How Does Fitzgerald Use Corruption In The Great Gatsby

Towers of champagne, a home packed full of people, and one mysterious host whom no one has ever formally met. This is the type of scene set by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of what many consider a great American Classic, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald creates a culmination of Nick Caraways intermingling with the web of people that surround Jay Gatsby during the height of the 1920s in Long Island, New York. Throughout this novel, Nick sees firsthand the obsessive nature of wealth and status and the desperation that is continually following it. Fitzgerald comments on corruption that is induced by wealth and power with his use of allusions and metaphorical language. Wealth and power bringing corruption are most prominently seen in Jay Gatsby

Bath every other day. Read one improving book or magazine per week” (Fitzgerald). Gatsby is trying to emulate Ben Franklin, one of the first people to truly achieve the American Dream and rise through the set stratification and make a name for himself. Fitzgerald alludes to this prominent figure in order to show how, before Daisy Buchanan, he prioritized self-improvement; not just earning money. Daisy Buchanan, a symbol of immense wealth and status, crushed Gatsby's value of self-actualization mirroring how the power that wealth provides only brings corruption to those who hold and seek it. This new desire to be wealthy and powerful to meet Daisy’s standards corrupts Gatsby’s once-pure morals and leads him to a life of organized crime. Previously in the novel, Fitzgerald makes an allusion to Marie Antionette, who was notorious for her life of immense luxury and her lavish lifestyle, when describing Myrtle Wilson. After Tom strikes her for mentioning Daisy, Myrtle puts priority over preserving her luxury items “tapestry scenes of Versailles” over her own well-being because she is still “bleeding fluently” (Fitzgerald). By alluding to Marie Antoinette,

During a drive with Jordan Nick tells Jordan that “‘You’re a rotten driver… Either your ought to be more careful, or you oughtn’t to drive at all’” she then responds that she is careful and that even if she isn’t “other people are” so it is not her problem (Fitzgerald). This metaphor connects the carelessness of those with wealth because they believe that their wealth grants them immunity from consequences. Fitzgerald does this to separate his characters into two sections, those in the upper class and those in the lower class, to emphasize the consequences of wealth and how it affects those without it because, in the end, only those originally from the upper class survive. Concluding this novel with this ending of all the lower class characters meeting a tragic end, Fitzgerald creates a persona for wealth that is nothing but tragedy and death. The moment when Daisy hits and kills Myrtle and there are no consequences for her is another reference to the metaphor of bad driving; “‘Was Daisy driving?’ ‘Yes,’ he said after a moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was’” (Fitzgerald). This shows how Daisy, who is a symbol of wealth, is granted power and it ends with the lower class being hurt. Fitzgerald uses this metaphor to further emphasize how the wealth that the upper class has creates corruption that