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Myrtle's Use Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

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“Money is the best deodorant” (Elizabeth Taylor). F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a story of a young narrator, Nick, moving east to West Egg, New York to get a job trading stocks. Almost immediately on his arrival Nick gets a taste of the fruitful life from his old friend Tom and Tom’s wife Daisy, also Nick’s cousin. After spending time with his friend, Nick learns of Tom’s mistress, Myrtle. During a trip to New York, Tom yanks a hesitant Nick off the train to meet her in the rundown town gas station she lives above. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses imagery to build the class barrier between Tom and Myrtle to critique the materialism of women. When Myrtle tries to tell the romantic story of her first encounter with Tom, something …show more content…

We learn of this decaying town as Nick narrates, “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by the small foul river, and, when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour” (24). This town is in complete contrast with East Egg, where Tom and the old money live. The description of “ashes” and “the small foul river” communicate images of garbage and low-life. Olfactory imagery is a major part of this quote, and the nose begins to scrunch with the words “ashes” and “foul”. The only boats going through the valley are “barges”, which regularly carry garbage, a huge disparity from the expensive and luxurious boats that are sure to be riding the beautiful Atlantic Ocean waves in East Egg. This description helps the reader sympathize a little with Myrtle and her major affection for the almighty dollar. For Tom it is easy to see Myrtle as an undeserving subject of his respect, because he plucked her from a town that people can not bare to look at “for as long as half an hour”. This little borough holds no place in Myrtle's heart. She just wants to spend her time shopping, away from the stench of

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Myrtle is Tom Buchanan’s lover, her husband George owns a rundown garage in the valley of ashes and she possesses fierce vitality and desperately looks for ways to improve her situation. Sadly she chooses Tom who treats her as an object of his desire. She is mid-thirties, short and plump but carries her extra flesh voluptuously. She wears clothes that are stretched tight over her fairly broad hips. (Fitzgerald p.28) Myrtles personality and behavior show that she wants to climb the social status with her acute manner and vigor.

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Tom’s clothes and shoes highlighted his status and wealth which is what made Myrtle interested in the first place, knowing that he could give her the life she had hoped to have with her husband. Myrtle married the man she loved but could not provide for her, which is why she reached out to Tom who could give her everything her husband couldn’t. Myrtle leans toward the man better dressed and therefore has more money

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In this quote, Myrtle speaks snobbishly while imagining that she sounds fancy. In this quote, Myrtles’ yearning to become a part of the upper class can be seen very easily. In order to create a false impression of being wealthy, she becomes a complete braggart. In fact, Myrtle talks about how she shouldn’t have married into a lower class, and that she only married Wilson because she thought he was a gentleman. In reality, Myrtle is not part of the upper class at all and lives in a tiny garage in a dusty, forgotten place known as the valley of ashes.

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The book The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is centered around the roaring 20’s era. The main character is Jay Gatsby who is a shady rich person who lives in West egg in a mansion, and across the way with a green light at the end of the dock is his “so called” girlfriend Daisy( who is already married to a man tom buchanan). This couple and George and Myrtle Wilson convey the theme that love can be in some cases toxic, because it works with the mental and physicality of you. In the book was an affair between Myrtle and Tom buchanan, which these two are already married and in all sense in reality are having affairs. In Chapter 2, Myrtle makes a personal statement of how she feels about her current husband, George Wilson, “ I married

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When Myrtle begs Tom for a dog, he nonchalantly hands her too much money and “decisively” says “Here's your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it” (Fitzgerald 28).Tom’s angry and ‘decisive’ tone of voice is because he uses Myrtle’s must assert dominance through materialism. As, Myrtle does not need ten dogs, yet Tom wishes to flaunt both his wealth and dominance by commanding her to buy them. Because of Tom, Myrtle also lives in excess and must face moral corruption. As after she buys the dog, Nick describes that

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In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes the characterization of Myrtle and Gatsby to shatter the concept of living the American Dream. Fitzgerald describes Myrtle as a brave woman who is also Tom Buchanan’s mistress. Tom and Daisy were driving home from Gatsby’s house when Daisy “was very nervous and she thought it would steady her to drive-and this women rushed out at us just as were were passing a car coming the other way” (143). Fitzgerald shatters the concept of living the American Dream because Myrtle got hit by the car Daisy was driving. Tom and Daisy were married therefore since Myrtle was Tom’s mistress, Daisy was not happy about that.

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Although the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the parties and prosperity of the American 1920's, it reveals many major characters meeting tragic ends. The characters who meet these ends - Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson, and George Wilson - possess the same tragic characteristic: they endeavor for something more out of their lives than what they have. This ambition for what they could not have ultimately spelled their doom: Gatsby wanted money and Daisy; Myrtle wanted wealth and luxury, and sought it from Tom Buchanan; Wilson earned what he could only to please Myrtle. The Great Gatsby reveals a tragic nature through the trials and tribulations these characters endure to progress and prosper, only to receive death for their ambition. The exciting and wild time period of the "Roaring Twenties" provides a stark contrast to the deaths in order to further highlight the tragic nature of the novel, and leaves a theme that even those with the most hope and strong ambitions can fail and die miserably, no matter how much money they have.

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