preview

The Great Gatsby Myrtle's Downfall

Decent Essays
Open Document

The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, follows Jay Gatsby, a man who revolves his life around one wish: to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years ago. Gatsby's mission leads him from poverty to prosperity, into the arms of his cherished woman, and eventually to death. This story shows what happened to the American dream, which is considered being wealthy, happy and famous in the 1920s-1930s, this was a time period in which when the dreams of being wealthy became tainted anyways by people going psychotic. The American dream not only caused corruption but it also caused a lot of destruction. Myrtle, Daisy, Gatsby and other Americans were all ruined and corrupted because of the American Dream. Wanting an astonishing …show more content…

She looked at Tom in a different way, because he is rich and he can buy his own suit for his own wedding. She is attracted to not only Tom’s appearance, but also his money. She believes that Tom is the ideal image of the American Dream, Myrtle is considered poor and lower class, so she doesn’t have much money. If that doesn’t tell the reader something than nothing will. She sleeps with Tom to inch her way into an upper class status. There is new and old money in this story, new money is when you do something to become wealthy, which is what Gatsby did, and old money is when you were born rich, like Tom. [Note: People who are upper class are ones who have lots of money. They have fancy cars, fancy houses and much more] Myrtle is not upper class but she does desire to be. This later on causes her death, said above, everybody later finds out that Daisy was the one who hit Myrtle with her car which resulted in Myrtle’s death. Daisy killed Myrtle because she was having an affair with Tom, Daisy’s husband. This shows how the desire for a rich and luxurious life like the American Dream, only caused destruction in this

Get Access