With money, is everything and anything achievable? In The Great Gatsby, many characters tried to pursue their own idea of true happiness, including Gatsby himself. The one thing these characters all had in common was their immense wealth. However, even with their immense wealth, they were not able to accomplish everything, such as their own happiness. Money is undoubtedly one of the most important factors to human society, but there are still limits on what it can and cannot do. Happiness is not something achievable through the use of money. The symbols in the novel that prove that why money does not buy happiness are; Gatsby's mansion, Myrtle, and Daisy. The first symbol that shows why money does not buy happiness is Gatsby's mansion. For …show more content…
Myrtle was greedy for money, believing that it would eventually bring her happiness. "After making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand" (78). Myrtle has gained wealth through Tom, but it seems that her happiness was sacrificed in the process. What she received was just physical abuse, not happiness. "Her expression was curiously familiar—it was an expression I had often seen on women's faces, but on Myrtle Wilson's face it seemed purposeless and inexplicable until I realized that her eyes, wide with jealous terror, were not fixed on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife" (124-125). This quote reveals how badly Myrtle felt after she witnessed Tom with another woman. Myrtle's relationship with Tom brought her nothing but hurtful feelings. "The other car, the one going toward New York, came to a rest a hundred yards beyond, and its driver hurried back to where Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with the dust" (137). This further explains how Myrtle's relationship with Tom has affected her negatively. Myrtle's greed for money eventually led to her downfall. In Myrtle's case, happiness was not gained through money, only death was