Because of her greed, she can’t part with Tom for Gatsby. Her ability to love and be compassionate is corrupted by wealth. She does not believe one can enjoy their life without wealth, which is why she shatters Gatsby’s dream. Materialistic beliefs being the foundation of a life leads to only more desire for wealth, which is clearly shown through Daisy in The Great
Gatsby acquires a great amount of wealth in order to win Daisy’s love. Daisy, instead, is obsessed with having more “old wealth,” so she marries Tom Buchanan. The fascination Daisy has of Gatsby’s clothes and house symbolizes her idea of the American Dream. The perception of the American Dream is one of glamour, sophistication, and happiness; however, as seen in The Great Gatsby, the dream consists of corruption, immoral decisions, and
The American Dream The American dream is an opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination and initiative, no matter who someone is or what their background may be. Some are born into wealth; where there are riches available from the start. Others have to achieve and work a bit harder for the success, but the American dream is available to everyone.
Lily believes that she must manipulate men, who are wealthier than she is, in order to move up in society. When Lily is on the train ride to Bellomont, she orchestrates a plan to bump into Mr. Gryce. Even though Lily finds Mr. Gryce boring, she knows that he is rich. Lily manipulates Mr. Gryce because “when a girl has no mother to palpitate for her she must… be on the alert for herself”(21). Lily believes that if she married Mr. Gryce, all of her financial troubles would be solved.
Firstly, this essay will talk about what the American dream is and the background of the American dream; then, it is going to illustrate why the American dream can be attractive to all around the world and how it influence the world; finally, it will show the American dream leads to not only the success, but also the failure. “The American dream is that dream of a land in which life should be
Daisy numbly enjoyed this happiness, which give her mind to that the significant of material comfort for ones who were accustomed to live a life of luxury her importance. Nevertheless, from another point of view, the marriage between Daisy and Buchanan is a combination of beauty and wealth, without true love. The satisfaction of material couldn’t take place of spiritual enrichment, so Daisy searched for spirit support——Gatsby. “Please, Tom! I can’t stand this any more.
Why do people marry for money, and not love? During the 1920s, and to this day it is show as power if you had higher wealth, clothes, and other things the Great Gatsby is an excellent example for this. Daisy as another example she married Tom mainly for the money, but also because she thought she loved him. Myrtle also is an example she has this affair with Tom, because she seeks wealth and power. Tom however, thinks that he loves Myrtle and not Daisy, and uses that to abuse Myrtle by throwing things at her punching her or just beating her up.
In the Novel of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy is one of the main characters, but one of the main themes of this novel is wealth. Daisy was brought up with a wealthy family, so of course that would throughout the years into her adulthood would become important to her. It was clear her love for wealth like with all things soon became rotten, and would begin to corrupt her life. This infatuation caused her to start making bad decisions. For instance she wouldn 't marry the man she loved because he was poor, she practically forced herself to marry a man because of his fortune, she then became unfaithful to her husband because her past lover now had a great amount of wealth.
Velben argues that, in western society, members of the “leisure class” (those who are exempt from laborious jobs and can pursue luxury) are in a constant struggle to “one-up” one another. Gatsby’s parties, his gestures, and his possessions are all a part of an effort to assert his status, and are evidence of his entrapment in this consumerist “bubble”. When Daisy finally visits his mansion, she ends up in tears, not because she was reunited with her lost love, but, rather, because Gatsby has nicer shirts than her husband: “They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the think folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts before.” (Fitzgerald, 118-119).
In the Great Gatsby, the book is mostly about money and love. It’s about how love and money can make you do foolish acts. Gatsby’s American Dream is to repeat the past and reunite back with Daisy. He often uses his parties and wealth to impress others. So, how does love and money act as a motivator in the book?
The rich use tactics to gain the support of the middle class, but without losing any of their own riches, like wealth or power, for their own gain. It was at the cost of the “slaves, Indians, and poor whites” (Zinn 1). It spared the rich any expenses, but brought them much gain, from the support. Finally, the growth of the colonies positively impacted the rich as well, as they received the profits and benefits from the expansions. With one percent of property owners owning forty four percent of the wealth, it shows how the majority of the wealth was given to the rich, and not distributed among the other classes at all, deepening the division.
Fitzgerald condemned the American Dream by showing how even though Gatsby became rich, he was not happy nor did he have a happy life. Tom Buchanan dehumanized Gatsby by how he thought badly of him because he was nouveaux riche. Tom was old money. Nick was also newly rich like Gatsby. He dehumanized the Buchanans in the fact that he thought of them as careless except when it comes to their image or their money.
The book introduces a similarity of wealth for the two settings; however, this reveals an ironic situation. The American Dream indicates that hard work earns you wealth (big house), but this is not the case for Nick or Daisy. They both portray the opposite of the American Dream showing its decline. A grand comparison is made to the amount of effort put in by both characters and the size of their house. Nick is a small town man who has come from a wealthy family like Daisy.
This sparks a determined to get Daisy back after she left him for money when he was poor. This determination becomes an obsession with Daisy and everything she does. So he turns into this rich and powerful man that he knew she wants. “You can 't repeat the past," Gatsby replies, "Why of course you can."
The American dream is an illusion that is deeply implanted in the minds of the people, it sets a bar for life achievement and offers hope to work hard to achieve their dreams. As for Americans, they are raised in a society to where they are expected to make lots money and to have a healthy family. After all in our society success is largely based off positions of power and financial stability. For example, in The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there were multiple interpretations of the ideal American dream in the 1920s. In the 1920s, due to the growth of materialism, people advertised and fancied the power of money to fulfilling their dreams.