Human Nature Of Satisfaction In The Great Gatsby

The Jazz Age of America happened in the 1920s, begun by the end of the Great Depression. The richer classes in America lived an American Dream of wealth, freedom, and never-ending entertainment. This sometimes led to corruption from people seeking more money, more fun, more love, and more. The Great Gatsby is a prime example of this phenomenon. F. Scott Fitzergald’s The Great Gatsby demonstrates the human nature of dissatisfaction through Gatsby’s struggle to become his ideal man, the frequent changing location of characters, and through Tom and Daisy’s broken marriage. The Great Gatsby is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, a man from a rich, well-established family, searching for purpose and excitement in life through the bond business in New York City. There, he met his extravagantly rich and mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, who

He tried to leave behind the poverty of his childhoos, and thus moved away to try to find fortune. Gatsby’s story said, “An instinct toward his future glary had led him… to the small Lutheran college of St. Olaf in southern Minnesota,” (Fitzergald 99). There Gatsby worked as a janitor, and a few short weeks later joined a millionaire yachter on Lake Superior. The want for wealth and dissatisfaction with poverty drove Gatsby to leave his old life and find a new one. Dissatisfaction is also demonstrated in The Great Gatsby through Tom and Daisy’s marriage. Tom demonstrated dissatisfaction through his affair with Myrtle Wilson, wife of George Wison. Tom was obviously not satisfied to have just Daisy, and so sought out a mistress to satisfy his desires. Myrtle was not his only mistress. Tom confessed, “ Once in a while I go off on a spreee and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time,” (Fitzergald 131). Clearly, Tom was dissatisfied with just having Daisy, and wanted to have more women than just