How Does Myrtle Use Power In The Great Gatsby

Tadeusz Borowski, a famous polish writer and journalist, once said that “The world is ruled by power and power is obtained by money”. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby takes place in the early 1920’s and tells the story of Some of the wealthy people of East and West Egg. Tom and Daisy Buchanan live in East Egg which is predominantly people coming from families with old money. In the Valley of Ashes George Wilson lives with his wife Myrtle above his gas station. Myrtle is Tom’s mistress, but Daisy knows about Tom having an affair. In The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald creates a direct correlation between money and power showing that as wealth increases power also increases. This is shown throughout the book as the poor are put at a disadvantage

Tom has no consequence for his affair with Myrtle, but Myrtle does because she does not have money. Also Daisy stays with Tom after she finds out about the affair because she is used to the lifestyle of the wealthy. During dinner with Nick Daisy says that she is, “Sophisticated-God, I’m sophisticated” (Fitzgerald 20). This sophistication is brought about by the wealth that Tom has. The only reason she stays with him is to keep this sophistication. Tom and Daisy are able to avoid the consequences of Myrtle’s death. After the accident George goes into a rage and to control him Tom tells him “the truth” about “who owned the car” which was Gatsby, but Tom also thinks that Gatsby “ran over Myrtle like you’d run over a dog and never even stopped his car” (Fitzgerald 190-191). George was ready to kill whoever Myrtle was cheating with. Tom then tells George that Gatsby owned the car that had killed Myrtle so George thinks that Myrtle was cheating on him with Gatsby, and that Gatsby killed Myrtle. Tom and Daisy then go on a vacation and leave their problems behind them for others such as Nick to deal with. Then as Tom and Nick meet in late October Nick makes has an epiphany that Tom and Daisy are just careless people. The wealthy are the most powerful people in both reality and in The Great Gatsby. This is shown throughout the book by the advantages that