Examples Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby: A Critique of the Excess and Illusions of the American Dream

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's iconic novel set in the Jazz Age, is not only a timeless love story but also a social commentary on the excesses, inequalities, and illusions of the American Dream. The novel centres on Jay Gatsby, a typical 1920s man pursuing the American Dream, F. Scott Fitzgerald employs Gatsby to expose the disillusionment of this dream, while Daisy and Tom Buchanan personify the wealthy elite of the Jazz Age, of which Fitzgerald was a member, both Daisy and Tom are portrayed as shallow self-centred, and superficial. This paper examines the theme of the Jazz Age's excess and materialism through characters such as Gatsby and Daisy, exploring

Gatsby’s excessive parties and materialistic pursuits have left him lonely and empty, as it is all in the hopes of winning Daisy back. In a conversation between Nick and Jordan about Gatsby and Daisy, Jordan says, "‘It was a strange coincidence,’ I said. ‘But it wasn’t a coincidence at all. ’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay" (83). The novel is a critique of the American Dream and Fitzgerald’s interpretation of the false ideology: "It portrays the doomed passion of rich Jay Gatsby for Daisy Buchanan and evokes the sophistication and squalor of New York. The book is remarkable for describing the glamour and the dream of Gatsby, showing the hollowness of this vision as it turns to dust" (Bobek 36). Even with all his material success and his pursuit of the American Dream, Gatsby is empty and still in search of fulfillment, while he has achieved the American Dream by all standards of being a self-made man with a rags-to-riches story, he lacks substance and connection to others. Similarly to Gatsby, Tom has achieved everything the American Dream is about in his materialistic success and marriage, yet he is still unfulfilled and wants to regain the thrill and climax he experienced in his youth. During the opening of the book, Nick describes Tom and his successes: "Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards saviours of anti-climax" (10). Tom is the embodiment of the American Dream with his