F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby illustrate the devastating results of materialism, idealism, and to some extent, nostalgia. His shallow, object-oriented characters show how actions centered around greed will only lead to disappointment. The universal forces of greed, materialism, and idealism that plague Gatsby, Daisy, and Myrtle ultimately lead to the destruction of each of these characters. Gatsby's immense idealism regarding Daisy ultimately led to the obliteration of his hopes of attaining her love. "There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams - not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his [Gatsby's] illusion" (95). During the glory years of Gatsby and Daisy's …show more content…
"'I told that boy about the ice.' Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. 'These people! You have to keep after them all the time'" (32). Myrtle acts as if she is in the upper rungs of society although she is actually in the lower class because of her marriage with the poor George Wilson; George and Myrtle live in the Valley of the Ashes. Myrtle says that she regrets marrying such a poor man and how she is above George. As a result of her social class aspirations, she has an affair with Tom Buchanan in hopes of marrying him and thus becoming wealthy. However, later in the book, she runs in the middle of the street thinking that Tom was in Gatsby's car (Myrtle saw Tom in Gatsby's car earlier) but it was actually Daisy and Gatsby in Gatsby's car. Daisy was driving fast and reckless and she then proceeded to hit Myrtle, violently killing her. Therefore, her greed and drive to rise in social class and her idealistic dream of rising in the social ladder led her to have an affair with Tom Buchanan. As a result of their affair, she ran in the middle of the street thinking that Tom was there to rescue her from her drab lifestyle in the Valley of the Ashes. However it was not Tom, and Myrtle's false judgment led her to her