behind his large windshield, fools gold covered, monstrous car. Gatsby's car was widely known in town because of its appearance. The car symbolizes Gatsby's need for materialistic satisfactions and him appearing to be having the American Dream life.

The second symbol is the green light that Gatsby sees in chapter 1. The green light represents Gatsby's hopes and dreams for the future. In chapter 1, Gatsby's neighbor, Nick, watches Gatsby one evening as he goes outside and watches the green light from his mansion. Nick says, ...he (Gatsby) stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness (Fitzgerald 20). Nick sees Gatsby reach out towards a light. At first Nick isn't sure what Gatsby is looking at, but then he sees one tiny faraway light. Nick doesn't know why Gatsby is stretching his arms toward the light and is quite curious.
Gatsby sees the green light all the time since his mansion faces it. The green light for him symbolizes a hope that he and Daisy will reunite and will fall in love once again one day. Later on in chapter five, Gatsby and Daisy go and look towards the green light together. If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay,' said Gatsby. 'You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.' Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever.

Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one (Fitzgerald 94). Gatsby and Daisy watch towards the green light together. Gatsby is so in the moment and is soaking everything in. Gatsby and Daisy are finally together but it seems like the green light which symbolizes his dreams, vanishes. The question is, since the green light vanishes, does that mean that when you get your dream and finally achieve it, it somehow loses its meaning and value and disappears? Sometimes, people focus so much on what they want in life, their hopes and dreams lose their value because they don't appreciate what they have in their life at that moment.

In conclusion, Fitzgerald uses other people around Gatsby, such as his friend Nick, to really give the readers an inside peek of Gatsby's American Dream. He also uses Gatsby's symbolic green light to symbolize a dream that in the end wasn't enough for Gatsby himself. People will go through any measures to attain that wealth and status. They will give up their morals and beliefs to try to gain something that in the end won't make the happy. True happiness isn't in wealth or status. True happiness is being content with what you have and being true to yourself.

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Adam Meehan psychoanalyzed The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Meehan's article is, Repetition, race, and desire, in the Great Gatsby. In this psychoanalysis, Meehan covers desire and repetition thoroughly and does not necessarily go over race. In the novel race is not a large factor but Meehan did not necessarily cover all aspects of Gatsby's desire.

Meehan states that Gatsby chases Daisy because she is like the mother he never had and uses her to fill that void. The second is Meehan lacks to state that one of Gatsby's greatest desires was money. Meehan insists that Daisy is a mere placeholder, an object of Gatsby's true desire. He states that she represents something beyond desireas the symbol of that which the symbol wants but cannot have (Meehan Repetition, Race, and Desire in The Great Gatsby).

Gatsby doesn't want to praise himself for what he is, the son of a poor farmer, but a man he wishes he was, part of the old money. One of Gatsby's desire is to relive his past, which Nick's suggestion that one cannot repeat the past. Meehan states that Gatsby laughs at that idea and states, of course, you can. This is showing that Gatsby is hoping to not only recreate the past but also wants to reconstruct it. Meehan's second half of his psychoanalysis states that Gatsby does not just desire Daisy because of her looks. He desires the way she talks, smells, her whiteness, the feel she gives, the smell of her skin, her position and etcetera. Gatsby must climb along to achieve his desires because he pursues a source of nourishment which cannot be attained. Lastly, Meehan states that Gatsby desires Daisy because she is a reflection of his mother.

Gatsby never received enough love growing up from his parents and so he hopes that Daisy will fill that endless void. Gatsby was seeking love but not when it came to his parents. His greatest desires comprised of Daisy's love, to become rich, and to change his persona. His whole persona began because of them, seeing them as shiftless and unsuccessful farm people made him disappointed in who he really was ( Fitzgerald 104). If Gatsby wanted to be loved by his parents he could have received it but he wanted nothing to do with them. Gatsby's imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all (Fitzgerald 104). Throughout the novel when Gatsby even considers mentioning his parents it was never true, he was too ashamed of them. He rose from his own platonic conception of himself, and even if it meant believing his parents did not exist.

