Examples Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

In Gatsby’s mission to attain wealth, power, and status he loses sight of his morals through his “dealings” with various shady people that are rumored to be lucrative and illegal. The extent of Gatsby’s criminal activities is confirmed by Tom Buchanan one hot summer night when Tom shares that Gatsby and “Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores…and sold grain alcohol over the counter,” (133) an illegal venture during prohibition. In addition to Gatsby’s business investments, his obsession with winning Daisy clouds his mind with thoughts of inspiring her to leave her husband and abandoned her child. Nick believes Gatsby would “want nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you,’” (109) and prove her marriage was a sham.

After the war, Gatsby’s only goal was to posses enough wealth to bring Daisy back. He acquired millions of dollars from businesses he did. “Gatsby bough this house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78). His love for Daisy was the only thing that made him the man he was. He was intelligent, rich and even famous, all because of her. He threw big parties were many celebrities went and were thousands of dollars were spent in liquor and food just to call Daisy’s attention. “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night…” (79), recalled Jordan, Gatsby’s friend, one night. All that Gatsby possessed was only and exclusively to show Daisy he could give her the life she wanted.

When Gatsby first met Daisy he explains how he has never met anyone else quite like her, “She was the first “nice” girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people but always with

In another instance, Nick Carraway relates the obsessive behavior of Jay Gatsby towards Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby has achieved substantial monetary success and prominent social status, but his life, in his eyes, is incomplete. He believes that Daisy is the only person who can bring him total fulfillment. In effect, Gatsby’ s desire for Daisy had become an

Gatsby was once named Jimmy Gatz and soon got changed to Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s life quickly started to change and he started to get away from everything that happened to him in the past. He saw Daisy and instantly fell in love with her. Everything he did was the purpose to winning her. Money was, essentially, the issue that prevented their being together.and so Gatsby made sure he would never again be without it. Gatsby’s drive and perseverance in obtaining his goal is, in many senses, commendable. He is a self-made man and as such, is admirable. However, all positive traits aside, there are aspects of Jay Gatsby that call into question that admiration. Gatsby’s money did not come from inheritance, as he would like people to believe, but from organized crime. The story takes place during the time of prohibition and Gatsby has profited greatly from selling liquor

In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby lost the love of his life. To get her back he ''bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores . . . and sold grain alcohol over the counter'' (Fitzgerald 108). This passage shows the readers that Gatsby's character has no limits to the actions he will take to regain his past relationship with Daisy. Thus, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s illegal activity to demonstrate Gatsby’s obsession with obtaining his American Dream, which is, in all, the love and affection of Daisy. Therefore, it develops Gatsby's obsessive personality and behavior. Second of all, Gatsby covers the parts of his past which he is ashamed of with his money and wealth. For example, when Daisy is over at Gatsby's mansion he takes out all of his fancy shirts that come from his stylist in England (75). Gatsby flaunting his wealth characterizes him as being materialistic because he is not trying to make an emotional connection with Daisy to get her back; instead Gatsby uses lust and infatuation. Thus, the author uses Gatsby’s actions to develop Gatsby’s materialistic personality. Finally, Gatsby's will to recreate the past is so strong that it pushes him to make unclear decisions. Decisions like waiting ''five years [to buy] a mansion . . . so that he could

First of all, Gatsby finds himself being held hostage by his bitter past numerous times throughout the novel. Beginning with his unwillingness to let go of his old flame Daisy Buchanan, this pushes him to make outlandish attempts to reconnect with her. Gatsby happens to buy a mansion within close distance to Daisy’s house, “But it wasn't a coincidence at all...Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”(Fitzgerald 83). This shows that his past love still holds him captive in his now present life so much that he feels the need to have a close connection to her in order to be content with his life. In attempt to lure Daisy, Gatsby often throws lavish parties where he finds himself “among strangers”(Fitzgerald 71) hoping she will make her way

Gatsby is able to turn his dreams into reality. Gatsby idolizes money, and through bootlegging alchol, he is able to obtain it. Gatsby also wants to intimately reunite with Daisy, despite her status as a married woman. These two desires of Gatsby?s come to show the lengths Gatsby is willing to go, even if it is illegal or morally unacceptable, to obtain his dreams. Gatsby hides his involvement in the bootlegging of alcohol not only to preserve his innocence, but also to give the impression that he is wealthy on his own accord. When Nick asks what type

