Unconditional Love In The Great Gatsby

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Unconditional love seems practically impossible in real life. When someone loves someone else unconditionally, it is typically only successful if they are family. However, in literature, unconditional love is a theme that connects ages of writing and some of the most heart wrenching stories, including The Awakening by Kate Chopin, “The Wife Of His Youth” by Charles Chesnutt, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The world of fiction makes it so much easier to love someone no matter what. Despite great hardships, being wronged, and social barriers, characters in literature have overcome the impossible to devote their hearts to the ones they love. Unconditional love is embodied by the character of Leonce Pontellier in the novel The …show more content…
Mr. Ryder and Liza Jane reunited after Liza Jane’s toils of unconditional love to find her husband. The two were separated during the time when slavery still existed. Despite being born free, Mr. Ryder had been sold by the people he worked for and was forced to leave Liza Jane alone at the plantation. They were then further separated by more time and space through Liza Jane being sold as well and the civil war passing through. When they reunite, Mr. Ryder - who Liza calls Sam because that was the name she knew him by - at first pretends not to know that they were once the married slave couple so many years ago. He listened to Liza Jane tell her story, in which she enforces the idea that Sam would not marry anyone else and would stay loyal to her. “Would n' make no diff'ence wid Sam. He would n' marry no yuther ‘ooman ‘tel he foun’ out ‘bout me. I knows it” (Chesnutt). Liza Jane responds to Mr. Ryder’s questions as if Sam may have moved on or not be interested in finding her. Liza has spent twenty-five years looking for her husband, not thinking of marrying anyone else or giving up. This dedication and unconditional love on her part brought her to Sam and shows him that the wife of his youth truly wished to find him again. Mr. Ryder only reciprocated this dedication through his eventual admittance of having married Liza when they were younger. He gives up the woman he was planning to