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Theme Of Wealth In The Great Gatsby

1397 Words6 Pages

How does F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of wealth in the novel The Great Gatsby critique the social implications and problems of being wealthy? Critiques of the Upper Class based on Implications of Wealth The characterization of wealth has been one of prestige and elegance throughout human history. This group seems so foreign to the common people that it’s hard to begin understanding the social constructs of their lives. Yet as Nick Carraway notes, looking out at the vast amount of elites between East and West egg, a “more interesting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size” (Fitzgerald 9). The two islands represented a physical divide between the generations of wealth, two groups of people with contradicting …show more content…

Dan Cody, Gatsby’s former mentor, was ultimately brought down by those around him who envied and took advantage of the money he had. One woman in particular, Ella Kaye, was able to “[play] Madame de Maintenon on to his weakness, and send him to sea in a yacht”, and after following several legal expenditures, she stripped Cody of all his money, leaving none behind for Gatsby (Fitzgerald 64). Even with such experiences in his past, Gatsby would, later on, use similar manipulation on many others. For instance, in one of Nick’s first interactions with Gatsby, he makes a snide comment about Nick’s income and invites him to join his “little business” (Fitzgerald 53). Not only was this passively discriminatory, but it also implies the intentions of Gatsby to manipulate and profit off of Nick’s desperation for money. Later when Tom figured out the truth about Gatsby’s origin of income and insulted him for threatening Walter Chase to take the fall for him, Gatsby dismissed the comment and justified the action as he was simply helping him. “‘He came to us dead broke. He was very glad to pick up some money, old sport’” (Fitzgerald 83). If Nick had not declined Gatsby’s offer, it’s not unlikely that he would have been tossed out by Gatsby in a similar way as soon as he was of no use to him. Additionally, Tom showed much more blatant ideals of criticism and discrimination towards the lower class. One of which is the relationship with Myrtle, his mistress, in which he mentions his lack of concern to Nick about Wilson because of his economic status, inferring that he won’t affect his life. Tom purposely used the excuse that Wilson wasn’t providing for her as well as he should have and that his relationship with her is mutually beneficial. Yet, even with his close relationship with Myrtle, Tom considers it disrespectful for

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During the conversation, Nick realizes that “what [Tom] had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy” (Fitzgerald 179). In short, Tom felt that his actions that lead to the death of Gatsby were “entirely justified” in his mind. This comes as no surprise to Nick because Tom and Daisy are careless people that leave a wake whenever they are around.

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