Adversity In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Nyree Cunningham Mrs. Keller Honors English 10-2 26 March 2024 Affluent Adversity In The Great Gatsby What happens when someone becomes consumed and blinded by money and what it can bring? This is a question that becomes increasingly valuable the further one reads into The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald. Throughout the novel, we see many characters have an infatuation with wealth and lavish lifestyles. The idea of wealth often appears with negative connotations, as people become so obsessed with riches that it leads to loss, proven true through the deaths and downfalls of livelihood in the book. Fitzgerald uses color to show the idealization of wealth can lead to misfortune which is shown through the negativity surrounding black, yellow,

“It was a yellow car, he said, “big yellow car.” (Fitzgerald, 139). Yellow is seen to represent materialism and influence, which makes the meaning and cause behind this death apparent. Myrtle is a woman who heavily desires a bright and prosperous life. Her hope for this life is displayed in a few ways, such as her little yellow house. “The only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of the edge of the waste land, a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it, and contiguous to absolutely nothing.” (Fitzgerald, 24). She carries herself in a way that a financially prosperous woman would, although, in reality, she lives in a dingy garage with a man whom she doesn’t love. Myrtle is so besotted with leading a lifestyle similar to that of a person with high social status that she pursues Tom Buchanan, a man of high status and wealth. Her desire to be with Tom is fueled by her desire to be the affluent woman she portrays herself to be. The color green, symbolizing greed and aiding in delusion, is prevalent throughout the novel, first seen as a small light across the sound as Gatsby stares in the direction of Daisy’s