Gatsby's conception of himself is what lead him to his greatest desire, money, which Meehan forgot to mention. He hated the poor lifestyle and saw other people living the glamorous life, and so he went out to pursue his dream. Daisy is an important factor in Gatsby's life but there is little evidence love was Gatsby's primary motivation. She was just part of his plan to reach his self-image. The first goal was was to become rich, and Gatsby was going to do whatever it took. Gatsby stated that Meyer Wolfsheim was the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919 (Fitzgerald 78).

This shows he was willing to do shady work with shady people to get what he wanted. His second goal was to erase his history, at his parties, no one knew him personally but by the rumors that were spread. Some stating that he was a German spy during the war, and was related Kaiser Wilhelm (Fitzgerald 48). Finally, he needed to marry Daisy and she was considered to be part of the old money, people born into wealth. No matter how rich Gatsby was, he would never hold the same value of someone that was born into wealth. Marrying Daisy would help him get closer to achieving that goal and being part of the old money.

Gatsby greatest desire has always been about money, because he hated the poor lifestyle ever since he was a child. Daisy was simply a placeholder for Gatsby, this was a sign that the love would never work. Gatsby grew up with the mentality that if you work hard enough, anything is achievable. This is true but not for everything in life, some things just cannot be achieved. Just like Daisy's love, trying to hide his true identity, and trying to belong to a group when he was not born into it. Gatsby pushed away his own people and was trying to fit in where he did not belong, which lead him to his greatest downfall.

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The human brain is capable of doing many things, even the unimaginable. Ones actions may seem irrational to others, but that persons motives is the drive that initiates the action. The psychological critical theory is a perspective in biology that looks into someones mind and thoughts to better understand the forces that drive their motivation. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes the characters Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Nick Carraway to portray why their motivations occur.

Jay Gatsby is motivated by his desire to relive the past. Every decision he makes is to impress the girl of his dream and the girl he first fell in love with. Gatsby is a young man in his thirties who grew up living impoverished. He met and fell in love with the women of his dream as a military officer. Her name was Daisy. He was drawn toward her luxurious lifestyle and he wanted to live a life of extravagance with Daisy forever. However, Gatsby was not wealthy enough to be with the girl of his dreams, so he had to convince Daisy of his worth. Jay left to fight in the war, and Daisy was waiting for him to get back. He knew that he could not satisfy Daisy with the money he had, and needed to gain an education and get rich so that he could impress Daisy. While waiting for Jay, Daisy got impatient and married Tom, a man who has inherited all of his wealth and impressed Daisy.

Gatsby is inspired to do whatever it takes to win the love of his life back. Gatsby’s devotion to secure Daisy’s love again cannot be accomplished without him becoming rich, so he works to get the money needed to win back Daisy. Gatsby achieved this goal through crime such as distributing alcohol illegally. When Tom says that he, “found out” about Gatsby’s, “‘drug-stores’” Gatsby admitted to his mischief and responded “What about it?” (Fitzgerald 110). This portrays the idea that Gatsby was willing to do whatever it takes to get the love of his life back.
Gatsby’s five year success in fortune would be thrown to waste if he couldn’t grab the attention of Daisy. Jay “bought” a colossal mansion in West Egg “so that Daisy would be across the bay” (Fitzgerald 72). He also threw extravagant parties every weekend where uninvited guests were allowed to show up hoping that one day Daisy would show up in his mansion, to knowing that it is his and they could relive their past.

Gatsby and Tom’s feud over the dream girl Daisy disrupts the dream that Jay desires and causes him to lose sight of his dream. Gatsby ends up pressuring Daisy into falling back in love with him, but Daisy is content with Tom and will only play games with gatsby to get what she wants. His unwillingness to let go of the past ultimately gets him killed because he fails to understand that Daisy will not leave Tom because of the comfort that Tom has provided during the five years that Jay and Daisy have been apart.

Fitzgerald demonstrates the traumatic losses of a self-made man through Gatsby. He uses Gatsby’s trauma and psychological loss after losing Daisy as the reason to his motives which is the reason why he fails to leave the illusive world of living in the past. After leaving Daisy to go fight in war, Jay was psychologically damaged as he lost the only thing that mattered to him. It is that “Gatsby encountered his first trauma when he could not keep Daisy in his life” (Bui 43). This caused him to escape from reality and enter a world or a mindset where he was still with Daisy, but this was all an illusion to reality. Five years went on and Gatsby continued to fall in a deeper hole of a fantasy life, thus making it harder to move on and consequently be the cause of his death.
Nick Carraway is motivated by money and success. Nick originally lived in the Midwest and had a guaranteed job in the family business.

