Examples Of Hollowness In The Great Gatsby

Daisy’s dream of becoming wealthy is blinded by her love for Gatsby. As Gatsby shows Daisy around his mansion, he began throwing his shirts and Daisy began crying because she has “never seen such beautiful shirts before” (92). Gatsby’s expensive shirts symbolize his wealth that he earned to win Daisy’s love back. Daisy’s emotional tone over Gatsby’s “beautiful shirts” demonstrates how she was disappointed that she would choose money, Tom Buchanan, over love. Daisy would have had both happiness and wealth if she had waited for Gatsby.

Daisy was a shallow and greedy woman who would stay with men simply for luxury and entertainment. She loved no one but herself. They are the same type of people — old money and self-centered. Meanwhile, Gatsby’s obsession of reaching his “American Dream” blinded his eyes and made him thinks that he was in love with Daisy. In the roaring 1920’s, people would do anything— no matter in what way — to satisfied

The Great Gatsby has characters that express either wickedness or honesty, which are Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy. Money can lead to a life of selfishness and corruption. In the book, " The Great Gatsby", explains a story of two sides, old money and new money. A character named Jay Gatsby, is the wealthiest man in the book, and he grinded for the money to be able to get his old crush back, Daisy Buchanan.

A main theme in the book is that all the people are very materialistic and today materialism is still a factor. Jay Gatsby would still be very popular and envied because of his wealth. There are people out there still today just like Daisy that value social status and money over morality. Just like in the book the economy is very good currently in the United States and people are spending more than ever. If one did not know Jay Gatsby they would think he was a self-centered rich man, but, he did not care about money.

On the other hand, Zelda was also very accustomed to a wealthy lifestyle. “Unfortunately, his paltry salary was not enough to convince Zelda to marry him, and… she broke their engagement in 1919… Fitzgerald, suddenly a rich and famous author, married Zelda a week after its publication” (Willett). This shows that Zelda would not marry Fitzgerald unless he had

“’I know you didn't mean to, but you did do it. That's what I get for marrying a brute of a man’” (72), and he does not seem to care much about her. Daisy confused love with wealth, “’She wanted her life shaped now, immediately – and the decision must be made by some force – of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality’” (151), therefore, Tom easily bought her love with “’a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars’” (76). Daisy’s incontrollable passion for wealth overtakes her identity causing conflictions within her life.

James Gatz underwent a change where in the end as Jay Gatsby, his life is less fulfilling. Gatsby no longer thinks about things that are extraordinary. After the change Nick finds Jay Gatsby “talk[ing] a lot about the past and [Nick] gathered that [Gatsby] wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since…" the day he fell in love with Daisy (110). Gatsby’s life no longer fulfills his hopes, and after falling in love, his mind never dreams about the impossible.

Have you ever wondered what the stereotypes of women were in the 1920’s? Well, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, there are three different types of stereotypes for women. In this book, a man named Nick Carraway moves near a billionaire who goes by the name Gatsby. Gatsby hosts many parties which include many different types of people, such as gold diggers, golden girls, and the new women. Throughout this book, Nick gets to meet all three types of these girls, and gets to spend time with them.

This shows that to people money matters so much they would go to measures of spending massive amounts of money to gain what they desire most. Second, Myrtle's desire for money compelled her to cheat on George and go for Tom because he's rich. This shows that people with a crave for money would go so far as to be unfaithful to their spouse. Finally, Daisy "began to cry stormily" at Gatsby's "beautiful shirts," (Fitzgerald chapter 5 pg 92) because she heavily admires and is impressed with his fortune. People who get emotional and get overwhelmed by someone's wealth must extremely admire them.

The need for money drove both Gatsby and Daisy to extreme situations and provided them unpleasant circumstances. Throughout The Great Gatsby, many characters are faced with difficult situations due to the society that they live in. Gatsby is overly fasinated with Daisy which drives him to extreme levels to impress her. However, Tom is overly fixated on himself and causes the death of an innocent man.

The Great Gatsby shows Fitzgerald’s view and portrayal of the effect of money on people’s lives. Fitzgerald implies that being wealthy can lead to many great things but that money is everything but happiness and even with Gatsby’s wealth and imaginative mind, he still can not satisfy the image of Daisy since she nor any other women could ever be the girl who he desires. (Durkin). Gatsby wishes that his wealth would bring him the happiness and satisfaction he desires but instead brings him to his deathbed.

Everyone has moments where they desire to revisit the past- correct a mistake, relive the excitement, change what could have been. We all have moments like that. It might be a fleeting feeling or a consistently recurring thought, but seldom do we dedicate ourselves to the unattainable and changing times. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the plight of Jay Gatsby and his attempt to bring back the past is explored. He aggressively, or arguably, passionately fights to regain what once was.

Similarly, Jay Gatsby is consumed by the same feelings of overwhelming desire for Daisy: “They had never been closer in their month of love, nor communicated more profoundly one with another”, which evolves into something far more desperate. The reader is given a specific length of time that Gatsby’s and Daisy’s intimacy lasted, one “month of love”. This short amount of time combined with the extent of their feelings are common experiences for those engrossed in first love. A “month” suggests that their ‘love’ evolved quickly and uncontrollably, an experience, again, often associated to those encountering first love. Jordan gives a less-subjective account of Daisy and Gatsby’s previous relationship that Gatsby “looked at Daisy…in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at”.

The characters in the novel pretend that they have their lives all figured out, but through their successes their downfalls and emptiness can be seen, to prove that money cannot buy happiness. Jay Gatsby is the newest and upcoming star in New York during the 1920’s. Through his business and inheritance he is one of the richest men of his time. One may think that his abundance of wealth would lead him to be eternally happy, but he is the opposite. Gatsby longs for his love of Daisy, which is his personal American Dream.

In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is portrayed as a modern woman; she is sophisticated, careless and beautifully shallow. Daisy knows who she is, and what it takes for her to be able to keep the lifestyle she grew up in, and this adds to her carelessness and her feigned interest in life. In all, Daisy is a woman who will not sacrifice material desires or comfort for love or for others, and her character is politely cruel in this way. Daisy’s main strength, which buoyed her throughout her youth and when she was in Louisville, is her ability to know what was expected of her and feign cluelessness.