Willie Bodega, from Ernesto Quinonez's Bodega Dreams, and Jay Gatsby, from F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby both experienced a strong love for a woman, and yet could not get that love returned to them. Gatsby tried to win over Daisy's heart similarly to Bodega, who had tried to do the same with Vera. Each of these successful businessmen built up their empires just to be with the woman of their dreams, and yet they both would have to later give it all up in pursuit of that very same objective. Money couldn't get Vera to love Bodega as it couldn't get Daisy to love Gatsby. Even the men's own love for the women couldn't win over their former partners" hearts. This endless game of cat and mouse eventually would lead to the death of the two gentlemen. It left the two women as unscathed as when they first popped their heads out of the hole in the wall, only hoping to get a nibble of the cheese that the cats had brought them. .
The driving reason behind Bodega's renovation of Spanish Harlem was to show Vera, the love of his life, that he had dreams and aspirations; that he had some way to escape poverty. Bodega once said to Chino, "she [Vera] didn't care if I didn't have any money. The problem was, she said, I didn't have any vision of how to get it." (Pg.79) Like Bodega, Gatsby also lost his potential soul mate. While he was serving in the War, Daisy "vanished into her rich house, into her rich full life [with Tom], leaving Gatsby." (Pg.157) After he returned, Gatsby saw that the only way to get Daisy back was to acquire a great deal of wealth of his own. He believed that this was the only way that he could have had a fighting chance when competing with Tom. Both Gatsby and Bodega shared the common notion that the loves of their lives left them strictly for money. After coming to these conclusions, the two love struck men thought that if they were to then build up fortunes of their own, combined with the "love" shared between them and their former partners it would be more than enough to succeed in getting the women back.
