The Cost of A Dream
Compassion
What is compassion?
Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
People lose their sense of COMPASSION in order to fulfill their own desires
Daisy who once loved Jay Gatsby, sacrificed compassion when she immediately fled the East Egg with Tom in order to continue her luxurious lifestyle despite Gatsby's death. She "retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness" that kept her and Tom together, disregarding her once love's fatality (Fitzgerald 180). Daisy is unmoved that Gatsby wrongfully died, never even "[sending] a message or a flower" (Fitzgerald 176). She just closes that chapter of her life and nonchalantly moves on. A similar situation took place in the film Inside Job, where top executives of corrupt companies walked out of a bankruptcy with their fortunes still intact, some even receiving millions in bailout by the government. "When AIG was bailed out, the most prominent of which was Goldman Sachs, were paid 61 billion dollars the next day" which costed "taxpayers over 150 billion dollars" (Inside Job, 2010). This happened at the expense of taxpayers and America's financial crisis. These people only cared about their individual well being and left as if nothing was wrong. It was okay, as long as they were okay; this was the mindset that guided their dreams.
The Great Gatsby 2013 Scene - Gatsby Death
A cost of a dream is COMPASSION because they start to think for only themselves.
Myrtle, who was married to George Wilson, completely disregards her hardworking, poor husband in order to pursue her own favorable lifestyle. Her selfish ways led to her affair with Tom Buchanan, a married man. When asked by Nick if she had liked Wilson, her answer was "violent and obscene" (Fitzgerald 34). She called her marriage a "mistake" because he was not even fit to "lick [her] shoe" (Fitzgerald 35). She is not aware how much Wilson actually cared for her, despite knowing her affair. Myrtle's death blinded him with sorrow that he even murdered Gatsby in the form of revenge when he thought that he had killed her. Through her life, while her husband was hard at work, she lived a life of lies and sins. This parallels to the novel "Lord of the Flies", where a young boy named Jack strives to be the leader of the hunters and because of that goal becomes wild and barbaric with "madness [in] his eyes" (Golding 37). He takes control of the boys who think that Jack is helping them survive when in reality he had brainwashed them into doing whatever he wanted. Even getting them to use "[Piggy's] specs [to] use them as burning glasses", their own friend (Golding 160). Jack did not care for the boy's survival, he just wanted to be the chief among them.
The Great Gatsby - Flux Pavilion I Can't Stop scene - Tom & Myrtle
To pursue a dream one must give up COMPASSION by tricking innocent people
Gordon Gekko in "Greed is Good" mentions that "greed works" in corporate America where he believes "either you do it right or you get eliminated" (Gekko 1). Going without sympathy towards the stockholders who have lost their money, he claims that "greed is right" because it obviously worked for Mr. Cromwell who tricked people into buying stocks in the company, while due to the fact he owned less than 1% of the stocks deposited in Teldar Paper, a failure would not harm him as much as it would the others (Gekko 1). The obvious carelessness towards others who suffered only strengthened Mr. Cromwell's self perseverance. This has to be a form of scamming right? Just like Invisible Children, an organization that pulled the heart strings of many around the world to stop Joseph Kony from kidnapping children and forcing them to join the LRA. This collective swooned their fellow "activists" into donating money to "fight for the cause" (Admin 1). "Only 32% of money raised went to direct services" and their "accountability and transparency is a 2 out of 4 starts on charity navigator" which proves their lack of genuine compassion for the cause, but their greedy goal to become a renown organization (Admin 1). Surprisingly, Invisible Children still exists and continues to swindle people today.
Compassion is lost
For a dream one must throw away sympathy. Become selfish. Live in a world with a single perspective.
Work Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
"Greed Is Good." Greed Is Good. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2014.
Inside Job. Dir. Charles Ferguson. Perf. Matt Damon. Sony Productions, 2010.
The Great Gatsby. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio. Red Wagon Entertainment, 2013. YouTube. Web.