Cody himself was a product of the Nevada silver fields, which transformed him into a millionaire many times over. In Gatz's eyes, Cody was the epitome of his dream and had also transcended early hardships to become a somebody in this world of supposed "endless opportunity. It was because of Dan Cody, that James Gatz took the liberty of reinventing himself into Jay Gatsby, a man who was truly capable of anything. As Nick states when regarding Gatsby's past, "The truth was that Gatsby sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.he was a son of God and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar, meretricious beauty." (Fitzgerald 104). Therefore, Nick is suggesting that Gatsby was striving to be a man he envisions in his fondest dreams, in a sense a perfect human being. Gatsby is thus the novel's representative of the American Dream, and the story of his youth borrows on one of the dream's oldest myths: that of the self-made man. According to Dream, Design, and Interpretation in The Great Gatsby, James Gatz's attempt to become Jay Gatsby, his attempt to live out his invented history, entails an attempt to realize his "unutterable" dream. (Minter 84). However in pursuit of this most noble of dreams Gatsby lost sight of reason and all of his energy has been channeled into the pursuit of power and pleasure, and a fundamentally empty form of success. This can be seen in Gatsby's involvement in bootlegging and gambling as well as his decadent parties where greed and the material aspects of life prevail. He cannot feel happy or fulfilled without his mansion, cars, and the final piece of the puzzle, Daisy Buchanan, to create a sense of security and certify his "aristocratic self." Gatsby is ultimately destroyed by the same dream that he had pursued blindly and faithfully to the end; his need for wealth and power by any means necessary!.
Gatsby's endless pursuance of Daisy's affection causes him to necessitize objects and wealth over nobler endeavors.