Great Gatsby Selfish

Money, just like anything else, can be new and old. Some people in our country have been wealthy for centuries, and the wealth of their bloodline can go extremely far back in time. However, the attitude of people who have what is considered “Old Money” in contrast to the people who have “New Money” can be quite different. This is shown in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In TGG Tom and Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker all reside in East Egg, New York and are considered “Old Money” while Jay Gatsby who lives in West Egg, New York is considered “New Money”. The people who are depicted as “new money” are materialistic and egotistical; while people who are labeled “old money” are

material items and they think money can solve anything. Nick described them as "careless people, Tom, and Daisy, they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (Fitzgerald 170). Fitzgerald portrayed what money could do to a person, like make them selfish. Daisy knew that she was this kind of person especially when she went to visit Gatsby's house and saw all of his clothes. Fitzgerald represented her love for material things when Daisy said, "They're such beautiful shirts, she sobbed, her muffled in the folds. It makes me sad because I've never seen such beautiful shirts." (Fitzgerald 92). Daisy is crying of the fact that she could have been with Gatsby but she would rather have the security of money and material things than be with him. The shirt is a material symbol of Gatsby's success a new rich man. Fitzgerald set out Daisy to be a sweet innocent girl who is Gatsby's long lost love but she's a girl who is corrupted by the fact that she needs money to be secure.

Fitzgerald does a wonderful job of creating various characters with diverse morals and beliefs. One characteristic that seems to be in every soul in that book is want. All of the characters have let money and other inanimate objects control the life they live. In a quote by Gatsby he talks about how everything about Daisy makes her seems rich, even down to her voice. "She's got an indiscreet voice," I remarked. "It's full of——" I hesitated. "Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly” (Fitzgerald 129). This quote shows that characters in this book have already been corrupted by money. They are so

Jay Gatsby is a self-made man, he turned himself from a farm boy to one of the richest men in America at the time and bought himself a beautiful mansion on West Egg, Long Island with the other new millionaires. In contrast to the newly rich, there is those who have inherited their wealth from family before them such as Tom and Daisy Buchanan. These people were lucky to be born into their lives and reside on East Egg along with other family’s with “old money”. Readers come to easily identify that despite their different upbringings, the wealthy characters all are very materialistic people. As a result of trying to win Daisy back, Gatsby has become very reliant on proving his worth through his spending of money. He buys beautiful shirts, shelves

Although the citizens in the West Egg is also wealthy and consider as upper classes too, the old money is considered as the aristocracy whereas the new money is just some millionaires. The West egg citizens are described to be ostentation, garishness and flashy manner. Jay Gatsby is a representative of the new money in the novel. Gatsby was grown up on a poor farm in North Dakota. At age of 17 he left North Dakota, Gatsby left his home and met his first employer, Dan Cody. During the abandon of alcohol, Gatsby earned huge amount of money through bootlegging and committed other crimes. This made him becomes a millionaire and enters the society of the upper classes. Similar to any new money, Gatsby had personalities of extravagant and ostentation. ‘THERE was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights.’ Every Saturday nights, Gatsby holds enormous parties until midnight and anyone able to freely to attends. ‘Every Friday five crates of orange lemons arrived…… every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door.’ The night before the party starts, Gatsby will buy lots of fresh fruits to produce fresh juice for his guest. In that time fresh fruits were extremely expensive. This shows Gatsby is rich and generous. On every party nights, the servants will decorate Gatsby’s garden with light ‘....enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden. This shows Gatsby’s personality is extravagant because he was showing off his wealth through holding enormous and luxury parties for free. In Gatsby’s mansion, Gatsby never read his collection of books, he never worn his clothes from England and he never used the pool in his garden. Although Gatsby is rich as the Tom Buchanan and he had learned their manners, he could not fit himself into the lifestyle of aristocracy and learn their

The pursuit of riches is a vain endeavor, the more money you get the more money you desire. If wealth is your only goal in life, you will soon find out how ineffective materialism aids in lasting satisfaction. This perpetual dissatisfaction is excellently portrayed in The Great Gatsby, a realistic fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel focuses on the downfall of Jay Gatsby due to the moral vacuum generated by his social class status and his inability to recreate an idealistic past, even with the assistance of his massive fortune. Therefore, wealth generates the downfall of the respective people in this story. It is highlighted as a vehicle for recklessness when Daisy doesn’t take responsibility for her crime and within Jay Gatsby’s impulsive choices, this negative connotation of money is proven as a futile attempt when Gatsby’s “friends” are unable to attend his funeral.

