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Examples Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

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The American Dream In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the elaborate story of a man, Jay Gatsby, and how he is reunited with his love after five years as he is trying to achieve the American dream. The American dream is the dream of wealth, love, and success. Some people view the American dream as the ultimate achievement but even success and money can’t make people happy forever. Fitzgerald's message is that the American dream may seem appealing; however, the reality is that the dream is based on materialism, corrupted, and impossible. Fitzgerald demonstrates the idea of materialism in the characters of the story along with all the wealth, fancy mansions, and extravagant parties. In the novel, the character Daisy Buchanan is seen …show more content…

. . Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything . . . Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!” This shows how prideful she is and self-centered talking about herself. She says that she is sophisticated because of her materialistic mindset of showing off what she already knows and her many experiences. Her lack of thought regarding others, reveals that she chooses materialistic things over meaningful relationships with others. However, she married Tom Buchanan for his wealth although he cheats. “Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart, I love her all the time.” (Fitzgerald 131) Since she is a materialistic person, even the feeling of love can’t make her choose it compared to all the money, cars, and expensive lifestyle. Even Nick says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then …show more content…

The quote, “tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...And one fine morning” This emphasizes the idea that people will continue to reach for this dream no matter how long or what it takes. Fitzgerald’s message is that you can’t reach the ultimate goal of being happy, being wealthy, being in love, and having a bright future. It just simply isn’t attainable. This is simply because money can’t buy someone's love. For example, Gatsby is a wealthy gentleman but Daisy chooses Tom over him because She didn’t want to wait for Gatsby to get back despite loving him more. “She wanted her life shaped now, immediately—and the decision must be made by some force—of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality—that was close at hand.”( Fitzgerald 151) Another example is how no matter what you already have or get, it will never be enough to make the American dream out of reach. The fact that all the characters in the novel have aspects of the American dream but can never attain it and be fully happy with what they

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It is always so close but still so far out of reach. Gatsby’s past with Daisy was keeping him from achieving true happiness because she would never love him the way he loved her. The fact that Gatsby managed to amass such wealth was impressive itself, but even though he managed to do that, he did not achieve his goal. This is proof of how unattainable the American Dream was in Fitzgerald’s opinion.

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The Young Lords Movement is national movement that allowed Bodega to obtain the favor of Spanish Harlem easily because of its failures. The Young Lords movement was a Puerto Rican civil rights movement in the 1960’s that implemented violence to obtain recognition and equality as Puerto Ricans and better living conditions within their communities in New York and Chicago. As the Young Lords Party, the branch in New York, became increasingly involved in using armed movements and guerrilla tactics to make a stance in America, they ultimately reached their downfall. The new movement that Bodega inspires, however, is not one that uses weaponry to make proclamations about Nuyoricans to the outside world but one that restores the barrio from within

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518 Words | 3 Pages

Scott Fitzgerald depicts the theme of “wealth can breed carelessness” using point of view. In the text, Nick describes the truth about Tom and Daisy, “I couldn 't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (191) At the end of the story, Nick views Tom and Daisy as careless people. This example depicts “wealth can breed carelessness” by Nick’s perspective because the most critical things that Tom and Daisy had done in this story was ruined other people 's lives, such as leading Myrtle, Gatsby, and George to their deaths, showing no remorse for their actions, and cared only about themselves and their

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854 Words | 4 Pages

Daisy could have married the man that she truly loved if she was not wealthy. It is easy for a wealthy person to not care about other people and live an extravagant life. After he meets up with Tom, Nick declares, “... Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness... let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 179).

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1451 Words | 6 Pages

The historic American dream (the one in The Great Gatsby) was more achievable back then but now we can not achieve it due to countless problems that have developed over the years. Overall Fitzgerald's' version of the American dream in The Great Gatsby is very different from today’s version because of the attainability, happiness, economically, and

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904 Words | 4 Pages

When it was time for Daisy to move on in her life she would need someone to take care of her and to pay for her expenses, since Gatsby wasn’t actually rich and only acted to be she left him, setting the story in motion, and soon after she found Tom. Tom seemed to be the perfect match for Daisy because he was exactly what she desired, Rich, “Tom Buchanan is wealth brutalized by selfishness and arrogance… that is why Daisy chose him” (Taylor 6). But when reunited with a much wealthier Gatsby, she grows closer to him like before and finally decides that she should leave Tom for him. Like before how Gatsby fell in love with Daisy’s wealth, Daisy fell in love with the wealth that Gatsby represents, “Daisy does not like Gatsby for himself, but for the superficial illusion he represented” (Fredrick 4).