However, Nick moves to New York hoping to start a new life filled with money and extravagance. He buys a cottage in West egg and gets a job in bonds. Once in New York, Nick notices that he enjoys the city and the people’s lifestyle around him. He gets a taste of the luxury that Gatsby has and is eager to start his new life. Nick notes that “There was so much to read, for one thing, and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath-giving air. I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities” (Fitzgerald 23). Nick wants to be like gatsby and learn the ways of his lifestyle, so he joins Gatsby at Gatsby’s weekend parties and is invited to spend time with Jay for lunch many times. However, after being exposed to many of Gatsby’s jobs with Wolfshiem and his drug store business, Nick hesitates on going through with his dream. He also helped cause a battle over a girl between Gatsby and Tom.

When Gatsby dies, Nick is aware that no one really cared about Gatsby and no one attended his funeral. This makes Nick question his whole dream and later realize that his original motivation was an illusion to reality and was quite damaging to the mind of oneself. Nick is able to go back on his dream because he is a calm, level headed man who sets goals for himself and knows when to give up on his dream. After getting tied up in the Gatsby versus Tom drama over Daisy, Nick struggles to escape from it all. While trying to fight and work for his own fortune, Nick finds himself looking after others rather than himself. He gets caught up in the extravagant lifestyle of Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom and puts his future success behind him at times. He is trustworthy, but almost too trustworthy as he keeps a lot of personal secrets to himself, such as Tom and Myrtle’s affair, Gatsby and Daisy’s attempt at love again, and also Gatsby’s ways of making money. This allows Nick to stand out and stay as an outsider to the world around him.

Nick is able to avoid destruction in his motives and mindset because he “does not recognize the world of trauma and loss that Gatsby has encountered in losing his ideal love” (Bui 43). Nick also had the opportunity to reflect and evaluate Jays experiences after being “traumatized by the life of Gatsby” (Bui 43). This allowed him to learn from Jays past and prevent him from falling into a psychological mess.

Tom’s goal is to maintain his power through his riches by being a racist, a sexist and also abusive. Tom is a large man with a cruel body and voice. His power and strength comes from being a college athlete. Tom’s appearance resembles his actions. His strength and hardship gives him the ability to be both aggressive and threatening. There are many instances where Tom feels as if he is losing his authority over someone so he reacts in away that will keep him in power. For examples, when Myrtle repeats the name “Daisy”, Tom feels as if he is loosing his control over her and by “Making a short deft movement,” he “broke her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 44).

Tom gets himself into trouble with Daisy and almost loses her to Gatsby because of his need to have power. He treats Daisy as an object sometimes and leaves her for Myrtle but, he “always” goes “back” (Fitzgerald 108). Tom is fortunate that he kept Daisy comfortable for the five years that they were together before Jay comes back for her. Otherwise he would have lost his power and authority in the relationship and Daisy would feel comfortable in leaving him.

Tom avoids traumatic losses by keeping the love of his life Daisy with him and not with Gatsby. Tom could have easily spiraled down into a dark place if he lost both Myrtle and Daisy. After losing Myrtle, moving away from New York was the best thing for him as he was able to move on without negative effects to his traumatic loss. Tom will stay in power and have authority over people if he has both money and Daisy, and through the novel, he manages to keep both even after a rough patch with Daisy.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald utilizes Gatsby’s motive to repeat the past, Tom’s need of having authority and power, and Nicks will to do whatever it takes to be successful to illustrate how people use their motivations to work for and eventually meet the expectations of their own American Dream. Many people have a drive or a motive in their brain that makes them react the way that they do. The psychological critical theory also helps explain the intentions of others.

Works Cited

1. Bui, Thi Huong Giang. “Jay Gatsby’s Trauma and Psychological Loss.” Department of English Literature, Fukuoka Women’s University, Japan, 17 January 2013, pp. 42-46.
2. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, Scribner, 1925.

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