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Examples Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

1001 Words5 Pages

In society today it is common for a person to want something that is considered popular or trendy. It may be an object, a piece of clothing, or even a person. In the 1920s, this concept displayed itself in what is now known as the American Dream. In other words, people lusted after the accumulation of wealth and social status to lead them to the path of success and happiness. F Scott Fitzgerald built this idea up immensely in The Great Gatsby using his character’s to represent different versions of the materialistic American Dream. He depicts Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan as once lovers who have not seen each other in a few years, yet end up reconnecting. The entire time Gatsby was away from Daisy he did not stop thinking about her, unfortunately …show more content…

To him Daisy is this wonderful socially acceptable woman that loves him. As he carries on this pursuit of her he begins to realize that she is not what he created her to be. Once Daisy starts having an affair with Gatsby, he pushes her to admit that she never loved Tom and only loves him. To his surprise, she cannot admit that and instead confesses, "[she] did love [Tom] once but [she] loves [Gatsby] too.’... ‘You loved me too’ he repeated… The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.” (Fitzgerald 132) Gatsby went through hell just to be acceptable for Daisy, and she is not even able to say she only loves him. As for Daisy, divorcing her generationally wealthy, physically accomplished, and college educated husband for a guy like Gatsby is not socially acceptable. Gatsby wants Daisy all to himself because she “...represents to Gatsby the romantic fulfillment of all desire— the American Dream,” and to have her to himself would achieve his life dreams. What Gastby does not realize is that Daisy has her dream too. Daisy wants to marry a wealthy and well known man who is accepted by society and she did. Gastby coming back into her life trying to make her into something she’s not is only pushing her further

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1081 Words | 5 Pages

Tom was envious that Gatsby was receiving all the attention from Daisy. Even though Tom and Gatsby were both very wealthy and successful, Daisy has always loved Gatsby. Gatsby wanted Daisy to even tell her husband she never loved him. Gatsby says “It doesn’t matter any more. Just tell him the truth–that you never loved him–and it’s all wiped out forever” ( Fitzgerald 132).

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458 Words | 2 Pages

So she had loss feelings with George and made the Love toxic because she mentally doesn’t know who she wants anymore. Next, we have Gatsby and DAisy who both haven’t seen each other in over a five year radius. All their love was from the Green Light on Daisy’s dock which is basically a resemblance of hope and one day to have a goal of being together. But get this, the only reason that Daisy wants Gatsby as her new husband, because she wants a man who is wealthy. A quote from the book explains them of what is mentally and physically detached from each other, “they slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered from.”

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644 Words | 3 Pages

Daisy was in love with Gatsby, but married Tom because of his wealth and Gatsby was drafted for World War II. In the film, when Gatsby asks Daisy why she didn’t wait for him, she says “Because rich girls don’t marry poor boys, Jay.” In fact, Daisy does love Gatsby but classism was the chasm separating them. Melodramatically, Daisy cries out to Gatsby- I love you now- isn’t that enough?

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411 Words | 2 Pages

Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, but Gatsby’s love towards Daisy never died. Gatsby throws parties in hope to find Daisy there, he finds ways to get closer to her and once he does, he tries to conquer her again, using his possessions as a way to impress her. Daisy doesn’t appreciate Gatsby’s riches, as she comes from a wealthy family. Daisy also doesn’t appreciate the fact that Gatsby tried to win her by becoming rich, she also comments to him that she doesn’t like his parties. Daisy’s comments affect Gatsby, causing him to stop the parties and eventually lose everything.

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527 Words | 3 Pages

Gatsby is obsessed with his own idea of who Daisy is and what he remembers her as, “Almost five years! 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” (page 95). Gatsby goes through great lengths in order to become who he thinks Daisy would want, “He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths--so he could 'come over' some afternoon to a stranger's garden” (page 63).

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305 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel The Great Gatsby, Daisy is conflicted between her past lover and her current husband. Daisy should not choose neither Gatsby nor Tom because neither one truly loved Daisy. Gatsby is in love with the idea of Daisy being his girl, not another man’s girl. He is in love with the idea of Daisy, rather than Daisy herself. “It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy— It increased her value in his eyes.”

