How Does Myrtle Survive In The Great Gatsby

Michael Douglass

King

English III

2 April 2015

The Great Gatsby Essay The novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, follows the lives of multiple people from the midwest. They are dissatisfied with their current life and wish to escape to a better situation filled with jubilation. The characters whom are most prevalently trying to escape their current lives are Myrtle , Daisy, and Gatsby. Each of these characters has their own situation to escape: Daisy wishes to escape her meaningless and dead marriage, Gatsby wants to escape back to his teenage romance, and Myrtle wants to escape poverty to the life of the wealthy aristocrats. Fitzgerald uses these characters as a metaphor to the american dream during the nineteen-twenties.

Myrtle is the quintessential example of an impoverished woman living in the twenties, with an aspiration to reach the romanticized upper class through a rich aristocrat named Tom Buchanan. Although she thinks this is possible mean of escape, an aristocrat like Tom would never be seen with a measly peasant such as Myrtle. We see early on that Tom could have easily taken her out of poverty and into his lifestyle, but he chooses not too. Myrtle is resentful of her husband for putting her in her current situation, saying small remarks such as, "The only crazy I was was when I married him.” (23) Myrtle doesn’t understand that she will never be accepted into a higher social class. She blames George for this but it isn’t his fault. Myrtle soon realizes this and becomes jealous of Toms partner Daisy. Daisy encompasses all that Myrtle wishes to be. When in the city in Toms private flat, Myrtle says "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!, I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai –– " (126) Tom proceeds to hit her in the face breaking her nose. Figuratively Tom was putting Myrtle in her place, forever trapping her in the dull lower

In her earlier days she fell in love with an unknown man named Jay Gatz but settled for Tom because of his status and heritage when Jay left for war. The evening before her wedding Daisy said, " ‘Here, dearest.’ She groped around in a wastebasket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. ‘Take 'em down-stairs and give 'em back to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mind. 'Daisy's change' her mind!’ ” (129). At the last minute Daisy tries to escape the wedding and attempts give back the pearls that represent everything that Tom is. The only thing about Tom that Daisy loves are the amount of zeros in his bank account. When Daisy finally meets the famed Jay Gatsby almost instinctively she falls in “love” with him. Or at least she falls in love with the idea of him. During her first visit to Gatsby's house he shows her his clothes. She responds with "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts before." (118-119) To Daisy “love” isnt a deep connection between two people, “love” is the money that flows through that other persons bank account. As soon as she gains knowledge of the fact that Gatsby doesn’t come from real money, and is nothing more than a common swindler, she immediately sides with