Money Is A Big Part Of Life

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.

Daisy is actually a very weak person. This is probably due to all the physical and mental abuse she has suffered by her husband. She allows him to have complete control over her and order her around as if she were a small child. In a way, she seems to like that Tom is in control because she never has the burden of making decisions. Because of Tom?s finances, Daisy never is in need of anything. She likes living a life of luxury and appears to be quite happy with her situation. While she may not like the concept of her husband cheating on her, she would never consider leaving him or getting a divorce because of what society would think of her. It is Daisy herself that chooses to remain in a loveless marriage.

“Money is a mechanism for control,” a quote by American author David Korten that thoroughly describes how the many characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby used their wealth to stabilize the control of their lives. This wealth played an important role during its time, the early 20th century, by making a point of dividing certain social classes, putting the false belief that money brings one an absolute happiness, and aiding in the rise and fall of people’s legacy.

Rick Pitino once said, “I’d learned how much happiness money can bring you, very little.” Just as Fitzgerald tried to stress throughout his novel, money will never make a person fully content in life. Francis Scott Fitzgerald, better known as F. Scott Fitzgerald, was one of the great authors of 20th Century America. He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896. Finding success from a young age, he wrote The Great Gatsby at the ripe age of 29. As seen in the book, Gatsby constantly lavished himself with finer material things, trying to fill the void Daisy had left him with. On the other hand, although Daisy had everything and anything money could buy, she was lifeless. Almost every character at some period throughout the book, tried to replace joy with wealth. Money and happiness do not correlate, although one may try to buy their happiness with material things, it is simply not possible.

The Great Gatsby is a book that almost proves the phrase “Money can’t buy happiness”

Throughout the modern era, society’s views on money’s effect on a person’s emotions have drastically changed. Many people believed that the more money a person has, the more satisfied he or she will be. However, due to recent conclusions made by writers and case studies, money has proven to not be responsible for a person’s contentment. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Daisy and Gatsby’s wealth ultimately shows the reader that money does not equal happiness.

Everybody strives to earn it, those little green things in your wallet. Green is associated with good and happiness; above all, things of desire. Nevertheless, it doesn’t truly make you happy with your life and most importantly, yourself. In the fictitious novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the characters who have money at their disposal are constantly looking for something else to fulfill their longing to have a meaningful life. Despite it’s problem-solving reputation, money isn’t what it’s chalked up to be, the characters with excessive money aren’t sincerely happy with their lives. Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker and never satisfied with their m0ney. Fitzgerald’s characters never seem to connect their feeling of never being satisfied with their infinitesimal amount of happiness.

The Great Gatsby novel, F.Scott Fitzergald serves a modern theme of wealth. This power creates rich from poor turning struggles into money to be themselves. During the Great Gatsby wealth identifies the sense of carelessness of money and material things that can't buy happiness. Money causes people to become envious, greedy, and jealous. Fitzergald reveals a point that money does not breed happiness.

Daisy, on the other hand, seems at first as though she truly does love and care for her husband. While Tom keeps himself at a distance in both relationships, Daisy seems to possess an outright need for his company. This is supported by Jordan’s recollection of Daisy’s behavior towards Tom after marrying him: “If he left the room for a minute she’d look around uneasily and say: ‘Where’s Tome gone?’ and wear the most abstracted expression until she saw him coming in the door. She used to sit on the sand with his head in her lap by the hour, rubbing her fingers over his eyes and looking at him with unfathomable delight” (Fitzgerald, 76-77). That being said, there are in fact several signs that point toward Daisy not loving her husband at all. Perhaps the most notable is her behavior just before her and Tom’s wedding ceremony, when she is found “lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress – and as drunk as a monkey. She had a bottle of Sauterne in one hand and [Gatsby’s] letter in the other” (76). Daisy goes so far as to even momentarily call off the marriage altogether, ordering the bridesmaids to “tell ‘em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say: ‘Daisy’s change’ her mine!’” (76). Why, then, does she marry Tom after all and seem so in love with him afterwards? People usually seek out partners who will make them happy, protect them from that which they fear, etc. What does Daisy fear? She

Being famous and having money is every kid’s dream. Throwing money around like it grows there is an endless amount is everyone's dream. As many may be the solution to numerous issues, it does not solve the problems of the heart. Since many people do not understand this concept, it is the worst pain, the aching of the heart. This lesson is what Jay Gatsby should learn, how his whole life he thought he could win over a girl with all his money and expensive shirts. In The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald, diction displays how money cannot buy happiness and is not the solution of the heart.

