Examples Of Wealth In The Great Gatsby

Wealth Buys Relationships
Becoming successful is the goal that most American citizens want to accomplish. The American Dream has been seen as the opportunity to prosper. The American society is focused around wealth and a higher social status. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, multiple characters are characterized as successful American individuals who seem to have achieved the American Dream. However, they continue their search for wealth. The appear to have become successful with their status in life, but they still continue to search for more riches. Although the characters seem to have prospered, Fitzgerald depicts that the American Dream creates a continuous desire for wealth and luxurious items to inform American citizens that

Gatsby hosts chaotic parties at his mansion on the weekends during the summer. Some guests who attended, “came and went without having met Gatsby at all, [and] came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket for admission” (41). Fitzgerald’s usage of characterization describes the lifestyle of those who feel like they have not achieved the amount of success that is supposed to come with the American Dream. The upper class has the wealth to host the party. The parties look like a way to enjoy their life, but in reality they are not enjoying it. American citizens who are in lower classes try to work there way up into the higher classes by interacting with those individuals who have wealth. The party’s uninvited guests portray the desire to reach the false sense of happiness that those wealthy seem to be having. Additionally, Fitzgerald illustrates that American relationships are established based off of the prosperity of another. Gatsby invites Daisy to his luxurious mansion to show off his wealth to her. Daisy reacts by sobbing because,“they’re such beautiful shirts… and it makes [her] sad because [she has] never seen such-such beautiful shirts before” (92). Fitzgerald utilizes the motifs of materialism and relationships to express how relationships in the American society are based off of wealth. Daisy represents

Gatsby and Nick have a conversation about Daisy’s personality and values. Fitzgerald makes Gatsby realize that Daisy’s “voice is full of money” (120). Concentrating on the negative aspects of the desire for money, Fitzgerald employs materialistic motif to convey how American citizens search through their society to find more wealth that can bring them up to a higher class. A higher social status is seen as the way to reach happiness, but it is a false sense of happiness that they are experiencing. In addition, Fitzgerald utilizes the materialistic motif to establish how the wealthy create their social lives around wealth. Arguing about their relationships with Daisy, Fitzgerald has Gatsby mention the reasoning of Daisy not marrying Tom. The reason Daisy married Tom is because “[Gatsby] was poor and [Daisy] was tired of waiting for [him]” (130). Fitzgerald uses the two contrasting relationships with Daisy to portray that the wealthy class will change their lifestyle and future to ensure that they attain more money throughout their life. He is displaying the longing that American individuals feel throughout their lifetime when they know that the American Dream can be achieved. Fitzgerald demonstrates how far American citizens will go to obtain more