What Was The Impact Of Old Money In The Great Gatsby

The Twenties were one of the most important eras due to the influences it had on today’s culture. There were several things that played into shaping our current society, such as the past idea of The American Dream as opposed to the current one, how Jazz affected culture, and the impacts of Old Money vs. New Money and what the differences were. During the 1920’s, there were huge impacts on time and culture. As evidenced by both Echoes of the Jazz Age and The Great Gatsby, it is clear what effects these impacts had. Wealth, The American Dream, and Jazz all played into influencing and making the Twenties such a progressive time.
Wealth is one of the recurring key factors in shaping both the Twenties and today. During the 1920’s there was the

Old Money is money that has been passed on through generations and what the majority of the characters have in The Great Gatsby. On the contrary, an example of New Money is Jay Gatsby, who had to work for his wealth and came from an impecunious background. The differences between these two opposing lifestyles could be the root of nearly all the problems in the book. Ivy Style states that The Great Gatsby is “a cautionary tale” because it deals with “the idea of money solving any or all of one’s problems” and “the harsh reality of having your dreams come true” (Ivy Style. 10/4/15). These statements prove to be true throughout the book because of all the problems money and wealth cause. Not only did Old and New Money cause difficulty in the book, it also caused setbacks during the time period. As times were progressing and ideas were shifting, some things

Throughout The Great Gatsby, there are huge themes of The American Dream. For example, there is an ongoing motif of the green light, and one interpretation of this could be that the light symbolizes The American Dream itself. Due to the fact that Gatsby so desperately wants to achieve whatever the green light exemplifies, it could represent the longing Gatsby feels to gain happiness and wealth. This especially coincides with Fitzgerald’s idea of The American Dream because Gatsby’s materialistic dreams are part of the culture that dominated the 1920’s society. As evidenced by Fitzgerald in Echoes of the Jazz Age, wealth was very important during the Twenties. For example, he writes, “if goose-livered businessmen had this effect on the government,” which alludes to the fact that businessmen played an important role in society, “then maybe we had gone to war for J. P. Morgan’s loans after all” meaning that money almost dominated society (2). However, The American Dream has two sides, one being the emptiness and greed that can be a result of it. Gatsby’s quest for happiness, wealth, and Daisy disintegrated once greed got a hold of him. While most of the occurrences were fictional, the depiction of The American Dream was very realistic for the time period. The Twenties were all about money, power, and social status, just as today is. The idea of the