Title
The Great Gatsby is a book that contains an abundance of motifs. F Scott Fitzgerald uses these motifs very masterfully to enhance the novel The Great Gatsby. One of the motifs that he uses is that money corrupts. The corruption is shown in many different ways and through many different people. In this book money is shown to cause corruption in Gatsby, Tom, and in relationships in the book.
Corruption can occur in many types of ways weather it is in some ones position and status, in a relation causing destruction to the relation, also corruption can just cause a person to change be two faced. Gatsby is a character that is shown to be corrupt. In the book Gatsby tends to be distant from everyone and no one really knows who he is or where he came from therefore he has acquired
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At one point in the book he lets Nick in and tells him a great deal of his past, but he never reveals to Nick how he acquired his great wealth and status. However in a later chapter when Nick, Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, and Jordan go to lunch.
While at this lunch Tom reveals he has done some research on Gatsby and says “I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong.” (Gatsby 7,133) this shows us that where Gatsby money came from isn’t legit and he’s a gangster of sorts. Which allows us to see that he real was corrupt because he so desired money which would allow him to be with Daisy, but ironic enough it’s what he did to raise his wealth that drove Daisy away.
Earlier in the book we are able to see how Tom has been corrupted by his money. In the book he is having an affair with Myrtle who is Wilson’s wife, it is often said that she has married below herself. The affair shows how he’s been corrupted because he has always had more money than anyone else, so he has developed a sense of being kind of reckless and ungoverned. He reached a state where he can do whatever he wants because he’s the big dog around to say.