Examples Of Greed In The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby, a technicolor representation of The Roaring Twenties by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The titular Gatsby, born to an impoverished midwestern family, reaches the top. He amasses a fortune to make Bill Gates resentful, and fame that even the Kardashians would envy. However, for all the bright times, and opulent parties, there remains a hint of something… off. In the “world” of The Great Gatsby, one must have money, and one must be consumed by it. There is a limitless decadance to the lives of the characters in The Great Gatsby. The parties never stop, and neither does the greed. The need for more, more jewels, more mansions, more money, more green. It is never about who you are, it’s about what you have in Gatsby’s world. Gatsby’s …show more content…

Their greed is not a matter of self-improvement. It is just who they are. The world of wealth and greed is the world they were born into. Since they were born into it, they are eternally stagnant in it. It is their world continuing as it always has, as it always will. Daisy cuts Gatsby off and marries Tom. Tom and Daisy's… enthusiasm to maintain their glamorous, entitled lives makes the people in their lives expendable. Though Daisy seems to have loved Gatsby in her own way, “[...] her mother had found her packing her bag one winter; and say goodbye to a soldier...” (76) she still gives him the boot. When he enters her life once again, she again sacrifices him to secure her own comfort. Tom Buchanan is a similar individual. He comes from old money and he knows how to utilize it. When Daisy unwittingly kills Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s paramour with Gatsby's car, Tom forces the blame onto Gatsby, who takes it for Daisy, “‘Was Daisy driving?’; ‘Yes,’ He said after a moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was.’” (144) and in turn Gatsby is murdered in vindication. In response, Tom uses his money to get himself and Daisy out of town, covering up the crime easily and with little compassion. For Tom and Daisy, people are like money: a means to an