During the roaring twenties, money was one of the most glorified objects all over the country. The Great Gatsby is a novel that was written about the era of fun, the 1920’s. The historical fiction novel was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald to show the glorified time of the 1920’s. Throughout the novel, the effects of wealth are shown through all of the characters, some more than others. Tom and Gatsby in particular are greatly affected by wealth and income and it alters their characteristics drastically.
Anyone that can open a history book can see the drastic changes of our society due to financial and technological progressions. In the book, “The Great Gatsby” you can see how just having a large sum of money can influence anyone to be happy. People began to idolize an individual just because of his wealth as shown in this paragraph of the novel, “It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world”(Fitzgerald 44). Gatsby threw wild parties every weekend just for everybody to socialize, embrace each other, and drink. Without money, none of that would be possible and The Great Gatsby would be a mere citizen that nobody gave any special attention to.
The point was either you have a bunch of money and you are spending it on whatever prohibition is saying don’t do or working to get by. One character, Wolfshiem, is characterized by the quote of his personality “I see you looking at my cuff buttons…human molers (72)”. He is a man who spends money on extravagant items. Gatsby is a man who would spend money on all things needed for a party but was in the lower class til he got to upper class. He got his money by “sold grain alcohol over the counter (chapter 7, The Great Gatsby).
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the nineteen twenties prosperous period as well as the dark secrets of the United States history. James Gatsby is a young man who is raised in poverty to wealth and power. His rise to wealth is the ipodomy of the American dream even though he used illegal means of making money. Gatsby sold illegal liquor through his pharmacy during the prohibition. The Great Gatsby also shows the lack of police enforcement of the new laws from the twenty first amendment.
There was also the reveal near the end of the book about how Gatsby became rich, also said by Tom, where he says “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (Fitzgerald 133). Given the fact that during the time alcohol was sold illegally because of the prohibition law, meaning that you could get tons of money by selling that at the time, and, again, stated by Tom while in Gatsby’s party, where he says “ A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know” (Fitzgerald 107). Those are all the connections I found of The Great Gatsby and the ways that the mafia made
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby reveals the tremendous differences found in Tom and Gatsby; Fitzgerald seems to find more value in Jay, here’s why. Gatsby has a rare quality in his ability to pick himself up by his bootstraps, so to speak. A phrase that is literally meant to represent an impossible task. There was a time in Gatsby’s life where he had nothing, and everything he got was something that he had earned. Gatsby, had nothing handed to him, and actually had some taken from him when he needed it most.
This message is repeated many times within The Great Gatsby. Throughout the novel, money is used to attempt to mend the issues that the characters created for themselves. In the moment of spending money, each character thinks that they are paying their way out of trouble. The consequences arise later when they can no longer be disguised by money. Daisy, Tom, Gatsby and Myrtle all view money as a solution to their problems in the novel.
Money had all the power, you flaunting your money, by wearing the nicest clothes, having the biggest house, or the location of where you lived. You were either old money, new money, or no money. This mattered too many, but then there was the others that cared about love and worked for happiness. To some love was love and that 's enough. To others love wasn 't enough, whereas wealth filled the missing feeling of love.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main protagonist has set his own path to the American dream, and will stop at nothing to succeed it. As a young child, Jay Gatsby, or his birth name, James Gatz, was born into a poverty-stricken environment and had little to look forward to in his future. His true roots trace back to a poor family living in rural North Dakota on a farm. Gatsby happened to be one that endured the struggles of poverty; this significantly affected him, but in a different way. Most people use their living situations as a foundation for strong motivation to live a better life; Gatsby preferred to separate himself from those hardships in-order-to become the person he wanted to be in a life he
Gatsby set off the impression of being a nice and kind guy to the general public but behind the closed doors he could be ruthless in order to get what he wanted. Gatsby is a very persistent man and when he sets his mind to something he will go after it regardless of the consequences. He believed that money was the solution to all his problems, and