Satire In The Great Gatsby Essay

James Smith

Bessette

H English II

15 Mar 2023

Fitzgerald’s Condemnation of a Newly Avaricious America

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a perfect window into the values of the American people living in the Jazz Age of the 1920s. The frivolity of nearly every American person, rich or poor, is snapshotted in the novel. Fitzgerald chooses to highlight these characteristics for many reasons, namely to show his obvious disappointment in what America has become. He tells his story through the eyes of Nick, who watches his tiny world of East and West Egg crumble around him because of the scramble for money and social status. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald negatively characterizes Daisy, Myrtle, Tom, and Gatsby’s regards on money to show

This notion is established through Myrtle’s own dialogue with Tom, with her begging for “one of those dogs” (23). In response, Tom arrogantly decides that “[the dog] is a bitch” and to “go and buy ten more dogs with [the money]” (24). This contrast between rich and poor highlighted within Tom and Myrtle’s relationship depicts how even between two polar opposite people, money will have the same negative affect on each of their mindsets. The way Fitzgerald characterizes Myrtle from the start as one with a personality and relationship with money similar to that of Daisy illustrates perfectly how greed and avarice have permeated the minds of even those without it in the first place. With this exchange, Fitzgerald characterizes Tom as one with faux power, making people believe that with his surplus wealth, he can do anything, however, as the book progresses, the only thing he can do with his wealth is win those that see wealth as power, like Daisy or Myrtle. This vanity that Tom embodies is further explained when Robert Ornstein, in his article for College English, states that “the smug conceit of the Rich Boy has hardened into Tom Buchanan’s arrogant cruelty” (Ornstein 140). This process driven by money that transforms any person, bad or good, into one driven by material gain is perfectly exemplified through the synthesis of Tom’s avaricious and smug

Fitzgerald’s synthesis of Gatsby’s true origins indirectly characterize Gatsby as one who views money as a resource with the utmost power. Fitzgerald goes as far to state that the facade of Jay Gatsby “sprang from his Platonic conception of himself” and that his secrecy was only hidden so that the world would view him differently (76). The use of direct characterization in this quote evinces the true nature of why Gatsby acts so humble as opposed to arrogant, which is displayed in Tom’s character. The fact that the material change Gatsby, or rather Gatz, went through only affected his outward presence as opposed to his true turmoil he feels on the inside that fights his outward expression further develops the idea that even if money has no true power in the world, it will continue to be treated as if it does. Fitzgerald purposely directly characterizes Gatsby to inform the reader that he is not who he is on the inside, while also indirectly characterizes Gatsby’s and his relationship with money. Because the reader now sees that Gatsby is essentially a fraud made of money (that he himself made), the reader can infer that Gatsby believes that money is the only thing that holds power in modern society. Even though this is viewed as extremely shallow to the reader, Daisy is attracted to this because of the same problem Gatsby