Examples Of Wealth In The Great Gatsby

514 Words3 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “The rich are not like other people”. This quote wa exemplified in his Jazz-age classic, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald takes a deep dive into the lifestyles of the 1920s and the human subconscious that accompanied them, most notably the wealthy. In the book the rich have always had a need to distinguish themselves from the rest. The wealthy develop different personality traits from those of lower classes through what morals they developed through their adolescence and the range of emotions that come with money.

People born into wealth often have a sense of carelessness shown in The Great Gatsby by the character Tom Buchanan. Buchanan was brought up by a rich family giving him a sense of pride and entitlement which caused him to become ignorant of the fact that his actions hurt the people around him. This was exemplified by him hitting his mistress for taunting him about his wife, given her poor background she couldnt understand why her words would bother him so much. To a different extent Tom’s wife, Daisy Buchanan grew addicted to the lifestyle of the affluent as she decided to stay with Tom instead of leaving with her true love Jay Gatsby, someone who has a less stable financial situation. …show more content…

An interview conducted by New York Times writer Rachel Sherman said: “Rather than brag about their money or show it off, they kept quiet about their advantages. They described themselves as "normal" people who worked hard and spent prudently, distancing themselves from common stereotypes of the wealthy as ostentatious, selfish, snobby and entitled..” (Sherman) Although they portray themselves as this, its scarcely how they really are. Its been said that the wealthy have had the same experiences as you and although that may be true what they did in face of the problems and how they developed afterwards is very different from the average