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Examples Of Hollowness In The Great Gatsby

1365 Words6 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel "The Great Gatsby", the author paints a vivid picture of the roaring twenties, a time of wealth and extravagance for many Americans. However the wealthy of this time period would often commit corrupt and hollow acts during this time period, simply for personal gain. Fitzgerald's novel mainly centers around the newly wealthy Jay Gatsby, and his love for the beautiful but married Daisy Buchanan and the things he would do to try and win her over. Through his portrayal of the characters and their actions, Fitzgerald explores the theme of the hollowness or selfishness, among the rich and wealthy of this time period.
To start off, Fitzgerald portrays the hollowness of the rich and wealthy of his novel as being consumed by their own personal desires. A great example of this is seen in the character of Jay …show more content…

Gatsby is a newly rich man who has moved into West Egg, a place where all the “new money” people live, and is trying to win the love of his past love, who is now also married, Daisy Buchanan. However the way that Gatsby tries to accomplish this desire of his is in a really hollow method, through flaunting his wealth. In the novel, Gatsby is known for throwing extravagant parties every weekend but the reason he throws these said parties is because he was attempting to lure Daisy into going to one of them as seen when Jordan said “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night, … but she never did.” (Fitzgerald 79). The reason that these parties can be considered hollow is due to the fact that Gatsby is not only willing to spend money to fund these parties but also is willing to allow random strangers into his home in the hopes that Daisy might wander in, instead of inviting

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