Gatsby has a colossal and extravagant house in attempts to impress Daisy. For example, after having tea at Nick’s house Gatsby invites Daisy to come see his house. As he is showing her all of his expensive material items, she is becoming more and more impressed. Although, Gatsby doesn’t realize she’s falling in love with his money not him. For example, when Gatsby displays his expensive imported shirts Daisy puts her face in them and begins to cry. "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such-such beautiful shirts before"(92). By Daisy saying this, Gatsby’s wealth and extravagance is paying off because Daisy is admiring all of the things she wishes she could have. Gatsby believes she is falling in love with him, but really she’s falling in love with his

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, a wealthy and mysterious man named Jay Gatsby tries to win over Daisy, a married woman, and pursue a relationship with her. At first his efforts to woo her may seem romantic and lovely, but as the novel progresses, the question of whether or not he is truly in love or simply just obsessed with Daisy is called into question. He may believe he is in love with her but it later becomes apparent that he is obsessed with the idea of who he thinks she is more than the former through his outlandish efforts to capture her heart. For a very long time, Gatsby had his eye on Daisy as a woman he would like to pursue.

His money did not come from inheritance, as he would like people to believe, but from organized crime. Gatsby’s blind pursuit of Daisy, is evident as everything he does, every purchase he makes, every party he throws, is all part of his attempt to bring Daisy back into his life. By being so focused on his dream of Daisy, Gatsby moves further and further into a fantasy world. His inability to deal with reality sets him outside the norm and, eventually, his holding on to the dream leads to his death. He sees what he is doing as noble, honorable, and purposeful; however, the vainness of his task is seen as he becomes a parody of his former

Gatsby’s love for Daisy propels his materialism, which leads to his ultimate downfall. Gatsby uses his words and specious actions to prove to Daisy that he is rich so she will love him by giving Daisy a tour of his house. Exploring Gatsby’s house is when Gatsby is careful to point out to Daisy his lavish possessions that are present in his many extravagant rooms: “We went upstairs, through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers, through dressing-rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms, with sunken baths” (91). After strolling through Gatsby’s house, Gatsby takes Daisy up to his closet and begins to boast about his expensive clothes so that Daisy realizes that Gatsby is rich, and, “He took out a pile of shirts, and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray” (92). Daisy’s desire and obsession with materialistic things is also evident because after she sees all of these shirts, she begins crying because of

Gatsby always struggles trying to find his place in society that is never good enough for Daisy, so when Tom Buchanan remarks, ”’I picked him so a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn’t wrong,’” it is a difficult moment for Gatsby to realize that even though he does all he can to obtain money and status to please Daisy, it will never be enough (Fitzgerald 141). In his attempts to win Daisy’s love, Gatsby spends five years climbing up the social ladder, so that he can appear acceptable to her. One of the many ways he tries to discreetly lure her to his “new money” mansion is by throwing extravagant parties; as said by one of Gatsby’s closest friends, “As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host but the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts denied any knowledge of his movements”(40). Although Gatsby throws these parties, he never interacts with his guests and instead spends his lonely nights up in his room where he can keep a watchful eye, scanning the crowds for any signs of Daisy; this goes to show that just because Gatsby has abundant amounts of money, he is never happy with it all and never regains Daisy’s love after she rejects

When Gatsby first met Daisy, he was a poor officer in the army. As he got closer to Daisy, “he was getting deeper in love every minute, and all of a sudden [he] didn’t care”(p.95). However to be truly together with Daisy, Gatsby had to reach the same social class as her by becoming wealthy. To achieve this, he resorts to illegal matters, as he “bought up a lot of side-street drugstores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (p.85). He wants to be together with Daisy so desperately, that he is not afraid to get involved in illegal actions.

Carraway is the closest thing Gatsby can call a friend throughout the story, he is offering him a job, in return to invite Daisy, the love of his life. In other words, Gatsby is used to buying people off, having no one really do a favor without anything in return. He felt powerful enough to do anything he pleases and saw no consequence of how he was perceived. Gatsby was a powerful man who had powerful friends as well formidable foes. All of them were influential by their riches.