How Does Wealth Affect The Great Gatsby

Throughout many brilliant works of literature, a common item is placed amongst them: symbols. Symbols are often a key to further understanding a point the author is trying to convey to their readers. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, he utilizes the literary tool of symbols to illustrate a larger picture for his themes and characters within the novel. For example, the color green plays a prominent role in The Great Gatsby throughout the duration of the novel. However, the color has can have various interpretations.

Is the average person an upbeat optimist, a calculating realist, or the everyday pessimist? What if they're just all three combined, just with a slight lean to one of the three options? As culture advances with the passage of time. Previous issues and dilemmas are solved and creating a flow of new ones to arise. It’s the mentally of the generations of that period that cause this cycle to keep on spinning.

Gatsby’s Failure of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby Dreams are seen as a positive way to keep people going forward through their lives. However, dreams can blind people and not let them to see the truth. The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes the idea of The American Dream of not being able to be achieved. Gatsby is one of the characters in the novel that tries to achieve The American Dream. The pursuit of the American Dream brings negative results to Gatsby because he becomes greedy, unrealistic, and dishonest, which shows that chasing dreams can destroy one’s life.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows how Jay Gatsby tries to fulfill the ideals of the American Dream. When Gatsby was young, he set goals and worked hard to improve. He pursued the typical American dream of gaining wealth, finding a companion, and being admired by others. Gatsby thought it was best to try and change everything about himself. He wears a thick mask of lies throughout the story, hiding his past, changing his name, suppressing his emotions, and even adapting his word choice.

Throughout the Great Gatsby, the theme of idolatry has shown itself in the book as one of the central ideas in the story. As the characters in the book are introduced, we are also introduced to their idols which are shown by the character’s actions. One example is Jay Gatsby, the protagonist of the book. Jay Gatsby is portrayed as a rich millionaire who lives in the West Egg of New York, just right across the one of the idols he worships. That idol is Daisy.

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.

Greatness is not a destination,striving for “greatness” is unrealistic because there is no particular time or place in your life that you become remarkable. People often find themselves unhappy because they haven't reached flawlessness. Everyday can be different, greatness is a condition that is very controllable. One can not control what life throws at them but one can control their response to the situation. Therefore, personal morals and being an overall good person lead you and others to believe that you are great.

When reading “The Great Gatsby” you will notice that an irrefutable theme constantly comes up, and that theme is Wealth. During the time at which “The Great Gatsby” takes place, everybody was constantly out partying, after all the “Great War” had ended, and so forth came a new era of consumerism and wealth. Although everybody seemed rich, only some people were. This was made apparent within Fitzgerald's book, with the distinct cast of characters he had created. Of these characters Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, and Tom Buchanan show off three separate aspects of Wealth within said era.

The Illusion of Gatsby: A Study of Naivete and Corruption in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby Although Jay Gatsby is understood to be “great” in the title of the novel, he ultimately represents this in an ironic sense, as he portrays a deceitful image and is tainted by his own naivete. Gatsby is a man who strives for the great American Dream, often associated with the notion that money equals happiness, however, to attain this wealth and image, he puts on a facade of greatness. There is an image surrounding Gatsby, as people claim that he has “killed a man,” or that he was “a German spy during the war” (Fitzgerald 44). Gatsby’s trail of deceit begins with these rumours, as he seems uninterested in resolving the rumours surrounding him.

I believe the first time I read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was when I was in high school. The novel was never assigned or studied in any of my English classes and so, out of sheer curiosity because I knew it was considered a literary masterpiece, I decided to read it for my own pleasure. The only information I had about Gatsby was that it was set during the 1920s and that it was an American classic.