Jay's Dangerous Illusions in The Great Gatsby America is a land of opportunities, hopes and dreams can come true. The “American Dream” is the idea that struggling poor people can achieve financial success through hard work. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, tests this premise while also warning against the dangers of believing too passionately in any dream. The central character, Jay Gatsby, “turns out to be a tragic hero who succeeds financially but fails emotionally when he tries to hold on to something from the past” (Mizener 126). Gatsby not only has imaginative dreams, but also idealistic illusions. These illusions ultimately lead to Jay Gatsby's unfortunate downfall. In Fitzgerald's novel, Jay Gatsby's past, the time in which he is emotionally connected, is crucial to the understanding of his untimely death. In 1917, shortly before his entry into the First World War, the young Gatsby falls in love with the beautiful and rich Daisy Fay. They have the kind of love spoken of in fairy tales: "...He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever united her unspeakable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never again run as wild as the mind of God. ..At the touch of his lips she blossomed to him like a flower and the incarnation was complete" (Fitzgerald 117). Jordan Baker, Daisy's good friend, also describes their former love as unique when she says, "[Gatsby] looked at Daisy as she spoke, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime" (Fitzgerald 80). Circumstances caused Jay and Daisy to separate, and when he returned from the war, he was faced with the news that she had married another man. However, Gatsby's flaw is keeping... the middle of the paper... Fielder, Leslie. "Some Notes on F. Scott Fitzgerald." Mizener 70-76. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.F. Scott Fitzgerald Centennial Home Page. "The Great Gatsby Theme". University of South Carolina Board of Trustees, 1997."http://www.uni-ulm.de/schulen/gym/sgu/gatsb/klaus2.htm".Mizener, Arthur, ed. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Possnock, Ross. “‘A new world, material without being real’: Fitzgerald's critique of capitalism in The Great Gatsby.” Critical essays on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1984. 201-213. Rowe, Joyce A. “Delusions of American Idealism.” In readings on the great Gatsby. edited by Katie de Koster. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. 1998. 87-95.