Examples Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

The Prominence of Materialism in The Great Gatsby

Materialism, a new 20th century way of living is displayed throughout The Great Gatsby. This new style of life creates a lot of problems in the day to day lives of the characters in the novel. Materialism takes over the lives of so many characters throughout The Great Gatsby. This form of living causes internal and external struggles in these characters lives. Due to these characters embracing materialism in their lives, it causes the characters to have conflicts so that they can receive personal gain in their lives.

In The Great Gatsby the main character Jay Gatsby life has been taken over by materialism. Gatsby’s way of living can be seen by just looking at his estate as he lives in

Nick’s sarcastic point of view makes it clear that Gatsby throws these huge and grand parties for anybody to come: “little party" (Fitzgerald 41). As the novel goes on it is revealed that Gatsby stages all of these parties just to try to get Daisy to attend one of his parties. In essence all of this Gatsby has acquired and has to jump through hoops to get is only being used so that maybe Daisy will show up on his doorstep. This creates an internal inside conflict because he is constantly struggling to find ways for his assets to bring Daisy to his mansion: “He wants her to see his house” (Fitzgerald 79). Gatsby even uses Nick as a tool to bring Daisy and him back together in hopes of rekindling their past relationship (Fitzgerald 96). Gatsby uses Nick primarily to reconnect with Daisy because of the fact that Nick is Daisy’s cousin (Fitzgerald 5). Since Nick is Daisy’s cousin Gatsby has Nick invite Daisy over for tea where he will just conveniently be there to finally see her (Fitzgerald 79). This is Gatsby’s resolution to his conflict of not being able to see Daisy because it is not weird for Nick and Daisy to meet up. However, even though Gatsby tries to script his entire lift this only creates another conflict as soon as he solved the one about seeing

This can be seen just from her decision to marry Tom Buchanan. Tom is a very wealthy man and his wealth has traveled which he has lived with from his childhood all the way to his adult life (Fitzgerald 6). From her choice to marry Tom it is clear that Daisy’s heart is kept by whoever dangles more money and luxuries in front of her face. When Daisy faces the internal conflict of deciding whether to wait for Gatsby or marry Tom, Gatsby even admits years down that he was living a life full of poverty while Tom promised Daisy a future with a life of luxury (Fitzgerald 130). Within Gatsby’s statement he tries to make the claim that Daisy never had feelings for Tom (Fitzgerald 130). This means that Gatsby is claiming that she married Tom for his wealth proving how materialistic Daisy really is even to the point where Gatsby knows about it. This internal conflict continues to revolve around materialism when Daisy finally visits Gatsby’s mansion. Gatsby tells her about the luxurious shirts he has imported from overseas constantly throughout the year (Fitzgerald 92). This fuels the internal conflict about who she loves to the point where she starts crying and wiping her eyes with these shirts (Fitzgerald 92). She has such an emotional reaction because she has come to the conclusion in this internal struggle that she could have lived the luxurious life that she has always wanted with