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How Does Money Change In The Great Gatsby

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don’t want, and to impress people they don't like. In the book The Great Gatsby, a man named Jay was madly in love with his long lost girlfriend Daisy. Five years later when he finds her Daisy is married and has a daughter. Every character in the novel is money-obsessed, whether they were born with money, whether they made a fortune, or whether they’re eager for more. Money changed lots of the decisions the characters made, maybe even most of the decisions made apart from Nick were done for money. Money and materialism is not the motivation to happiness.
The abundance of valuable possessions or money has not, and does not make one happy. In chapter six, when Gatsby dies, no one from his parties, or any of his friends showed up to his funeral. "Mr. Gatz and the minister and [Nick] in the limousine, and a little later, four or five servants(pg. 182)" showed up to Gatsby's funeral. This shows that Gatsby did not find friends, happiness, nor love with all the money that he had. In the novel, Gatsby was "friends" with Mr. Wolfshiem, and had hundreds of people over to his parties, yet none of these characters showed up to his funeral; not even Daisy who told him she loved him. Gatsby had a fortune but he never found happiness with it. The only time Gatsby was happy was when he was poor and had Daisy. After Gatsby got his fortune he felt lonely and his life felt meaningless …show more content…

Gatsby made his fortune through dishonest means, and then began to surround himself with the pomp, luxury and social acceptance, although that never made him happy or less lonely. This story made it clear that money cannot buy happiness. The characters in this novel had money to impress others that didn’t need to be impressed, bought things that were never needed for happiness, and decided for selfish

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