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Examples Of Money In The Great Gatsby

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Can money give you happiness? People often think the source of all happiness is money. They spend their life making every decision based on money in an attempt to become wealthy. Jay Gatsby believes he can get Daisy to love him again by becoming rich, that money would make him happy, and that he could live a life with dishonest morals as long as he had money. In F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby's desire for wealth is a fatal flaw because it prevents him from finding true love, being truly happy, and living an honest life. Throughout the book, Jay Gatsby believes the only way he will get Daisy to fall in love with him again is by becoming rich. “Gatsby’s motivation for assuming his fortune is to impress and regain Daisy, whom …show more content…

“A careful reader of The Great Gatsby will see that Fitzgerald thought this single-minded pursuit of wealth could lead to disaster, both psychological and material” (Gross 150). Jay Gatsby spent his whole life trying to win Daisy’s love by becoming wealthy, but his endless pursuit of wealth ultimately led to his death in the end. “His murder results from the careless attitudes of the elitist class, of which Gatsby desperately wishes to be a part of” (Wyly 45). Gatsby is murdered because of the carelessness of the upper class which he has spent his whole life trying to be a part of. After many years of working very hard, Gatsby is able to attain the wealth he has always dreamed of. He moves to West Egg right across from Daisy to attempt to impress her with his huge house. He throws elaborate parties in the hope that Daisy will come to one of them so they can rekindle their relationship. Gatsby eventually gets the chance to meet Daisy at his neighbor's house. After talking with Daisy he invites her over to his house so he can show her around his house. This shows how obsessed with money Gatsby was because he did not want the day to end without showing Daisy how big of a house and how much money he has. “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” (Fitzgerald …show more content…

“He continues to confide in him because he finds Nick to be a genuine friend- again, something he severely lacks, as his poor funeral attendance suggests” (Best Character Analysis: Jay Gatsby - The Great Gatsby). After Gatsby gets what he wanted out of Nick he realizes he is actually a good friend and so he continues to be friends with him. Throughout the book, Gatsby also lies about his past. He lies about his childhood and says he grew up in a wealthy family because to him it would be embarrassing to admit he used to be poor. He also lies about how he earned all of his money. He will not tell anyone the truth about how he attained his wealth, which leads people to come up with rumors about Jay Gatsby. In Chapter 4, he spends more time with Nick, telling him about his service in WWI as well as a made-up story about his past as the only surviving member of a wealthy family. Not only is Gatsby friends with Nick for all the wrong reasons, but he also lies about his past to him. This shows how Gatsby put all of his morals and values on the back burner because he thought money and Daisy were more important. He thought if he told the truth to Nick about being poor in his past and his history with Daisy that he would not be willing to help him. Jay Gatsby did not live an honest life because of his obsession with wealth and

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469 Words | 2 Pages

Through dialogue we find out that he is a great liar and has basically everyone convinced that he went to Oxford and inherited his money. As for Gatsby’s morals, he obviously doesn’t have very good morals if he’s a bootlegger and is affiliated with gangsters. By chapter six Nick seems to be Gatsby’s best friend almost. Gatsby tells everything to Nick and is always going to him for help. At the beginning of chapter 1, one of the first things that Nick tells us is that he’s not a very judgemental person but throughout chapter six that’s almost all he does.

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1983 Words | 8 Pages

The character of Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby wasn’t about to obtain his “American Dream” which was Daisy Buchanan the golden girl because he was initially a part of the lower class. However, Daisy was a part if East Egg. She has always been rich, because of that she cannot be with Gatsby. Since Gatsby was initially a part of the low class he had to work hard to get money/wealth so that he could get Daisy’s attention and to be with her. Gatsby believed that he could have Daisy if he had a lot of money and had a big house, etc.

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1374 Words | 6 Pages

Gatsby has spent his whole life trying to prove to Daisy and everyone around him that he is worthy of her. The only way to be on the same social level as her is to turn himself into new money. Since this is not possible, he has to try to convince to others that he truly is old money. To do this, he becomes rich, and lies about his past, but the only way for him to complete this idea is if he is with Daisy. She is the final piece in his American dream.

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1003 Words | 5 Pages

Wealthy people during the 1920s were very careless and shallow. As the richer, they became the more they fade away from their morals. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, he writes about Gatsby’s destiny and how people during that society “helped” him. The only help that he got was people’s shallowness. Gatsby’s destiny was to have Daisy fall in love with him again by using his wealth.

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411 Words | 2 Pages

Greatness is gained and kept with responsibility, it is not found in those who are just wealthy, but in those who are grateful, truthful, and noble. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, displays the story of a rich man, Jay Gatsby who had it all. Gatsby was a millionaire, he owned luxurious cars, and he lived in a mansion in which he threw extravagant parties. But Gatsby was missing the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, who he had broken up with because at the time he was poor and he felt he was too poor to give her the lifestyle she deserved. It is rumored that Gatsby got his money through bootlegging, and that is what Gatsby did to get Daisy back.