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601 Words | 3 Pages

Thesis: Fitzgerald conveys the two groups of old and new money through greediness and their lives growing up. Throughout the book, greediness is conveyed through both Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Jay Gatsby is presented at first as a poor farmer who was fascinated with Daisy. Jay Gatsby is shown as new money with the occurring wealth of his drug stores and a bootlegging business. Jay Gatsby’s constant want of being rich never paid off since his relationship with Daisy fails, “I can’t speak about what happened five years ago because I didn’t know Daisy then — and I’ll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her unless you brought the groceries to the back door.

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915 Words | 4 Pages

Both of these characters show that they think the only way to form a loving connection with another person is by showering them with materialistic gifts or proudly flaunting their plethora of affluence which exhibits how they don’t truly want the love of Daisy but just the validation of being seen as rich or successful. Through these scenarios, Fitzgerald illustrates how when people continually chase after more and more abundance, they lose sight of the happiness that comes from relationships with

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418 Words | 2 Pages

The American dream is an important time in our lives that describes freedom of rights and equality. Gatsby’s embodiment of the American dream reveals the beginning of being born poor until he rose to success when his social status and wealth went up. Fitzgerald illustrates why the materialism of the American dream doesn’t guarantee happiness. The American Dream is an ideal that any person in America can be happy regardless of hard work and determination. The disadvantages rely on George and Gatsby at the end of their destruction of the American dream.

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484 Words | 2 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, characters have very distinct identities that develop throughout the book and many inferences are needed to understand the characters. One example of this is Daisy Buchanan. Daisy Buchanan cares greatly about wealth and is a very careless person. Throughout the novel, many of her decisions are due to her greed and carelessness, even though those decisions may not be the best decisions for her. Daisy displays her greed throughout the novel; she marries Tom Buchanan because of his wealth.

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650 Words | 3 Pages

For example, Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, is married to a hard working husband, when she initially meets Tom on the train, she doesn’t falls in love with him, she falls in love with the way he wears like a gentleman, “He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes, and I couldn’t keep my eyes off him” (Fitzgerald 36). Regardless of being physically abused by Tom Buchanan, she still tolerated his violent behaviors to be closer to her ideal American dream: receiving the power of money. Even though wealthy people have the power of their riches to purchase their materialistic commodities, money fails to provide enough power to successfully complete their American dream as well as pursue their felicity. To illustrate, Jay Gatsby invited Daisy over to his mansion to demonstrate his fortune and success to her, he was convinced that his large fortune would be enough to urge her to divorce her husband, Tom Buchanan, and return back to him. However, Gatsby’s dreams were crushed when he doesn’t successfully persuade Daisy to divorce Tom and get married with

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772 Words | 4 Pages

"The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream." In this quote, by Azar Nafisi, it explains how dreaming can be tainted by reality, and that if a person doesn’t compromise they may suffer. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is one the many themes present. The American Dream that most people in this book hope to have involves wealth, status, a fun social life, and someone to lust after. It is the life they all strive to have until they obtain it and see its meaningless composure.

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1133 Words | 5 Pages

Fitzgerald focused on the shift in the American Dream - from being the idea of self-fulfillment, dignity and comfort that is achieved through hard work, to being equated with the pursuit of wealth and power, and identifying happiness with having money. The novel depicts the rise and fall of the concept and describes the causes of its decay. The downfall of the American Dream is most accurately shown through the main protagonist of the story – Jay Gatsby. To reiterate, the American Dream is the concept that anyone can achieve a better life and become self-fulfilled, if they put enough effort to it and make the most of their abilities.

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1530 Words | 7 Pages

In Tom and Daisy’s relationship, it shows that money can ruin relationships but if you see past that barrier of money there are little pieces of love that stand out more than money. However, at the end of the day Tom and Daisy have money, are united, but they are not happy with each other. Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy includes both money and love. By this Fitzgerald is suggesting that it is possible to have love, however, it leads to difficulties because you can either have the dedication of Gatsby trying to get what he wants and never give up, or you can accept reality and realize how you will not be able to achieve your

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862 Words | 4 Pages

They believed what Fitzgerald is trying to show, the impossibility of achieving happiness through the “American Dream”. In other words, money won’t necessarily bring

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