Examples Of Greed In The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald depicts 1920’s America as an age of decline in traditional social and moral values; primarily evidenced by the cynicism, greed and the relentless yet empty pursuit of prosperity and pleasure that various characters in The Great Gatsby exhibit. He presents a society in which uninhibited consumerism, materialism and an all-pervading desire for wealth have perverted the previously righteous qualities of the American Dream, corrupting it in the process.

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, provides a reflection on the societal issues and attitudes of a modernist, post-war era. The “Roaring Twenties” was an age of prosperity, consumerism and liberalism that led to unprecedented economic growth and significant changes in culture and lifestyle. The right to vote redefined women’s roles and gave rise to a “new breed” known as the flapper, that drank, wore excessive makeup, and flaunted her disdain for conventionalism. The introduction of prohibition led to an increased demand for black market alcohol and bootlegging, thereby providing a financial basis for organized crime. Despite the progression, the 1920s was an era of social tensions

In any great novel, an understanding of the era in which the story is set can lead to a deeper appreciation of the author’s themes and characters. For example, the themes that preoccupied F. Scott Fitzgerald, issues of social class, the dynamics of prohibition, and the culture of excessive consumption, would be difficult to convey on their own. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the social, political, and moral environment of America in the 1920s sheds greater light on the otherwise complex forces that drive the characters in The Great Gatsby.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby focuses on the excitement and adventure of the roaring twenties, a time filled with great economic success and parties said to last the whole decade. New to Long Island and New York, aspiring bond man Nick Carraway becomes infatuated with the lifestyle of his rich peers living the “American dream”. He gains interest in his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, who lives in an incredible mansion and has a vast amount of wealth. Gatsby uses his money to try and steal his love, Daisy Buchanan from her unfaithful husband, Tom. Characters in The Great Gatsby are unhappy and unfulfilled with their lives due to greed manipulating their view of The American Dream. This skewed perception also affects their unreasonable life expectations and their narcissistic thoughts create a larger potential for failure, such as Gatsby’s extravagant plan to steal Daisy Buchanan.

Morals and virtues are the basic principles of living a happy life. But those alone can not satisfy the human desire of wanting something bigger and better. The evilness within Daisy creates a cycle of problems that she can’t escape. Daisy’s greed and corruption leads her to take shortcuts and break the principles of a human being by cheating on her husband, neglecting her daughter, and betraying Gatsby.

“You look so cool…you always look so cool”, Daisy Buchanan dotingly admitted to Jay Gatsby (Fitzgerald, 118). The two are F. Scott Fitzgerald’s central characters in his 1925 classic The Great Gatsby, a tale of disillusionment and ill-fated dreams. Fitzgerald first depicts Daisy and Gatsby as enigmatic, complex characters. Later, however, he reveals them as corrupt. But this contrast is not merely a literary device—Fitzgerald uses his characters to prove that members of the Roaring Twenties were corrupt and deluded and that the “American Dream” is hopelessly unattainable.

Wealth has often consumed the lives people in the past, corrupting them and causing people to make bad decisions due to this greed. Wealth and greed will continue to take over others’ lives for as long as the human race still exists. The desire for wealth and greed as shown in the The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald by some characters’ intense obsession with money, lavish lifestyles, and their sense of entitlement, ultimately putting other characters in harm’s way.

Gatsby believed wholeheartedly that his happiness lay in the chance of reuniting with Daisy, but she was unfortunately unable to live up to his obsessive and arguably overwhelming dream. In fact, Gatsby himself becomes so engrossed in his “American Dream”, that when Daisy’s rejection comes, his life seems to lose all its purpose in the absence of his obsession. Perhaps even his former warm view of the world was lost as he lay in the pool, waiting for Daisy’s phone call, and “looked up at an unfamiliar sky.” This shows us how obsession can take over one’s life, wielding a complete unhealthy control over our emotions and actions. On the critical side, it is also showing us that the American Dream, which was once a genuine, pure aspiration for advancement, has, for many people, turned into a greedy desire and obsession for wealth and material goods. As well as the unrealistic notion of equal opportunity for all, Fitzgerald is suggesting that what was once “a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable”- as coined by U.S writer James Truslow Adams- has evolved into a dense objective of achieving personal material comfort. Although Gatsby claims that he did everything for Daisy, there is the underlying question; was his bootlegging really all for Daisy’s love, or was it for his own ideal life that he dreamed of- a life of luxury, aesthetic appeal and a beautiful woman? Fitzgerald is criticising the corruption of what was idealised to be a world of freedom, equality and opportunity. Instead of striving for an improved, richer and fuller life for the country as a whole, society has turned into a battle between individuals to get to the top and appear the most

Greed is a common flaw in all human beings, coaxing individuals to pour in all their effort without ever being satisfied. The ultimate goal for greed is generally achieving affluence. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s insightful novel, The Great Gatsby, wealth is portrayed as the key factor in determining whether one is successful or not. Most people value prosperity over morals and ethics during the heat of pursuing their own ambitions; yet all unscrupulous behaviors do not escape God’s eyes. By utilizing eye motif, repetitions of sight words, and tone changes, F. Scott Fitzgerald justifies that avarice will always end in vain and amoral decisions will always end in regrets.

Throughout his novel Fitzgerald shows the reader that love is essential to a fully functioning relationship through portraying the failure of relationships based on materialism. All the major relationships presented in the novel were doomed to an extent based on differences in social class/status and obsession with wealth and success. The overriding theme of moral decay in America of the 1920’s determined the nature of society and its relationships, most of which were doomed to

Through Fitzgerald’s characterisation of the protagonists, the moral chaos within the society becomes evident, with a society of immense greed and wealth being born, revealing the dreaded materialistic trait within individuals in the society leading to drastic consequences. Similarly to the prodigious increase in wealth during the “roaring 20’s”, the luxurious society of New York revolves heavily around money, with “the rich getting richer and the poor getting children”. The materialistic trait is evident within the protagonist Daisy Buchanan - ‘a careless person”. We learn of Daisy’s materialistic behaviour through her decision to marry Tom Buchanan over Jay Gatsby “because she was

During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result

After a time of prosperity, the roaring 1920’s became a decade of social decay and declining moral values. The forces this erosion of ethics can be explained by a variety of theories. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald paints a convincing portrait of waning social virtue in his novel, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald portrays the nefarious effects of materialism created by the wealth-driven culture of the time. This was an era where societal values made wealth and material possessions a defining element of one’s character. The implications of the wealthy mindset and its effects on humanity are at the source of the conflict in The Great Gatsby, offering a glimpse into the despair of the 20’s. During a time

The Roaring Twenties is considered to be a time of excessive celebration and immense corruption. The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a criticism of American society and its values during this era of history. This criticism is first apparent in the people who go to Gatsby's parties. They get absurdly drunk, do not know who their host is and are rude by excessively gossiping about him. This commentary is also shown in the corruption of the police. Gatsby is able to pay off the police so that the activities going on at his home will go unnoticed and so that he may behave as he wishes. This criticism is finally shown in the corruption of friendship and love, the simple fact being that there is none. People use Gatsby and

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a peek into the society of the roaring twenties. Fitzgerald establishes two classes of