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Theme Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

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Two themes that connect very well together in The Great Gatsby are materialism and money. As the story gets told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby achieves his wealth through the motivation of his first love, Daisy Buchanan. Since the story of The Great Gatsby takes place around the 1920s, money also became a great deal to Gatsby since it helped him flourish a lavish lifestyle that he built around the woman he loved. Furthermore, both of these themes apply a great effect towards Gatsby’s character. Both materialism and money come together to portray how one can never have all of the desired things in life. Romance is very dramatic, and can drive a person to do stubborn things for another person. Hence, Jay Gatsby’s actions …show more content…

During the 1920s, people lost vast amounts of money due to the stock market crash. Since the story of The Great Gatsby takes place around the Great Depression, an era where the loss of money became the epitome of people who desperately needed it the most. However, people who were a part of the wealthier social classes, such as Gatsby, infinitely spent money on fancy cars, a mansion, and especially his giant parties. All of those things are all for Daisy, and the life Gatsby lived all started out because of her. She became the main reason why he lived such a rich lifestyle. According to Greg Forter’s reviewed work on the article, Gender, Race, and Mourning in American Modernism, Forter expresses how Gatsby gets “disparaged for embodying the very qualities for which he is initially valued.” (460). He explains how Gatsby deceived people, especially Nick, with his lifestyle because Nick realizes that Gatsby’s materialism and money were all for Daisy. Moreover, the theme of money in The Great Gatsby brings great use to materialism. For instance, in order to receive another person’s affection, one must go through desperate measures to achieve that affection. In Gatsby's case, he would buy anything for Daisy even if it costed him at an extremely high price because he is very in love with her, and believes that she deserves

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The Moral Decay of the Materialistic Although F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby debuted in 1925– before the Great Depression– it serves as a prophetic exemplification of the the material excess of the 1920s that drowned out signs of the coming Great Depression. The book’s plot follows the bootlegger Jay Gatsby as he pursues his old love Daisy Buchanan through flaunting his new extravagant lifestyle, mainly by throwing ostentatious parties. Yet, in the end, Daisy chooses her unfaithful husband Tom over Gatsby. Through Fitzgerald’s use of wealthy, materialistic characters, he comments on the effect of the material excess of the roaring twenties: moral corruption.

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Gatsby wanted to make the best out of it to show Daisy that he can fit into their society. Materialism is showed in this story because people are really after the objects. In this passage, Daisy is so focused what Gatsby has instead of loving him herself. So by Gatsby being rich, he managed to get Daisy but not her heart since she does not know how to live with money. Getting rich can give anyone the world but, if there are no special connections, then it is all superficial and it means

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What’s more, Daisy was old money who was respected and enjoyed everything in upper class, which actually Gatsby longed for so much. Gatsby dreamed to be one of

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Gatsby has spent his whole life trying to prove to Daisy and everyone around him that he is worthy of her. The only way to be on the same social level as her is to turn himself into new money. Since this is not possible, he has to try to convince to others that he truly is old money. To do this, he becomes rich, and lies about his past, but the only way for him to complete this idea is if he is with Daisy. She is the final piece in his American dream.

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In the Great American classic, The Great Gatsby, many critics have aligned their opinions with the fact that Gatsby was corrupted by the thought of money. Gatsby was portrayed as the American Dream, going from having nothing to being extremely wealthy, but along the line he was caught up in illegal affairs and resulting in his own corruption. In the beginning Gatsby had nothing just a plan for achieving his American Dream. After reading the Great Gatsby I had come to the conclusion that Gatsby had been corrupted by the society around him and the people he most associated with. Most modern day critics, say that Gatsby’s lust for money corrupted his love for Daisy.

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It has long been said that money can’t buy happiness, but still people continue to use it’s acquisition to try to make themselves happy. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the title character struggles with this realization. The book is set in New York during the ‘Roaring 20’s’, a time famous for its parties and lavishness. The book examines the attitudes toward money within the upper particularly through the lense of the new-money title character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby dedicated his life to the acquisition of money with the goal of eventually acquiring the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan.

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Gatsby had bought that house so he could get close to Daisy, who was one of the few people that brought true happiness to someone for a little. While Gatsby could have just bought a cheaper house to get closer to Daisy because despite his wealth she never came to one of his parties. The money was thought to be the source of his happiness because of the amazing house he owned when instead the love of daisy was the reason he saw even a glimpse of

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The Roaring Twenties, known as the decade of the 1920s in the Western World, consists of dramatic changes in social values. The cultural differences between the 1920s and the Victorian era changes people's behavior, where they become more free-will, youthful and carefree, despite of being more conservative before. People are more open-minded and found satisfaction through the “open pursuit of sex, money, and booze” (Berman 53) as they suggest their wealth and status in the society. New York City had become one of the cities where materialistic wealth has become the key of happiness and the standard to judge people's success, further leading Americans to pursue each other in a negative, acquisitive way. Through the different scenes and characters of the famous novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores how the society twisted the original idea of

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How wasteful! (An Analysis on Fitzgeralds ideas of waste in the American Dream) “Diamonds are a girl 's best friend” a quote by Marilyn Monroe easily defines materialism as an integral. Many people put simple goods over everything else and that 's all they spend their money on. Almost akin to a lifestyle midlife crisis, they only find joy from cars and clothes and fancy houses, and receiving cars and clothes and fancy houses. Citizens sacrifice relationships to obtain these materialistic objects and it shows how morbid an average lifestyle has become; especially after the twenties.

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In “The Great Gatsby”, Gatsby himself has set his focus on being viewed as this wealth man who did in fact come from wealth (even when he did not). He consistently portrays this man to hide the past and create an image for himself. He also pursues his dreams of winning over the heart of Daisy to create happiness. He did everything in his power to get her to notice him: moved to live near her, threw roaring parties in hope that she would eventually show up,

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Gatsby himself realizes Daisy’s obsession with money: “‘She never loved you, do you hear?’ he cried. ‘She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me’” (Fitzgerald 130). The quote reveals

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Gatsby spent their years apart motivated to win over Daisy by gaining wealth. In his eyes, gaining wealth became equivalent to getting Daisy. He stated, “her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald, 2004, p.120). His life revolved around money and Daisy, who had symbolically chosen Tom’s pearls and wealth over Gatsby’s letter of love. He threw parties in order to attract her with his wealth.

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The characters in the novel pretend that they have their lives all figured out, but through their successes their downfalls and emptiness can be seen, to prove that money cannot buy happiness. Jay Gatsby is the newest and upcoming star in New York during the 1920’s. Through his business and inheritance he is one of the richest men of his time. One may think that his abundance of wealth would lead him to be eternally happy, but he is the opposite. Gatsby longs for his love of Daisy, which is his personal American Dream.

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The Great Gatsby Greed can ruin a person’s life. F. Scott Fitzgerald shows this in his classic novel, The Great Gatsby, a sad love story about the rich title character, Jay Gatsby, and his obsession to win back the love of the now married Daisy Buchanan, his former girlfriend. The extravagant lifestyles of Gatsby and the wealthy socialites who attend his parties lead to lost dreams and wasted lives. These men and women are absorbed by material pursuits. In Jay Gatsby’s case, all the money in the world could not replace what he truly desires, Daisy.

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To begin with, the first glance we get of Gatsby is his extravagant parties. Gatsby uses parties to show off his wealth, hoping that it will grasp Daisy 's attention. " On week-ends his Rolls Royce became on omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains" (39; Ch 3). Gatsby throws extravagant parties to try to give off the illusion that he is old money.

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