Examples Of Greed In The Great Gatsby

The novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published the 10th of may 1925, revolves around the main character Jay Gatsby as well as Nick Caraway. All of Nick’s supposed friends are very self-centered and greedy. I believe that the characters in the novel personify greed. The novel is told through narration from the character Nick Caraway. Nick moves to New York after recently graduating from Yale University. When he moves to New York he get’s Jay Gatsby as a neighbor. Gatsby lives an extravagant lifestyle spending money on parties. Nick, at a later point, learns that the reason Gatsby lives here he does is because he’s in love with Nick's cousin, Daisy. Nick later introduces Daisy to Gatsby. Towards the ending of the novel

The characters portat different tiers of greed. At the highest tier, so to say the most greedy, is occupied by Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Tom and Daisy are arguably the most greedy people in the whole novel. They did not have to make their way up the ranks as Tom was born into a rich family and daisy also being born into a wealthy family. Daisy is in love with Gatsby, but as war comes Gatsby has to serve his role in it. Daisy could simply wait for Gatsby to come home after the war, but Gatsby comes from a less wealthy family. She meets Tom, the heir of wealthy family, and she marries him. They have such a large desire to keep their money and status that they use others as if they’re there to serve them. An example of this is, once again, how Daisy uses Gatsby to get away with killing Myrtle. Daisy also says ”I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” With this she means that the best thing a girl can do is to marry a wealthy man. She is willing to sacrifice all integrity just to become wealthy. The main character, Jay Gatsby, does not project the same kind of greediness. He is the ideal in the view of the American dream, except from the fact that he does not have a family. He does not care for the wealth that he has built up as it is just a tool for him to get Daisy. The way that he is greedy is how much he wants Daisy. He cannot simply settle for having Daisy, he need her to say that she never even loved Tom, much like greediness in money means you want more and once you get it you want even more. Nick, unlike Tom and Daisy, is not born into wealth but he aspires to have it. He attaches himself with other, more wealthy to him to get a taste of what wealth brings. In the end he does not get what he wants, but he realizes that to become what he wanted one has to sell their soul, losing compassion for