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Materialism In The Great Gatsby Essay

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Teens, in the United States, are constantly pressured by parents to do well academically, so they can make it in life, It had gotten to the point that the grade of a student is the ambition and not the learning material and grasping it. Every student wants to make a bug in life, but not everyone knows the ways to success. Jay Gatsby is the embodiment of the American Dream. He went from a poor Midwestern farmer to a wealthy businessman running large extravagant parties. His lifestyle: however, shows how materialism takes over one's mind when gaining wealth. For Gatsby, the American Dream is obtaining materialistic things and flaunting it. There is no other reason why Gatsby is described by his parties and his clothes."They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the think folds. "It makes me sad …show more content…

The problem with this is that the American Dream is to prosper in society not to possess material things. There is a clear difference of spending habits between old money and new money. “I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them”(p.5). Both West and East Egg are wealthy, but West Egg is “new money” meaning they lack a sense of control. This is one of the reasons West Eggers are not accepted by East Eggers. Since Gatsby is not born into wealth, he won’t be able to live in East Egg. Gatsby throughout the story is never satisfied with the things he has and always wants more even when he made a fortune, Daisy is a trophy to have in Gatsby’s eyes. Gatsby’s life is a success story everyone wants, yet to him, his heroism in the Great War and the wealth he gained at a young age is nothing to him. He has dedicated himself to a girl he did not even know for all that

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(Source A) Gatsby earning his money in a dishonest way put a very bad image on his behavior of lifestyle that was not favored to the so-called American Dream. People in today’s world have the freedom to make their income in many different ways that do not make them any less than others. The diversity seen in today’s society can be set as a privilege as freedom was not seen before. Furthermore, seeing the difference between the American Dream before and now, the different gender roles can also come into play with the importance of development in this

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The Great Gatsby critiques the wealthy by displaying their materialistic nature and being careless of themselves and others to demonstrate how wealth does not add to the quality of their character and leads to corruption. Materialism in The Great Gatsby is represented throughout the book, with each characters’ obsession with wealth, status, and possessions. "I'd like to get one of those police dogs; I don't suppose you got that kind?" The man peered doubtfully into the basket, plunged in his hand and drew one up, wriggling, by the back of the neck.

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How does having money lead to material gain? In the Roaring Twenties, people from all social classes suddenly became aware of the class differences. This awareness is a result of the jump on the Stock Market and the World War1. There were clear distinctions among social classes according to location, amount of material possessions and the way one acted. Fitzgerald explains these differences by giving the characters in his novel the Great Gatsby different social classes and he also shows these social divisions in the way the characters behave.

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If we take a non-fiction book that was written in 1922, we might ask ourselves whether the book is relevant in this day and age. One such book was written by the author F. Scott Fitzgerald and it goes by; “The Great Gatsby”. The contents of the novel actually hold pretty valuable and relatable materials regarding materialism in today’s society. It also touches on the idea that people are not what they seem to be even if they say they are. This in and of itself is highly relevant because human behavior stays fairly comprehensible throughout history.

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In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, social class is a key theme, as seen by every character having their own distinct class. Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and even Nick are old money, Gatsby is new money, and the Wilson 's are no money. In short, the more money you have, the better off you will be. In the epigraph of the novel, there is a poem by Thomas Parke D 'Invilliers, who is a fictional character created by Fitzgerald himself. This poem is about using materialism to win over the affection of someone, which is exactly what Gatsby tries to do.

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