The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the pursuit of wealth as a driving force and how it can create and destroy relationships. Jay Gatsby, the book’s protagonist, is a very wealthy man, though he grew up in a lower-class family. In contrast, Tom Buchanan, another man living on Long Island and Gatsby’s rival, is also a very wealthy man, but he grew up wealthy his entire life. Their wealth creates and destroys the relationships they make with others, and drives their characters and their choices. Wealth creates unbalanced relationships between characters depending how much money each person has. Jordan explains how Tom lavishly wooed Daisy and how their relationship crescendoed at their wedding, saying,“He came down with a hundred people in four private cars and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars” (76). Jordan describing Daisy and Tom’s relationship at their wedding shows how much wealth disparity can influence a relationship. Daisy’s parents wanted her to marry into a rich family, which Tom provided. Additionally, Tom’s wealth and willingness to spend extravagant amounts of money on jewelry shows that his relationship with Daisy was almost entirely focused around money and …show more content…
He is portrayed as someone who has achieved the American Dream and is a successful man overall. Nick describes Gatsby after hearing about his past, saying, “Anything can happen now…” I thought; “...anything at all…” Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder” (69). Nick is suggesting that if Gatsby can get wealthy from humble beginnings, so can everybody. This furthers another element of the American Dream, especially in relation to wealth because Nick is saying that while getting social status and wealth from nothing is improbable, it can be achieved
Since Daisy had always been rich, she was viewed as more valuable to men. Looking in from the outside, you would think that Daisy’s life was perfect. She seemed to have everything she desired. Wealth did not equate to happiness. Daisy was given financial stability, rather than earning it.
Daisy is comfortable with the society she grew up with and marries someone who has the same background as she. Unfortunately, the world that Tom and Daisy belong to is one where you are constantly worried about "how you appear to others. " Most of your decisions are based on prestige and wealth and being accepted by the upper class of society. In Daisy's case, she is even willing to allow her husband to cheat on her because if she loses him, she also loses her social standing and the wealth that allows her to live the lifestyle she is accustomed to.
No matter how much money someone has or how much they’ve accomplished, they will always desire more. In the book The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author shows that the greediness of characters results in only bad things. Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy in the book were only focused on their own wants and lost appreciation for what they already had. The book shows us this a lot with daisy and Tom's relationship, Daisy betraying Gatsby, and Gatsby using Nick to get Daisy.
While the couple are two opposing people, they do have a similar demeanour, one which breathes wealth and privilege from their pores. Perfectly explained by Nick: They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made (188). There are multiple instances in the book where Tom is not only physically abusive towards Daisy, but also physically imposing towards everyone else, he was one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax (10). His constant brutish nature leaves Daisy in a constant frail state, her voice a “deathless song,” akin to Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, who suffered from a major nervous breakdown during the 1920’s. While their union was a fickle and unfulfilling one and caused both of them to have affairs, they did end up keeping faithful to each other in the end.
Whoever said “money does not grow on trees” had clearly never visited West nor East egg. Wealth there was as plentiful as the leaves upon a tree in full bloom. Set in the early 20s The Great Gatsby truly shows the reader how easily thrown away money was during this day and age, weather it be new or old money. The citizens of this era were in for a rude awakening when they learned that not only could money not buy them everything but that a solely materialistic lifestyle would get them nowhere in life.
Fitzgerald portrays the Twenties as a generation of decayed social and ethical values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pride. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz tune—epitomized in the exceptional character of Gatsby and through the opulent events that Gatsby throws every Saturday night. This hedonistic lifestyle resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American Dream, and is how ‘New Money’ is portrayed by F. Scott. Fitzgerald in his novel The Great Gatsby. Due to the unrestrained demand for cash and pride the noble characteristics behind wealth were lost.
Noah Mammeri Mrs. Fenlon Honors English III 22 March 2023 The Wealthy and The Wealthier In America, the "dream" is to become wealthy, build a family, and create a future worth living in, but while everyone is focused on wealth, money, and power, they get dragged into a constant focus on only what they think they need and forget to build up their skills as people and cherish the moments they have. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the deep, gaping hole that overwhelms all the wealthy. Throughout the course of the novel, there are many characters that seem to have everything in life, yet in reality have nothing.
Wealth played an essential role in the 1920s, and individuals used it to their advantage regarding connections with friends and lovers. F. Scott Fitzgerald captures his idea of love and wealth and how they intertwine within his novel. The Great Gatsby uses complex characters to prove wealth is the key to love. Fitzgerald proves an individual's inability to express themselves without flaunting success.
Jordyn Love Mrs Easly English 3 15 March 2023 The price of wealth How far would you go to get the love of your lifes attention? Some may go more all out than others. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, Jay Gatsby is seen as a man belonging to upper class or “new money” wealth.
A Life of Luxury “I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (Fitzgerald 180). Jay Gatsby grew up in poverty and lived his entire life pursuing a lavish, luxurious lifestyle. His desire for wealth and to try obtain his love Daisy caused him to move to the West Egg on Long Island, New York. The green light on Daisy's dock symbolized Jay’s wonder of what a life would be like with Daisy and wealth.
In the book The Great Gatsby, the theme that wealth breeds carelessness is illustrated through the reckless behavior of the wealthy. There are a few characters, such as Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby, who have extraordinary wealth, and because they possess such wealth, they may be negligent in some of their actions and create further problems. Due to their high social standings, they can ignore or even hide from their problems. Situations where wealth breeds carelessness can be seen throughout the story, such as when Gatsby throws his parties to when he passes. Wealth breeds carelessness because the actions of the wealthy become foolish and reckless.
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald speaks very stridently of “class”. He permeates clues and different sayings about how the bourgeois people talk and how they act among themselves. For example, “What’ll we plan?; What do people plan?.” Daisy had said this as a innuendo to her surroundings that the “rich” people that had so much money, have no idea what to do with their fortunes.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby describes the life of Jay Gatsby in the 1920’s. The novel shares his love story and his loneliness. A major question the author raises is how does wealth impact class structure and society? Fitzgerald answers this question through the distinction between “New rich” and “Old rich” and the significance of East and West Egg.
Money is the bedrock of any civilization. It allows us to buy basic goods and services that we can not make or do by ourselves. The people with the most money can, in turn, get the best of everything and live a life of luxury. This luxury can make people act careless or reckless, as they believe they can buy their way out of any situation that they put themselves in. In F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel
Throughout the nineteen-twenties, the infrastructure of America and it’s stature amongst the world blossomed at unprecedented levels. Materialism drove the desires and futures of citizens and became an entity of the average person. Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby to address the issue of the effects of wealth at the time through the eyes of Nick Carraway. Although Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom are content with their prosperity and wealth in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays wealth as a curse that corrupts those who possess it.