Examples Of Greed In The Great Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, a young wealthy man who lives in West Egg represents new money. Gatsby attempts to win over Daisy, who represents old money, by showing off his wealth through his large parties and material items, all in order to attain his own happiness. Gatsby is willing to do anything to be with Daisy and keeps pushing to be with her even though she is out of his reach and unattainable. Gatsby ends up dying, while Daisy continues to live with her husband, Tom, because they are kept together by their mutual desire for money. Gatsby’s American Dream is unattainable, but he continues to pursue Daisy through his wealth and status, even though it leads to his corruption. To humans, this shows that dreams

Gatsby became corrupted in his quest to attain Daisy when he participated in criminal activity to earn money. He tells Nick that he “carr[ies] on a little business on the side, a sort of sideline” (Fitzgerald 82). Gatsby earns most of his money from illegal activity because of his desires to attain as much money as possible to meet Daisy’s standards which shows he is desperate and corrupted. Gatsby sees Daisy as more than just his happiness as he says, “Her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald 120). As Daisy becomes drawn to Gatsby for his new wealth, Gatsby is also drawn to Daisy’s status and wealth which shows Gatsby’s American Dream also involves wealth as a part of his happiness which causes Gatsby to become corrupted because he expects more from Daisy then just her love and happiness she bring to him. Gatsby never ends up achieving his American Dream of attaining Daisy because Gatsby realizes that Daisy herself can not live up to Gatsby illusion of her. Fitzgerald writes, “There must have been moments, even that afternoon, when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (Fitzgerald 95). Gatsby’s vision of Daisy is based on reality which makes his visions of Daisy more amazing then she really is and shows that he will never get the true Daisy he desires. Gatsby’s vision of Daisy has increased more over the years into an impossible dream that cannot be achieved. Although Gatsby seems to be happy, he doubts her ability to give him the happiness he desires because of the expectations he has developed for her that she cannot live up to. Gatsby desire for Daisy causes him to become a different person and he doubts his American Dream because it doesn’t live up to his