With autobiographical overtones to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby comes from another part of the country to Camp Taylor near St. Louis, Missouri. While stationed there he met Daisy when he joined other officers who went to her luxurious house.
Amazed by her house and wealth, Jay Gatsby took Daisy under false pretenses because he led her to believe that he, too, came from a wealthy family. Nevertheless, "he felt married to her, that was all." He sacrificed his visionary dream to material acquisition as he was so impressed by Daisy's wealth. In Chapter Eight, Gatsby tells Nick,
"Well, there I was, way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, and all of a sudden I didn't care. What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?"
It was then that Daisy became Gatsby's "grail." Thenceforth, all that he did was designed for the attainment of this grail. Having led her to believe that he was wealthy, Gatsby set out to become rich. Five years later, his dream reduced to material gain, Gatsby returns to recapture Daisy. but, while he has been gone, she has found a substitute for Gatsby in Tom Buchanan, who has proposed with a $350,000 pearl necklace. Now, he must re-win Daisy.
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