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Scott Fitzgerald's Use Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

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Is the American Dream purely a dream- or is it something more. For hundreds of years the American Dream has been an essential part of the American conscious. The gist of the dream-as it arose in the revolutionary period and the 1800s- was that anyone can rise to achieve their dreams based solely on their skill and attributes. The novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald implies that this version of the American Dream has been corrupted by the quest for money above all else. What was once envisioned as a “ city upon a shining hill” by the early American settlers has transfused into “ a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.“The initial American Dream of achieving dreams while upholding spiritual values his transformed …show more content…

Ultimately through the medium of his novel The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald uses materialism to portray his view that in the 1920s America had lost the American Dream and become a decadent and immoral society. The novel takes place after the ravages of the great war had ended and people were savoring the rapidly expanding consumer culture of the 1920s. Many characters were willingly embracing the new philosophy idea that money can buy happiness. Fitzgerald employs Gatsby as a primary example of this growing philosophy. Gatsby who spends all his time raising his social and financial positions only to show the meaningless of the materialistic culture. Instead of working hard, a core tenant of the American Dream, Gatsby chooses to break the law and illegally sell alcohol in order to gain that attention of Daisy. Gatsby believes he is in love with Daisy, but in truth he is much more in love with what Daisy represents. After all Gatsby describers Daisy as, “her voice [being] filled with …show more content…

As a heir of the vieau rich(old rich), by default she possess even vaster prestige than Gatsby. From her youth Fitzgerald paints her as a child of materialism; “ “For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and 6 pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in new tunes.“ By describing her life as artificial, Fitzgerald is saying that Daisy lives in a gilded cage and is unable to escape the grasp of materialism. When Gatsby gives Daisy a tour of his mansion, she doesn’t reveal any emotions towards Gatsby until he presents her with elaborate shirts “"They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such—such beautiful shirts before." It is notable that Daisy chooses to reveal emotion only at this grandiose display of wealth. This speaks to materialism and proves the validity of Fitzgerald’s epigraph “ Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too. Til she cry ‘Lover, gold- hatted, high bouncing lover, I must have you.’”(Fitzgerald ). It takes wealth to unlock the key to Daisy’s cage. Yet, as a result of Gatsby’s bootlegging and Tom’s more established, Daisy refuses to leave her gilded cage and remains with Tom despite her emotional feeling towards Tom. In essence, Fitzgerald is stating

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F.Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, uses an array of elements to capture and display the reality of the 1920’s. The novel is based in New York during the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald shows the darker side of this era, the time of a changing world. The booming economy and easy wealth led to a world of materialism and corruption. Using various characters in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald expresses the power of wealth, how it corrupts and changes people.

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The first time that Daisy shows a full display of emotion is at the extremely conspicuous display of wealth, revealing her innate avariciousness. Daisy is displayed throughout the novel as a woman who has a “voice full of money,” and represents the ‘old money’ that Daisy has. Nonetheless, Daisy is far from the only materialistic character in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby treats Daisy like an object to be bought with his wealth and success, it even excited Gatsby that Daisy had been loved by many other men as it “increased the value in his

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Fitzgerald manipulates this spirit into the concept of old and new money while simultaneously exposing the superficiality that the lifestyle has mass-produced. Because of the underlying classism of the 1920s, Gatsby's efforts to impress his aspiring lover, Daisy, by holding parties and flashing materialistic accessories never competed with her obsession with old money, which made winning her love impossible. She proclaims, "Even alone, I can’t say I never loved Tom... It wouldn’t be true." (Pg 126).

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His love of wealth and material possessions is not only a personal interest, but also one of Daisy’s interests. Revolving his life around her, Gatsby only “bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald, 78). He takes pride in showing off his expensive shirts, “throwing them one by one” (Fitzgerald, 92) In chapters five and six, readers sympathize for Gatsby, seeing that he is merely a love-struck human who is throwing his life away for a girl not worth his time.

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While in pursuit of the American Dream, Daisy’s priorities become material things, status and wealth. When Gatsby shows off his wealth to Daisy by presenting his many-colored shirts, we see Daisy’s shallowness over material things. She becomes emotional over a senseless display of shirts. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such, such beautiful shirts before ” (Fitzgerald 92). She shows little emotion when she sees Gatsby after almost five years, yet becomes emotional over silly shirts.

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Noting, “...Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.” “They're such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the think folds. “It makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts before.” (Fitzgerald Chapter 5: 94.) The wealth by which she is surrounded seems to have overpowered her; she did not cry when she laid eyes on the face of Gatsby at Nick's home shortly before being invited to Mr. Jay Gatsby's home, but yet is driven to emotion and tears upon seeing the beauty of his material possessions.

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Gatsby has this flawed view of his life where he has to keep getting more power to be content with himself: “My life, old sport, my life... my life has got to be like this. It's got to keep going up” (125). He wants to acquire more wealth and more power to achieve a higher social status, almost as if he wants to prove a point to himself and everyone else. However, he fell in love along the way and this stumped his plan. When Gatsby fell in love with Daisy, he changed his whole perspective in life and guided it to work around Daisy: “ I knew it was a great mistake for a man like me to fall in love” (141).

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F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby" is a poignant critique of the Jazz Age in America, exploring the theme of materialism and its detrimental effects on society. Through its vivid characters, intricate plot, and nuanced tone, Fitzgerald masterfully depicts the shallow and empty nature of materialistic pursuits and the tragic consequences that ensue. In this analysis, we will delve into how the characters in the novel are portrayed as materialistic and why this obsession with wealth and possessions is ultimately depicted as destructive. One of the key aspects of materialism in "The Great Gatsby" is the portrayal of characters who are solely driven by the pursuit of wealth and possessions.

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In an attempt to win Daisy back from her lifestyle of “Old Money”, Gatsby becomes excessively greedy with his money. While he himself may not care about wealth, he knows Daisy does. Therefore, when Daisy comes to his mansion, he flaunts his expensive shirts. “‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.’”

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Pursuing this further, Gatsby shows off his wealth to Daisy again by flaunting his expensive clothing. At this point in the story, Gatsby shows off his money in any way that he can. Daisy states to Gatsby, " 'It makes me sad because I 've never seen such – such beautiful shirts before '" (92; Ch 5). Gatsby 's shirts are part of his lifestyle, they were made to impress others. Daisy 's world is made up of wealth and flashy materials, and when she realizes that Gatsby is now connected to money, she breaks down.

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But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there—it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at his camp was to him” (158). The phrase “breathless intensity” characterizes Gatsby’s reaction to seeing such wealth, and the word “air” expresses a sort of intangibility of her wealth. The juxtaposition between Gatsby and Daisy’s perspectives, “breathless” versus “casual,” allude to an insurmountable gap between the idea of the self-made man and the difficulty of actually achieving upward class mobility in America. Here, Fitzgerald suggests that true wealth and class also require a comfortability and casualness toward luxury as evidenced by his comparison of Daisy’s house to Gatsby’s tent. Even when Daisy is ready to leave Tom and Gatsby has the extravagant lifestyle, he is not satisfied.

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