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Prosperity In The Great Gatsby

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Prosperity. The thing that all people strive for, but so little reach. Being prosperous in America is a top priority for almost all residents, although it is different for each and every individual. America is a place of opportunity, and here one can obtain the American Dream. This American Dream is generally defined as the longing for success: wealth, good health, and more importantly, enjoying life. Although no matter how hard people strive for the American Dream, it is typically only partially achieved. Tom Buchanan is a prime example of someone who seems like they have achieved the American Dream, but has not. He has undeniable wealth, physical attributes, and is at the top of the social spectrum. While Tom may seem put together, he is …show more content…

While taking Nick into the city, Tom says, “We’re getting off, I want you to meet my girl” (24). Tom had a mistress. She was only one of the many that he had strung along since the beginning of his and Daisy's marriage. Towards the end of the book he tries to justify himself by saying, “...Once in awhile I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I loved her all the time (131).” Tom is a very hedonistic character that is not satisfied no matter the situation. The only reason he says he loves Daisy all of the time is for security. He wants to seem like his relationship is perfect, while it’s actually unstable. He may seem like he has everything one could want, but it is all just a facade. While he has a great insight on the American Dream, he is clearly missing the satisfactory element of it all. Tom is not the only character flirting with the American Dream. Jay Gatsby worked his hardest to achieve this dream, but did not make it in the end. Gatsby is a determined man that worked very diligently, and illegally, to obtain all the wealth he had. While he had wealth, and was a rather healthy man, he did not have happiness. The reader sees Gatsby work his way to getting the girl of his dreams, only to see him suffer in the

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Wealth is defined by a great quantity or store of money, valuable possessions, property, or other riches (dictionary.com). Many characters, in the novel, The Great Gatsby, displayed different forms of wealth. They each viewed and valued their wealth in distinct ways. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald intended to display a constant theme that wealth does not lead to true happiness.

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She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me… in her heart she never loved anyone except me” (130). Tom, refusing to believe such nonsense defends his pride by straight up calling it a “Goddamn lie” and saying “Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now… And what’s more I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time” (131). This claim to loving Daisy and treating her better comes off as a fake statement and was all for a show.

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Although we have the freedom to access the American Dream most people have challenges of achieving it. In the novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we see each protagonist struggling ,but at the same time a strong aspiration in obtaining their American Dream. For example, Jay Gatsby, he was the definition of the American Dream,he builds his social status from becoming a farm boy to one of the world's top millionaire but his dream wasn't complete without the love of Daisy. Unfortunately Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God

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Research has shown that the wealthiest eighty-five people in the world have more money than the poorest three point five billion people combined (Jackson par. 3). The life styles and viewpoints of these two classes of people differ by enormous proportions. One class will never have to worry about their finances, while the other may struggle to even buy food. These different ways of life can produce extremely different personalities for better or for worse. The unique personalities of the upper class are observed in the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, where the narrator, Nick Carraway, moves into a village called West Egg just outside New York.

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James Lutz Mrs. Edelman ELA 10 (H) 15 May 2024 To love is to act, they say, Gatsby would. “The Great Gatsby” is a book written by () and plays off of the prosperity of the 1920's. It takes place on 2 islands, east and west. East Egg and West Egg represent 2 different kinds of wealth. This paper focuses mostly on a character from West Egg named Jay Gatsby who is incredibly wealthy and hosts extravagant parties but is also having an affair with Daisy, a married woman, another focus will be Nick, Gatsby's neighbor who lives in West Egg is not wealthy like the rest.

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Despite his infidelity and seeming indifference to Daisy's wishes and needs, he still defends her because of the lingering

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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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In his novel The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald shows the rich elite's obsession with wealth and their inability to overcome the past. Gatsby's lavish parties and pursuit of Daisy represent his delusion about recapturing what he once had with Daisy. Daisy's marriage to Tom exemplifies her rush of status and wealth over actual love. Although Gatsby has all this money, he feels alone. The author depicts the consequences of dwelling on the past and not enjoying the present through the lens of wealth and status.

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The Allure and Destructiveness of Wealth in The Great Gatsby The desire for wealth is something that humans have been chasing after for centuries. In the U.S., Americans’ aspirations for wealth increased during the 1920s. During this decade, America underwent a period of great economic growth. Throughout The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald explores both the glamour and deceit that comes with wealth through the lives of the novel's main characters during this time period.

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His life is perfect. And yet he cheats because his wife is not enough. Tom struggles with seeing anything of himself outside of the American Dream and physically cannot think of an existence in which he is not married to Daisy even if the relationship is not satisfactory to either of them. He has attached himself and his masculinity to this meretricious world view so finding out that Daisy is cheating on him is not so much a betrayal of their relationship as it is a betrayal of his lifestyle. The maintenance of his lifestyle relies wholly on a Daisy who does not question or feel but loves him and the permanence of child-rearing, but obviously, Daisy is not this because she knows Tom is cheating and instead of doing nothing, she retaliates and lets him go.

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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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And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in awhile I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time." (pg 140) Although Tom says his heart truly loves Daisy and that he loves her I see this a blunty obvious lie. If he really did love her he would have never cheated on her. Similar to many of the other lies in the story, Tom cared so much about his “power couple”/old money marriage status he had with Daisy that he would rather lie to himself and others about loving her than separating from her.

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The American Dream is a vision held by the working class of America: a dream in which one can achieve all that he desires through hard work and perseverance. The reader sees Gatsby as a self-made man: a man with everything you could possible want in life, a man who has achieved the American Dream to its fullest, and yet, this image is marred by his unhappiness. A barrier between the inherently wealthy and ‘new money’ blocks his ability to win back the girl he loves, placed there by by the embodiment of the upper class in America - Tom Buchanan. Tom never saw Gatsby as his equal because Gatsby was not born with money, calling him a “Mr. Nobody from Nowhere” (130). The working class sees this statement as an example of why the American Dream is not worth the effort.

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Tom does not deserve Daisy due to his

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The American dream is gone. Once we were able to follow the ideology of picking yourself up, and working hard to create the ‘American dream’ is longer possible. The playing field is not equal anymore. The Great Gatsby is a great example of the American Dream. The economy is was good and people are earning a living to create their American dream.

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