As human beings, what takes priority in life? Is it money? Money often drives people’s behavior. People don’t realize that it’s not necessary to be wealthy to enjoy life and live happily. Many of the characters portrayed in The Great Gatsby, displayed their desire for money throughout the book. Each character had a different outlook on money, but they each had something in common, they all wanted to acquire more. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the characters’ and community’s obsession, perception, and attitude toward money was prevalent.

Gatsby’s obsessions are not limited too simply possessing wealth, but they also extend to the manner in which it was acquired as well. First Gatsby claims having attended Oxford, and even goes so far as to flaunt Nick a picture,“ A souvenir of his Oxford days…” (71). Gatsby openly avoids mentioning how long he was at Oxford and why he was there. The small dishonest taste that Gatsby has of Oxford only serves to make his desire to change the past more consuming than ever before. Gatsby wants a simpler time, a better time with more noble aspirations. Gatsby uses the photograph to undo his past. In addition, Gatsby furthers the tales of his grand life insisting that he lived in all the capitols of Europe like a rajah. Fitzgerald proves Gatsby’s stories to be lies beyond any reasonable doubt. Jay sounds like a fool, and his condescending willingness to underestimate the intelligence of his listeners proves he acts as a fool. Gatsby’s false stories suck him deeper and deeper into the abyss that is self-worthlessness. Finally, the rainbow that Jay Gatsby follows through life has the ultimate treasure at the end –true love. The desperate alteration of his past serves only one purpose, to impress the shallow Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby innocently assumes that his money and accomplishments can buy anything – even

Daisy Buchanan has a similar lifestyle to Tom, she’s wealthy ‘voice is full of money’ and always wore ‘white’ symbolising her purity and wealth. However as a woman of a higher class, there not much she can do in her ‘shallow life’, as she has the money but doesn’t know how to plan events ‘what do people plan?’. This shows that she is not content with her knowledge and understanding of life therefore even with money she isn’t ‘happy’. This leads her to ‘have an affair’ with an ex-lover whom she so adored before she married Tom ‘I did love him once – But I loved you too’. In the novel, Daisy only every seeks true love when she’s with Gatsby but ‘a rich girls don’t marry poor boys’, so due to this social difference between them, she knows the only place she will ever have security is with Tom. Tom describes their affair as a ‘presumptuous little flirtation’ because to Daisy, she knew she was never going to marry Gatsby but to Gatsby it was just never

Tom drained Daisy of all her independence the instant they tied the knot and agreed to conform to a typical marriage. He takes advantage of this situation and not only abuses his control over Daisy, but manipulates her to completely depend on him. Daisy has always been used to someone telling her what to do, and her relationship with Tom is no different. She is not a whole person without him to the point where even, “If he left the room for a minute she’d look around uneasily and say: ‘‘Where’s Tom gone?’ and wear the most abstract expression until she

Relationships within the novel are somewhat questionable, as cases of characters appreciating their material possessions more than their associations show complete covetousness and greed. However, it is evident within the text that the possession of material love cannot replace true happiness and devotion. Two characters within the novel show utter materialism throughout the text, Daisy and Gatsby. Daisy Buchanan’s life expresses these values more than any other character, her pure desire to lay in a high-class society is so intense that she puts her happiness aside, this is evident when she reveals of her past decisions, ‘She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me’. Although love was important to Daisy, it didn’t stop her from marrying Tom for his money, they do not have a loving relationship but a materialistic one, ‘They were 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’. Daisy’s child is a symbol