Wealth In The Great Gatsby

​Nick Caraway moves from Minnesota to the West Egg neighborhood on Long Island to pursue a career in the bond industry. He lives in a tiny house wedged between large, expansive mansions. His neighbor, Jay Gatsby, is a well todo man with a mysterious past. Everyone in town knows Mr. Gatsby for his huge wild parties, but no one is quite sure where he has acquired his wealth. Across from Gatsby’s mansion, Nick’s cousin Daisy lives with her husband Tom Buchanan. Daisy and Tom have a complex relationship where neither of them are happy, but they will not separate even though both have been unfaithful. Tom has a mistress in the city whom is not unbeknownst to Daisy. Gatsby and Daisy have a romantic history from when Gatsby was in the army. This is the motivation behind Gatsby’s desire to acquire all his wealth. Gatsby throws his parties in an attempt to get Daisy’s attention, but Daisy is completely unaware that he is her neighbor until Nick brings them together. Though Nick is not a considerably wealthy man himself, his relationship to the Buchanans, and now Gatsby, are enough to keep him relevant in the social circles of East Egg and West Egg. Nick’s connection to Daisy also makes him highly attractive to Gatsby as all he wants is some form of an interaction with Daisy and involving himself with Nick is an easy way for Gatsby to make his way into Daisy’s life again. Money is power in the Great Gatsby, as it influences everyone’s status, aspirations,

Often or not the American dream is forgotten by its people and they are caught up in the fast pace of the world surrounding them. The world has this problem often enough and no one truly realizes it before its too late. they great depression was caused by this reason. people so caught up in their wealth and greed that they forgot and were left wondering what happened to them. The book great Gatsby has many references to how wealth can change a man. It turned a man like Gatsby to illegal means to gain riches. He did all this just so in the eyes of Daisy he would be worthy of her. While there are innocent means behind this he still was caught up in the "rat race" as some would say it. The book has dozens of references to show how being

Many people are extremely obsessed with how others perceive them, and will go to a large extent to show off to others to be well liked. This is very true for many of the characters in the novel The Great Gatsby, specifically one of the main characters, Jay Gatsby. A key detail about Gatsby is his obsession with his wealth. The character Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby

Wealth is the average picture of the good life. Many in this world stride to become wealthy and live a luxurious life. Being wealthy determines a certain lifestyle considering the way you live and even where you live. If you were to look up wealth in a dictionary it would say wealth is an abundance of money. Gatsby the main character of the book The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald just so happens to be living the wealthy lifestyle. In the book it shows many different types of lifestyles during this era. Another character that goes by the name Tom Buchanon lives on a large property. They describe his home as “more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion…” (Fitzgerald 6). Which at this time is rare to own. His house is large and elegant he had a large inheritance of money that he used for the “look” of his family. Then to see the other side of the world there was a place called the “valley of ashes” that has no wealth at all this is where Wilson and Myrtle lived. It was explained as “....a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys….” (Fitzgerald 23). This is how Fitzgerald describes the poor side of town. The valley of ashes is the dirty and poor industrial zone back then. There were many ties between the different groups back then of West Egg and East Egg.

In today’s society, people are judged by their values or are frightened to take sacrifices to better benefit their lifestyle. Characters like Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and Myrtle are shown as evidence of greed and how wealth surrounds their values. Fitzgerald uses social commentary to offer a glance of an American life in the 1920s. He carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups, but in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving powerful ideas for readers to adapt(add morals characters inhabit). By creating distinct social classes, old money, new money, and no money, Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism running throughout every perspective of society. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays characters like Nick,

Wealth can develop a unique interpretation upon a person’s life and can impact their future. Wealth can be such a strong impact on someone that can determine whether they’re selfish or a given person. Wealth can definitely be overpowering and misleading, which could portray their true identity. In the historical fiction novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it shows us how misleading wealth can be in a person’s life.

