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Materialism In The Great Gatsby Essay

713 Words3 Pages

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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