Corruption In The Great Gatsby

Leonardo DiCaprio once said, “The truth is that I’ve always been fascinated with wealth in America. To me, it’s been about the American dream and the corruption of that dream.” In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young millionaire named Jay Gatsby seeks the affection of Daisy Buchanan, a married woman he courted briefly in his youth. He purchases an extravagant mansion and throws lavish parties in the hopes of gaining her attention, but she never notices. When her cousin, Nick Carraway, becomes Gatsby’s next-door neighbor, however, Gatsby uses Nick to reignite their old flame. As their affair stretches on, their connection suffers from differences in class, lifestyles, and unfulfilled dreams. Their relationship is put to an abrupt

For instance, Tom carelessly allows Wilson to kill Gatsby. He believes it is just and that his superior class gives him authority to dictate justice and the lives of those below him. However, he does not want the consequences of his actions to reflect negatively on his family’s reputation and chooses to flee East Egg. Nick shows how Tom’s decisions affect others when he says that “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” (179). Tom and Daisy’s actions develop the idea that the upper class consists of careless and selfish people. They thoughtlessly ignore their vows to one another by cheating on each other. They also show indifference to the lives of others, leaving them to suffer in the aftermath. Myrtle's and Gatsby's deaths are great examples of this. Their money allows them to ignore consequences, while others, such as Gatsby, must face their mistakes head-on. In conclusion, Fitzgerald’s portrayal of wealth presents the rich as lazy, apathetic, and self-centered