Daisy Buchanan is a very materialistic woman. Not only does she marry Tom Buchanan, a wealthy man, she believes that money makes everything better. Her ideologies about wealth, and the fact that she pays dearly for her wealth and fails to care, shows her obsession with financial stability. In a sense, regardless of how badly Tom treats her, she fails to care. Instead, she holds tightly to the idea that money is the cure-all for everything. The night before their wedding, she wants to call everything off and not marry him but she decides to go through with it because of her desire of money. Daisy and Gatsby get reunited 5 years later and Daisy is filled with regret regarding her decision to marry Tom. Tom cheated on Daisy on their honeymoon,

Ultimately sacrificing her desire to pursue her relationship with Gatsby, someone with who she had fallen in love, Daisy chose to marry Tom, a wealthy and old-money aristocrat. Clearly still in love with Gatsby, on the night of the wedding, Daisy became “as drunk as a monkey” with a letter in hand telling Jordan that “Daisy’s change’ her mine!” (Fitzgerald 81). Yet, Daisy finally prioritizes wealth over love as “next day... she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver” (Fitzgerald 81). The ultimate goal in the 1920s, according to Daisy, was to marry rich and lead a life full of lavishness and money, instead of pursuing love and in order to succeed in the 1920s, wealth was necessary. Daisy further represents the materialism evident in the 1920s when she is attracted to Gatsby due to the newfound wealth he has. When spotting the collection of shirts he had, she” began to cry stormily” and sobbed “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful shirts before” (Fitzgerald 98) expressing her superficial nature. Daisy’s response reveals that “she shows more emotion for Gatsby’s possessions than for Gatsby” (Posnock 208). Daisy even symbolizes money through her voice since Daisy’s voice is said to be “full of money” (Fitzgerald 127). Daisy’s voice symbolizes the reason why everyone like Gatsby

After going through the “Great War,” also known as World War I, soldiers came back home in the middle of prohibition, a time where the almost all recreational alcohol was illegal. Despite the government's intentions to protect the people from alcohol abuse, prohibition forced people to find unorthodox ways of attaining alcohol. Prohibition unofficially made people rich because so people made lots and lots of money making and selling alcohol illegally–bootlegging. This is the setting for the famous novel, The Great Gatsby. In this book, F. Scott Fitzgerald exemplifies the true corrupting nature of wealth and shows just how powerful the desire for money can be through the corruption of the American dream, Gatsby’s dream, and the main characters.

"Greed, as distinguished from honest reward for labor, leads to corruption. To fatten oneself on it is to be compromised."(Lathbury 64). Several characters in The Great Gatsby struggle with their obsessions with wealth. Their lives depend upon their money and what it can do for them. These obsessions lead to greed, and to the corruption of relationships and lives. In F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby, the obsession with wealth leads to issues for many characters.

In life everyone strives to get rich, but is having an abundance of money always good? Sometimes people use Money for personal benefits, sometimes it's for the benefit of others but at times people with money use it to create their social status. In The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald the idea of wealth is seen throughout. Jay Gatsby who lives next door to Nick Carraway; the Narrator of the story, wants to be with his dream girl Daisy. Gatsby is wealthy and throws parties to impress Daisy, Daisy however is married to another man Tom Buchanan. Throughout the story the people with money use it to create their social status. In The Great Gatsby F.Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism to convey, wealth causes people to assert themselves over others.

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

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his acclaimed literary platform, The Great Gatsby, to expound his views of the American Dream. He did so during a period in our history when no one would give the time of day towards someone critiquing their ‘dreams’. Fitzgerald uses the varying economic classes of his characters to show us that the American Dream was merely an elaborate illusion. Fitzgerald describes it in his novel as an eluded promise, one that pledged to grant Americans the ultimate goal of wealth and perfection, but often led to turning those who were unable to reach it into forsaken ‘disappointments’ to the upper class. The author uses two examples of the way wealth works in this era of the Roaring Twenties, Gatsby and the Buchanans.

In the award winning book, The Great Gatsby, some of the characters are unsatisfied with their lives, whether they were rich or poor, employed or jobless, had a good reputation, or bad, their families, and even their personal histories. Those who have read the excellently written book, most of the characters are pretty wealthy. People tend to think that happiness if having what they want physically, like goods and money. But even the wealthiest people tend to be depressed or unhappy with the life they have. Characters in that category include Mr. Wilson, Daisy, and Mr. Gatsby himself. Happiness isn’t acquired by wealth, it’s acquired by love and being able to be content and stable with their daily lives.