Examples Of Luxury In The Great Gatsby

Money is the bedrock of any civilization. It allows us to buy basic goods and services that we can not make or do by ourselves. The people with the most money can, in turn, get the best of everything and live a life of luxury. This luxury can make people act careless or reckless, as they believe they can buy their way out of any situation that they put themselves in. In F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan is the perfect example of this type of person. In the novel, the narrator Nick, watches as Daisy cheats on her husband Tom with a love struck Gatsby, who got rich for her so she can live the lifestyle she is used to. After a fight between Tom and Gatsby, Daisy runs over Myrtle Wilson with Gatsby’s car. While Daisy

This quote tells use how Daisy thinks, and how she lives her life, do what she wants and does not think of the repercussions. The reason she can do this is the protection of her money, and she will switch her feelings based on who can provide her with the most protection. Even when she seems like she will choose based on emotions, like when she was crying at Gatsby’s letter, she will always go back to financial security. “But she didn't say another word. We gave her spirits of ammonia and put ice on her forehead and hooked her back into her dress and half an hour later when we walked out of the room the pearls were around her neck and the incident was over. Next day at five o'clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver and started off on a three months' trip to the South Seas” ( Fitzgerald 76). This shows how no matter what she seems to think is the right thing to do, she will inevitable go to the money like she always does. Even when she goes back to Gatsby, she still gives hints that she will always love herself and money above all else. “‘ Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘ I love you now-- isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past’ she began to sob helplessly ‘ I did love him once -- but i love you too’” (Fitzgerald 132). The wording of this shows how

when she saw the car tom was driving in earlier and instinctively ran out, into the car now driven by Daisy. The accident itself does not make Daisy careless, but what follows does.“‘Daisy stepped on it. I tried to make her stop, but she couldn’t, so I pulled the emergency brake’” (Fitzgerald 144). Daisy did not stay to take accountability for her actions, instead, she drove away as fast as she could, only stopping when Gatsby stopped the car. After the accident she left, and was nowhere to be found. “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him, called her instinctively and without hesitation. But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon and taken baggage with them” (Fitzgerald 164). At this time, she did not know Gatsby was dead, but she did know she killed Myrtle. Her reasons are more clearly stated here, “The next day, she and Tom leave New York to avoid the fall out from the accident. She avoids contact from both Nick and Gatsby, such that we never see her response to Gatsby’s death or even her own response to killing Myrtle” (Edwards). She and tom both went so that it would seem less obvious, and because she needed to go with someone who could pay to get her far away from her actions, and the fallout that came from