How Does Fitzgerald Use Cars In The Great Gatsby

Sean Martin

Mr. Krueger

Advanced American Literature

23 April 2015

Cars and driving in Great Gatsby The American Dream involves people and their quest to gain wealth and status. One way to display the wealth is through the stuff you buy. Cars, for example, are a great symbol used to display ones wealth. As most things go, the more expensive the car the more money you have. Fitzgerald uses the idea of cars throughout the book in the plot, dialogue and character development. Jay Gatsby, a classic representation in the beginning of the book of the American Dream, grows up in a poor family then later, in a three year time period, becomes filthy rich. Gatsby is so rich that he had people picked up for his amazing parties in his Rolls Royce. Gatsby’s

A counter argument to Nick’s success in the American Dream when compared to Gatsby’s it that Gatsby cheated in his way to the top, cheating is not working hard; the American Dream requires hard work to make your way from being the poorest poor person to the affluent rich, because Gatsby fails to work hard or more so the correct way, Nick could be seen as the better example of the American Dream. Another car mentioned in the story is Tom’s coupe, tom was born into money and he believes he doesn’t need to have the most expensive car to show he’s rich. Tom’s car still way more expensive than Nick’s car. Tom’s blue coupe wants to be bought and resold by a man who owns a gas station, that man is Wilson. Tom is cheating on his current wife Daisy with the wife of Wilson, Myrtle; Tom’s wife Daisy is cheating on Tom with

One collision occurs at one of Gatsby’s party, the driver is drunk driving and he then crashes into the ditch. at first the crowd of assumes that a minor character names Owl eyes is the drunk driver, while Owl Eyes is drunk it is later reviled that another man that crashed the car, this man who is also drunk, is shown as the culprit. This man doesn’t ever want to accept responsibility or even says that he crashed a car. This is an example of the rich being careless. Another accident is at another one of Gatsby’s parties a drunken man got his hand run over, while he was lying in the road. This is also an example of carelessness. A third accident takes place when Jordan has a very minor collision with a worker, Nick calls her out as a “rotten driver” (63) Jordan then says” it takes two to make an accident” (63). Later in the story when Nick ends the relationship between the two, Jordan then calls Nick a rotten driver as well, although she’s not referring to his actual driving she’s referring to the road of their relationship and on that road nick is a bad driver. The most important accident to the story is the death of Myrtle. When Myrtle is killed it is caused yet again by