Portrayal Of Wealth In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Kaden Selby
Mrs. Costigan
AP English III
15 May 2023
The Portrayal of Wealth Through Gatsby
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the main character and narrator, Nick Carraway, tells a tale of the extravagant lifestyle of the wealthy and elite in the 1920s. Role of wealth within the novel plays a vital part as each character’s desires, motivation, and personality derive from the status of their wealth. With many vivid descriptions and symbolic representations, Nick Carraway tells the reader the tale of decadence, superficiality, and moral bankruptcy that often accompanies wealth. The Great Gatsby portrays money and wealth through Gatsby as a catalyst for the character’s ultimate downfall.
One of the most iconic symbols within the novel is the green

“You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock” (Fitzgerald, 117). The green light is first mentioned here in the novel as Gatsby shows Daisy how close he lives to her. The light he mentions here also represents how the American Dream is a never-ending quest to fulfill someone of true wealth and prosperity. The journey is something that “burns through the night” as someone wishing to obtain the American Dream, never really has an end goal and that more wealth can always be obtained, but is never truly reached therefore leading to the downfall of many. The green light additionally symbolizes the contrasting images between West Egg and East Egg. It emphasizes the disparity between the wealthy and the impoverished, highlighting the consequences of a wealth-obsessed society. Nick describes the two by saying, “I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the

The lavish gatherings that overflow with opulence, represent a larger symbol of emptiness and superficiality that comes with success and wealth. These parties fill Gatsby’s loneliness Gatsby states how he fulfills his emptiness by stating, “I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye” (Fitzgerald, 45). Gatsby describes his liking for New York because it is filled with so many different things that entertain him with all the money and yet boredom he has. His parties along with the connecting idea of him moving to New York tie into the same simple fact that the parties and entertainment are merely a facade to maintain the illusion of prosperity. As his wealth grows, the feeling of emptiness will grow in people, Gatsby is simply a representation of this feeling. Gatsby talks about his liking of large parties by stating, “And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” (Fitzgerald, 40). Gatsby explains how the privacy of small parties is too little and they just aren’t as lavish as he would like. With his money, large parties are easy to have and he sets them up as he would like them to be. This directly reflects his personality as a person as he has to host such large parties to feel something or feel better about