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531 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout this novel, Fitzgerald portrays an ongoing question about who Daisy really does love. Tom and Gatsby are fighting for her love in different ways throughout the novel but thru events in the book it reveals that she only loves herself. Daisy shows throughout the novel in multiple ways that she only loves herself and not Tom or Gatsby. “Daisy is a vacuous creature whose self-identity is defined by externals. She is so empty that Fitzgerald can only portray her through the qualities of another” (Gallo 45).When Daisy met Gatsby she was in love with him as she explains but she then meets Tom after many events happen and ends up marrying Tom.

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1109 Words | 5 Pages

She chooses the extravagant lifestyle that Tom is capable of providing instead of patiently waiting for her true love. The self-centered desires she displays demonstrates the lack of authetic love she promised Gatsby. Instead, she marries Tom “without so much as a shiver”, demonstrating her hedonistic mindset (76). Since Tom treats Daisy with minimal care, she thoughtlessly dives into an adulterous affair with Jay Gatsby. With no severe intentions towards marriage, she always “ought to have something in her life” to fulfill her heart (79).

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860 Words | 4 Pages

Gatsby's selfish love for Daisy begins when he is stationed at camp Taylor where he meets Daisy and began to fall in love with her, until he is shipped out for the war. When the war ends he can not go back to Daisy and instead is sent to Oxford to study. When Gatsby makes a life for himself and finally returns for Daisy she had already married Tom Buchanan as she was no longer able to wait any longer for Gatsby. Gatsby could not accept that he had been too late for Daisy and wanted Daisy to tell Tom “that you never loved him” (Fitzgerald chapter 7). While it is true that Daisy loved Gatsby she also loved Tom and could not deny his love as well, Gatsby could not accept this.

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767 Words | 4 Pages

While Gatsby was away at war Daisy moved on and married Tom. Gatsby already has so much but still wants more he wants Daisy to come live with him now that he is rich he found her and is trying to win her love back even though she is married to Tom now. But Gatsby believes that Daisy never loved Tom at all and that she only married him for his money and because she was

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1055 Words | 5 Pages

They were each other's first love which is why she stands out to Gatsby the most rather than any other woman. It has been a long five years without each other since he had left, and since then Daisy has moved on from him. People change drastically over the course of five years, they grow older and tend to be more emotionally stable. Gatsby does not show any signs of being emotionally stable to which she angrily exclaims, ¨Oh, you want too much!¨ (Fitzgerald 132).

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1016 Words | 5 Pages

Daisy, as an upper class and elegant girl, and almost unreachable for Gatsby, was a part of his American Dream. But he never realized that his love for Daisy is actually his own obsession of reaching his dream that he planed when he was young. His little disappointment after he

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1385 Words | 6 Pages

which illustrates that Daisy had decided that Gatsby was no longer someone she cared to know, and turned her back on him even in death. It was announced that Gatsby was only ever a second choice to Daisy, and his entire journey leading up to his success was nothing compared to the respect and class Daisy’s husband, Tom Buchanan, carried. At the parties Gatsby hosted in attempts to reunite with his lover and blend in with the wealthy, it was clear that he himself was oddly over enthusiastic about the powerful people that joined in and did not know how to act upon their expectations. However, this came off in the wrong way for people who looked in from the outside, “‘My God, I believe the man’s coming,” said Tom. ‘Doesn't he know she doesn't want him’”

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Fitzgerald makes it apparent throughout the novel that Gatsby does everything in hopes to compete against Tom and impress Daisy. For example, Gatsby throws lavish parties every weekend with the hope that Daisy will stumble in, and then they will be reunited and return to their old ways. Additionally, when Gatsby moves to the West Egg, he purposefully purchases an extravagant mansion near the Buchanan’s mansion where he can view their emerald light on his dock. Throughout the duration of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby noticeably envies Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, for seizing the life that Gatsby was not able to achieve. Gatsby longs to return to the passionate relationship they had five years prior and maybe even create a family similar to the family Daisy has with Tom.

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1558 Words | 7 Pages

The American dream states that any individual can achieve success regardless of family history, race, and/or religion simply by working hard. The 1920’s were a time of corruption and demise of moral values in society. The first World War had passed, and people were reveling in the materialism that came at the end of it, such as advanced technology and innovative inventions. The novel The Great Gatsby exploits the theme of the American Dream as it takes place in a corrupt period in history. Although the American Dream seemed more attainable than ever in the 1920’s, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby demonstrates how materialism and the demise of moral values in society leads to the corruption and impossibility of the American Dream.

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