I connected the Gatsby’s two kinds of friends (one is the fair-weather friends, one is the real friend) to a real-life world issue. At present, people always are too two-faced, to mislead us easily. Sometimes we cannot find out who our real friends are. Moreover, these fake friends always fawn and betray us to achieve their secret goals, which makes us hurt deeply and do not want to trust anybody. Accordingly, I relate this to “The Great Gatsby”, the main character Gatsby. He is a rich and powerful man, which always holds parties every day and a great number of people come there whatever there were invited or not. It seems like there may be as the same number of people to attend Gatsby’s funeral as they go to the party, nevertheless, the only

He shows this by stating, “…it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn… all for eighty dollars a month” (Fitzgerald, 5). Fitzgerald is saying that Nick has a house that is good enough for him and only him. He has a nice view and he does not have to pay a lot that all these other millionaires have to pay. So just because you do not have a lot of money does not mean you are happy with the life you have. Not everyone has to be wealthy to live a life they are happy with. It also shows with Gatsby using his wealth to make Daisy happy. Before he was not wealthy when he first met Daisy, but then he tries to become wealthy to get Daisy back and make her happy, instead of doing things for himself. Even though Daisy did not want him, he still tried caring for her and trying to look out for her. If you know someone does not want to be with you, it does not make you

Selfishness, busyness, forgetfulness. These three traits are the most common effects of the American Dream on one’s identity. While pursuing prosperity, success, and a utopia filled with luxury, a person tends to transform into a selfish man. This selfishness causes one to ignore the needs of his close ones and causes a man to separate from the rest of his family. The effect of selfishness is present in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The American Dream also causes a person to entangle with busyness. The busyness causes one to become mentally isolated from their communities and families resulting children to have imaginary friends. The effect of busyness appears in Adam Gopnik in his article, Bumping into Mr. Ravioli. The American Dream’s

By the end of Nick’s experience in East Egg, he has discovered that the wealthy seem to live in a much different world than the rest of the population. It’s an existence where one will get anything they desire, often at the expense of others. Those who live this type of life very rarely have anyone or anything come in the way of their wishes. Additionally, people like Jordan, Daisy and Tom aren’t used to taking responsibility for their careless actions, as most of their decisions are made thinking of nobody but themselves.

The wealthy class was growing rapidly and in many characters in The Great Gatsby were a part of this boom. In the novel, many characters are wealthy because in the 1920s many people in America were wealthy. Daisy and Tom inherited their wealth from wealthy families. Nick also came from a wealthy family although he tried to make his own wealth in New York City by selling bonds. Gatsby got his big break when he invested his money and took advantage of prohibition by selling illegal alcohol. The roaring twenties carried everyone to wealth and prosperity with its increasing stock prices. Although this time period seemed exciting, money can’t buy

Even though money is supposed to buy happiness, in some cases money is not always beneficial. Sure money can get you what you want but sometimes it can change you for the worst. In the novel "Great Gatsby" money is the center of attention around these characters. The money involved with these characters makes them all act in certain ways. Fitzgerald showed that there is a difference in between the rich and the wealthy's morals between the East and West Egg.

Unfortunately, due to Gatsby’s inexperience to wealth, he associates prosperity with pleasure, harmony, and splendor, thinking that it will bring him utmost contentment with the love of his life. Ultimately, surpassing the hardships that money has deposited onto the other characters during the novel. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald illustrates how money cannot truly buy contentment. Gatsby strives for Daisy’s voice “full of money” not realizing that money is the only thing promising about her. Just like hard cash, Daisy is callous and has no sympathy for Gatsby, choosing Tom over him.

The novel, The Great Gatsby, by author F. Scott Fitzgerald, is an eye opener onto the reality of the wealthy’s lives. The “American Dream” is that supposedly with hard work and perseverance an amazing life can be had here, but as the old saying goes, money cannot buy happiness. This philosophy is definitely present here, as the book highlights the ingenuine and twisted life that this group of ‘friends’ live. From the outside, their lives may seem perfect, but when taking a closer look the truth comes out. The group struggles with staying monogamous, lying and faking everything. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald talks about how phony and unattainable the “American Dream” is, proving that money cannot buy happiness

In the Great Gatsby Characters are classified as either Old money or New money. People Known as Old money have had wealthy in their families a long time. Those known as New money have recently become wealthy.Both are in the same class of wealth but spend their money differently. In the novel The Great Gatsby the author F.Scot Fitzgerald uses the theme of wealth to potray the way different social classes behave.