The Connection of Wealth and Personality in Fitzgerald’s Works In our society, money is seen as the most important factor in decision making and in our overall lives. This is shown throughout all of Fitzgerald’s works and in many of his characters. His stories continually mention the effect that money has on the community. In one of her criticisms, Mary Jo Tate explains that “[Fitzgerald] was not a simple worshiper of wealth or the wealthy, but rather he valued wealth for the freedom and possibilities it provided, and he criticized the rich primarily for wasting those opportunities. He rightly identified that money - both its presence and its absence - does something to people” (1). These ideals reflect what can be seen in all of his literary …show more content…
Throughout the novel, Gatsby displays his riches through his mansion, expensive car, and many other things. Nick even describes how extravagant Gatsby’s house is, saying, “The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 5). As Nick describes, Gatsby’s house is very large and modern, which shows his affluence. Before he became rich and privileged, Gatsby was James Gatz, a poor Midwestern boy who dreamed of becoming wealthy. This dream led Gatsby to do crazy things in order to make money, but it worked out for him in the end. Nick describes Gatsby “a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father 's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 98). He compares Gatsby and Jesus Christ to show how he created his own identity. After he reinvented himself as a rich man, Gatsby had to maintain his image, so he went to the extremes to make as much money as he could. These extreme ways of making money worked very well for him, but the …show more content…
In the story, the narrator describes the rich as “different from you and me. [The rich] possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand” (Fitzgerald, “The Rich Boy” 3). The narrator 's description is very accurate, which is shown especially in the main character, Anson, who was born into a wealthy family and exhibits many of these characteristics. Tate, a critical writer explains that “‘The Rich Boy’ is not so much about wealth itself as about the effect of wealth on character, and the primary effect on Anson is an over power sense of superiority” (1). This superiority that Anson feels directly correlates with his upbringing because he has more money than most people. It is easy to think that you are better than somebody else based on your opportunities or
They were classified as “New Wealth” and oftentimes people of old wealth looked down upon those individuals. F. Scott Fitzgerald often wrote many stories about this pursuit of wealth since he was also a person who aspired to be like that, but unlike many others, he was also able to see the truth beneath what it meant to be wealthy.
“when he looked around him now for the first time and saw the height and splendor of the hall and the great rooms opening out from it into other rooms his grief began to be mixed with an awed pride”. This shows that even though Gatsby’s father was poor, he was still materialistic. His son had just been killed, and he allowed the material items and money that his son had, to distract him from the grief that he should have been experiencing over the loss of his son.
The world stereotypes rich people as rude, stuck up and selfish. Ever wonder why? Studies from Yale, The New York Times, TED and more have concluded, money changes everything. Whether it’s attitude, morals or values, money can affect and change all aspects of someone’s life. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, has a theme showing this claim clearly.
It has long been said that money can’t buy happiness, but still people continue to use it’s acquisition to try to make themselves happy. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the title character struggles with this realization. The book is set in New York during the ‘Roaring 20’s’, a time famous for its parties and lavishness. The book examines the attitudes toward money within the upper particularly through the lense of the new-money title character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby dedicated his life to the acquisition of money with the goal of eventually acquiring the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, F.Scott Fitzgerald depicts the theme of “wealth can breed carelessness” using the literary devices and/or techniques of irony, irony, and point of view. From Nick 's perspective, the wealthy characters of this story tend to act ignorantly and care nothing else besides themselves, which would impact others, including the actions shown by Gatsby, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan. First of all, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the theme of “Wealth can breed carelessness” using irony. In the text, a conversation between Jordan and Nick, “‘They’ll keep out of my way,’ she insisted.
Dan Cody taught him many things about being rich. “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people…the truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself…so he invented the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent...” (Fitzgerald 104). What this quote is mainly talking about is that Gatsby didn’t come from the most well off family, nor did he think he was going to go anywhere as James Gatz so, he reinvented his whole being. He changed his image, his backstory, and even his name.
The impact of socioeconomic status can be examined through a myriad of lenses. F. Scott Fitzgerald aims to show the relationship between socioeconomic status and power. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Tom’s character shows that socioeconomic status is equivalent to power within the novel. Tom puts great pride and emphasis on his socioeconomic status and wealth.
Amelia Cieslik Ms. Phelps English III May 26th, 2023 Wealth vs. Love In Chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby, Daisy’s lack of responsibility and characterized as reckless and carefree to foreshadow the lack of responsibility and self control the characters have in this novel. In Chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby, Daisy's carelessness and stupidity eventually leads to the death of Myrtle Wilson. She lets Gatsby take the blame for her unintentional manslaughter, after saying he would reveal to Nick that Daisy was the one driving the vehicle, declaring that “She ran over Myrtle like you'd run over a dog and never even stopped his car”(Fitzgerald 143).
Wealth identified how you lived to the people surrounding you in society. It was wealth that built you and destroyed you. Wealth overshadowed true love and beauty in The Great Gatsby. Those who had old money looked down upon those with new money, while those who were not rich was ignored by society. Wealth and the desire to be accepted by the society distracted the characters from making moral decisions.
Bang! Bang! Those could be the last sounds you could ever hear if you have been too obsessed with money . All of the people in the Great Gatsby love money and it turns out that the money betrays them. In F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby it proves that no matter how much you have money can't buy true happiness.
In many literary works, the wealthy are generally depicted as pretentious or cruel and authors tend to portray their personalities through various methods. In his work The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses literary techniques to distinctly characterize the wealthy. Doing so helps him communicate the work’s theme on the soulless nature of the affluent. Fitzgerald conveys his message by incorporating juxtaposition, effective diction, and suiting moods with his characters.
Not only does the amount of wealth affect social class, but the type of wealth also affects it. It even affects where people live and who people marry as seen with Gatsby and Daisy. The characters social standing affect who they interact and how they are perceived by others. Fitzgerald highlights the different class structures like “New rich” and “Old rich” and the impact of wealth on the people’s lives in those classes. He also shows the superficial nature of the characters and highlights the value placed on wealth.
In the 1920’s, social classes were divided with a large gap. The poor wanted nothing to do with the rich, and the rich wanted even less to do with the poor. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he uses the class structure in the 1920’s to redefine poverty. While the rich people in the novel are material rich, they are still “poor” socially and psychologically. Poverty is shown in a differently in this book than other books being written in this time era, and in doing this, it shows the rich what they are, and how they treat others from a different perspective.
His story warns that the pursuit of wealth—even as a means to an end—causes loss, despite the seeming gain. In order to achieve fulfillment, we must abandon that pursuit in favour of the direct pursuit of the things that would do
How does having money lead to material gain? In the Roaring Twenties, people from all social classes suddenly became aware of the class differences. This awareness is a result of the jump on the Stock Market and the World War1. There were clear distinctions among social classes according to location, amount of material possessions and the way one acted. Fitzgerald explains these differences by giving the characters in his novel the Great Gatsby different social classes and he also shows these social divisions in the way the characters behave.