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449 Words | 2 Pages

Everything from Gatsby’s past was wrapped into his relationship with Nick, our narrator. Nick was involved from the start, serving as a bridge between Gatsby’s insecurities and Daisy’s failing marriage. Jay Gatsby’s character held an incredible focus on the past. That focus is what led him to where he was when we were first introduced

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293 Words | 2 Pages

In F, Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Mr Fitzerald’s gives off the notion that money can not guarantee happiness. All the main characters in the book who have money are all unhappy with their lives. For example, Gatsby, He becomes wealthy because Daisey would not marry him without money and he still doesn't get her even when he gets wealthy so he is still left unhappy even with his money. "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds.

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597 Words | 3 Pages

Therefore making the argument that Gatsby is a compulsive, obsessive, and delusional charter. Throughout the entire novel, Nick is trying to figure out who Gatsby really is and if any of the things he has told him are true. Spoiler: not much of what Gatsby says to Nick at first is the truth. To start off Gatsby claims, “I am the son of some wealthy people in the MidWest- all dead now” (page 64).

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1393 Words | 6 Pages

Gatsby is “orchestrating his parties and displaying his wealth” to attract Daisy (Froehlich 5). Gatsby needed to be rich in order to marry Daisy and now that he is rich enough, he wants to gain her attention by holding fancy parties, and fall in love with her again. Nick says that “[Gatsby] must have felt that he had lost the old warm world” when he and Daisy used to love each other, and he “paid a high price for living too long with a single dream” which is to get her back. (Fitzgerald 161). Gatsby’s main dream after becoming rich is to fall back in love with Daisy which he was not able to fulfill because Tom’s wealth is too much in comparison to Gatsby’s love for Daisy to turn down, so she chose Tom’s money over Gatsby’s

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the novel the reader sees Jay Gatsby alter everything in his life just to accommodate for his precious Daisy. Gatsby even gets himself into illegal business with Myer Wolfsheim whom has the “Finest specimens of human molars” (Fitzgerald 72) as his cuff links. The main purpose for Gatsby’s persuit of wealth is to obtain Daisy. When they had first fallen in love Gatsby was told he would never marry her because poor boys don’t marry rich girls. This ignited a fire in Gatsby’s heart and motivated him to become wealthy.

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499 Words | 2 Pages

Some say the American Dream is exceptionally attainable if one tries hard enough. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald questions this statement by presenting a novel that portrays how the result of the American Dream--wealth--causes destruction. Fitzgerald also argues that trying to fit in where one desires to is not always the best idea. Fitzgerald uses a multitude of examples from his novel to present his argument. Fitzgerald used geography--East and West Egg--to depict the American Dream.

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

In reality, Gatsby came from a poor farmer family in North Dakota and obtained his wealth through unlawful means. Gatsby was a bootlegger and a drug dealer that had ties to the mob. Gatsby was though in fact a soldier in the war and accomplished many things there, however, Gatsby did not attend Oxford as a student but was stranded there as a soldier. The false pretenses Gatsby put in place were done to give him a sense of prestige and power. Gatsby did not want people knowing about his humble beginnings, he wanted to be good enough for Daisy and he believed only a wealthy man could ever be enough for her.

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885 Words | 4 Pages

“The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about fortune, love, and greed. These topics are heavily portrayed through the theme of Old Money v. New Money. Old Money v. New Money is essentially representing the divide between the people who are born rich, (old money), and the people who have recently acquired their wealth (new money). This is further shown by the literal divide of the two groups of people in their respective towns; East Egg and West Egg, Throughout the duration of the novel, the main characters that we are introduced to (Nick, Daisy, Tom, Myrtle, and George), all represent different walks of life inside the 2 fictitious groups. These 2 contrasting cities develop the theme through examining the different attitudes of people from the cities, the social construct of the two cities, and lastly the effect that this developing class rivalry has

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1873 Words | 8 Pages

The characters in the novel pretend that they have their lives all figured out, but through their successes their downfalls and emptiness can be seen, to prove that money cannot buy happiness. Jay Gatsby is the newest and upcoming star in New York during the 1920’s. Through his business and inheritance he is one of the richest men of his time. One may think that his abundance of wealth would lead him to be eternally happy, but he is the opposite. Gatsby longs for his love of Daisy, which is his personal American Dream.

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691 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout The Great Gatsby, each character lies to achieve what they view as their personal wealth: Gatsby lies for love, Tom lies for power, Nick lies for the sake of other people. Each character lies to achieve success, but was it right for Nick, Tom, and Gatsby to lie? Gatsby lies to obtain the love of his life. All of Gatsby’s mind and attention is directed at Daisy.

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