Corruption In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzegerald takes place in the roaring twenties where Nick Carroway finds himself amongst a group of ridiculously rich people all hiding secrets in their vast wealth. Most notable of these people are Gatsby and Daisy, both of whom we see revealed to be more corrupt as the novel goes on. Daisy and Gatsbys complicated romance is one of the main drivers of the story and its complications often occur in relation to money. It is easy to understand that these rich individuals are as careless and ridiculous in their actions because they are enabled to do so by their money.

The first and most obvious sign of corruption due to money amongst the group is Gatsby. In the beginning of the book we see Nick take a ride with

We see her prioritization of money late in the chapter when her past love with Gatsby is truly revealed. In chapter eight in a reference to the past her careless nature is presented with her incapability to wait for Gatsby when he leaves and she is presented with the opportunity to marry Tom. Daisy’s true priorities are made clear when she says “She wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force — of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality — that was close at hand.”. This quote truly reveals her impatience and what was truly important to her. We see that Daisy cared about two things, entertaining herself and the money which seemingly butted heads with any sense of loyalty she felt for Gatsby. The element of money was quite obvious, she wanted money over anything else she had previously cared for, over Gatsby who had supposedly been the love of her life and in turn she didn't care about anything other than money. She placed love and money as two separate factors which could replace her longing for Gatsby. They were separate possible equal factors. As for her short sense of self entertainment which she hoped to find in her life taking a “new shape”. We all know that Daisy and Tom are old money so they have grown up being tended to and entertained, being

This is a fair point. However it was not in spite of his wealth that Gatsby did not succeed in reuniting with Daisy. Gatsby had a key issue in his pursuit of Daisy and his massive wealth was probably the only thing that ever guaranteed him even the slightest chance of having her. Gatsby and Daisy's relationship was flawed on both ends however we only see Gatsby's appeal towards Daisy grow when she realizes the enormous wealth and therefore potential as a partner which he has. When Daisy says “They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before” looking back we know the true reason the author decided to add this quote is to show what truly motivated Daisy's emotional response in Gatsby. She didn't respond this emotionally over seeing him for the first time or having him actively try to find her. She responded over an example of the vast wealth which he has. In reality the reason Gatsby was not successful with Daisy was for reasons completely unrelated to his wealth and though one could claim that his wealth was not enough to make him careless there are still many more examples of his wealth allowing him to lose care enough that he could lose Daisy such as the