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Money And Wealth In The Great Gatsby

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F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, tells the story of Jay Gatz and his life into the world of the social elite as he works to gain Daisy's love. Fitzgerald focuses on the change money and wealth, or lack thereof, can create in people. Throughout the novel, the geography represents part of this metaphorical message, each location representing a different social class and caste. Whether it be the East Egg's complacent luxury, the West Egg's rash extravagance, or the Valley of Ashes' decaying monotony, each area has its own particular characteristics. The East Egg, jutting off of New York, symbolizes unbelievable wealth, which seems to sink its possessors into apathy. Its inhabitants are generally of "old money", and seem unsure of what they should do with their life. Daisy, an East Egger, asks, "What do people plan?" (11). For many of those who live there, they plan nothing, but prefer "lying on that sofa as long as they can remember." (10) They also have an air of …show more content…

Wilson, its primary occupant, is described as "a blonde, spiritless man, anaemic..." (25) who is in the throes of despair. The land around it is gray and lifeless, as if it too had been sucked dry and left as refuse. Wilson has lost his will to fight, but rather fades into the background of his garage. His wife, Myrtle, still maintains her vitality, and is seen trying to escape the repressive atmosphere through money and glamour. Geography is very important in The Great Gatsby, both for its plot purposes and metaphor. Each location represents interwoven, but separate themes about the affects of money. The novel shows how it radically shapes the lives of those who have (the two "Eggs") or fail to have (the Valley of Ashes) wealth. But the novel also shows, through the examples of Gatsby and Myrtle, that money is not the only determining course of life, nor should it

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1. The Valley of Ashes is the farm land or almost like a wasteland filled with ashes that separates the wealth of the East and West Egg Village. 2. “The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic — their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose” (Fitzgerald 23).

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The 1920s was a time of flamboyance and wealth in the upper class. Jay Gatsby, a man of old money, threw over the top parties, in which he would spend his money very nonchalantly. The ambiance of his parties greatly illustrated the upper class of the time. The author uses symbolism and characterization to support the central idea that the upper class was very careless, wealthy, and extravagant. Gatsby’s parties are luxurious, glamorous, and over the top.

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The Negative Influence of Wealth Wealth and prosperity are the core of living a lavish lifestyle and having a successful life. However, money can influence people into debauchery. In the book, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces to us to some of the dangers of being rich. Most people in the Great Gatsby were very privileged, and they lived a lavish lifestyle.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby describes the life of Jay Gatsby in the 1920’s. The novel shares his love story and his loneliness. A major question the author raises is how does wealth impact class structure and society? Fitzgerald answers this question through the distinction between “New rich” and “Old rich” and the significance of East and West Egg.

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The Great Gatsby Essay F. Scott Fitzgerald was a famous author who wrote the book, The Great Gatsby. His purpose in writing this book was to show the differences between old and new money. Old money meaning people being born into wealthy lifestyles and new money meaning people who were not born with money but gained a lot of wealth. These were separated by two areas called west egg and east egg. This book gives sort of an exclusive look into the luxury and glamour that people think is the life of a person with a high amount of wealth.

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In the Great Gatsby money keeps the relationships together despite massive problems. The characters think that money will lead them to happiness. Not in this case money led a women to get a get married to an unfaithful man or a women to cheat on husband with another man. In this time it was wrong for women to divorce their husband and it didn’t help that the woman in the book was catholic in the religion it is wrong to divorce.

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The Connection of Wealth and Personality in Fitzgerald’s Works In our society, money is seen as the most important factor in decision making and in our overall lives. This is shown throughout all of Fitzgerald’s works and in many of his characters. His stories continually mention the effect that money has on the community. In one of her criticisms, Mary Jo Tate explains that “[Fitzgerald] was not a simple worshiper of wealth or the wealthy, but rather he valued wealth for the freedom and possibilities it provided, and he criticized the rich primarily for wasting those opportunities.

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What is more valuable, love or money? In the novel the ¨The Great Gatsby¨ written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is old and new money, Gatsby who is the main character in the novel comes from the side of new money. Gatsby finds out that his money can buy: a beautiful home, nice cars, friends, however; his wealth cannot buy the one thing that he wants most. Fitzgerald is conveying that money cannot buy certain things. Gatsby's rise and fall throughout the novel show that money isn't what makes a person happy.

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In the novel, Fitzgerald describes, “This is a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”(Fitzgerald 26). This exemplifies how even though the west and east egg seems perfect and beautiful on the outside, they are both just as ugly and dull on the inside as the rest of the valley. Fitzgerald places this in between both of the eggs to show how they are interconnected and relate to each other. The vivid diction he uses such as

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, tackles social and ethical problems that are found in his own time. Fitzgerald was born in Minnesota and as he became a writer, he moved to “the racy, adventurous” (Fitzgerald 56) New York City in 1919. In the film, director Baz Luhrmann accurately portrays the differences between East and West using colors and the positioning of the camera to show Fitzgerald's position. Fitzgerald's goal was to portray the backgrounds of his characters into a never ending chain of cause and effect, from where they once lived to their present situation and how that affects their personality.

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Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In Chapter 9, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation. THE VALLEY OF ASHES First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay that results from the dissolute pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure.

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Throughout the story, Fitzgerald uses three vastly different geographical areas to show the separation between classes. The Valley of Ashes, where the poor live, is described as a “desolate area of land ... [where] spasms of bleak dust drift endlessly” (Fitzgerald 23). The poor people are trapped here, and no matter how hard they work, they can never escape this grim existence. The idea of no social mobility, and having no control over one's life, reflects the Naturalist view of society.

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How does the desire to pursue money and power negatively impact the characters' moral sense of right or wrong? Many people allow their social class and wealth to determine their belonging in life. In The Great Gatsby people with "old money" are more respected and superior than those with "new money". The characters' actions are driven by their desire for wealth and power.

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