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Wealth In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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The Great Gatsby is a book that recounts Nick Carraway's relationships with his sister Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom, Tom's relationships with George and Myrtle Wilson, his affairs with Gatsby, and the wealth gap between them from the perspective of Nick. An inequality in total wealth between races, levels of power, and places of residence is known as a wealth gap. The Buchanans, the Wilsons, James Gatsby, and Jordan Baker in Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby serve as conduits for the expression of this issue. The Wilsons are barely making it by, while the Buchanans are incredibly wealthy. The fact that Daisy and Tom reside in the affluent East Egg neighborhood while the Wilsons reside in the less prosperous Valley of Ashes area helps to illustrate why the wealthy can purchase many expensive items while the less fortunate cannot. For instance, Nick explains that the homes on East Egg are White Palaces, “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg …show more content…

This makes people like Gatsby appear untrustworthy, yet he must do it to become wealthy, believing that unless he is wealthy like Tom, Daisy would not accept him. For instance, in chapter 1, Nick explains Tom's fortune as “His family was enormously wealthy – even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach…” (Fitzgerald 6), while Tom describes how Gatsby got his riches “I found out what your ‘drug-stores’ were…He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far from wrong.” (Fitzgerald 133). This illustrates how, in contrast to Tom, who is wealthy by birth, Gatsby's method of acquiring riches is similar to that of some poorer

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Ever wanted to become part of the wealthy class and live a luxurious, and stress free life? F. Scott Fitzgerald shows how that idea of wealth and being stress free is impossible. The novel The Great Gatsby is a novel revolving around five rich individuals and one poorer woman, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, Jay Gatsby, Jordan Baker, Nick Carraway, and Myrtle Wilson who is not apart of the rich class. Many conflicts arise in this book due to the greed of money and some of these actions lead onto death and deception of love. The conflicts arise between Gatsby's love with Daisy and the affairs between Tom and his mistress, Myrtle.

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Tom and Daisy were displayed as a vision of wealth in The Great Gatsby. Daisy grew up in an affluent family and wanted for nothing. She never knew of a different lifestyle. Daisy knew of large, fancy homes and enjoyed life’s finer pleasures. Daisy’s “rich life and her rich home is another factor that makes her desirable to a young man without a past” (Tate 94).

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Gatsby almost craved wealth and respect. He was so desperate that he became a bootlegger to make large amounts of money considering he wasn’t born into wealth but, he really wanted that lifestyle. Tom said, “… I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far from wrong.” (Fitzgerald 44) He said this because how does someone become that wealthy out of nowhere and isn’t “old money”.

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That is, until Gatsby enterprises in bootlegging, where his fortune sprouts once again, and his ambition is sated for the time being. Of course, when Daisy, a lost love, enters his life, this ambition changes to please her. Unfortunately for Gatsby, Daisy chooses Tom over him. Gatsby proves to be the embodiment of the rags to riches story of self-made wealth which was a common symbol of the wealth found throughout the roaring twenties. Gatsby, through Daisy’s decision, also provides a juxtaposition between the wealthy classes; Gatsby’s self-made wealth which throws lavish parties and pleases masses, and Tom’s wealth which provides for himself, his interests, and

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The rich instead is very absent from their kids' lives and only spend time with them briefly, missing out on knowing and caring for their children. Daisy takes advantage of her wealth and uses it to have someone raise her child, Gatsby, and Nick did not believe she existed. Another social economic example in the book is how the rich poorly treat the lower class because of their social and financial status. In chapter 7 Tom goes to the valley of ashes where he stops for gas, where he meets Wilson. Tom is from the upper class and he acts very rude and ignorant towards Wlison, only caring about himself even though Wilson is very sick.

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Gatsby felt and knew that having no money would not allow him to be with Daisy, so he he decided to go out and make tons of money and sort of buy daisy. But we learned that money can’t buy everything including people. Tom was also rich, maybe not as rich as Gatsby but he had a significant amount of money. Tom also had a expensive car that signified that he was very wealthy “well you take my coupe and let me drive your car to town” (Fitzgerald 127).

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Gatsby is a wealthy and successful man who lives in the West Egg which is “the less fashionable of the two” (5) the people who come from the “new money”. “New money” people had to work hard to earn their money and they actually care about others. Unlike, the people that live in the East Egg called the “old money” which is considered to be the wealthier side because the people who live there were born rich. However, Gatsby is very wealthy and this is shown through his house that looks like a “factual imitation of Hotel de Ville in Normandy, more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (5). Gatsby’s house looks like a huge hotel that was built for the Queen the house itself represents Gatsby’s fortune.

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“Do not value money for anymore or any less than it’s worth; for it is a good servant, but a bad master” -Alexandre Dumas. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, characters Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby are corrupt because they value money more than honesty, and let it “master” them as said in Dumas’ quote. Jay Gatsby was not always the wealthy and famous man he became. He grew up in North Dakota and in his search for money and wealth, he found himself in illegal situations. Tom Inherited a large amount of money from his parents and has no morals to live by.

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Tom Buchanan, along with Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green all strive for the highest social class ranking possible as they think it will maximize their happiness and success. In The Great Gatsby, There is a definite distinction of class including the new money (Jay Gatsby), old money (Tom and Daisy Buchanan) as well as no money (Myrtle). Throughout the novel, hardships are evident in all of the classes, supporting that there is no perfect position to be in. Fitzgerald depicts the positive and negative affects of the social class division through the characters. He writes, “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby begins with a quote from the narrator Nick Carraway's father, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one... just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.” (Fitzgerald 7), which serves as a thematic prelude to the narrative's exploration of social class and human relationships. Central to the story are Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby; a dissatisfied housewife, an abusive husband and a hopeless romantic. Despite being raised radically differently, the three share an obsession with wealth and status and a belief that amassing it is the key to life satisfaction. Fitzgerald cleverly uses his novel to criticize this belief, instead asserting that ultimately,

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The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the novel suggests that the pursuit of wealth and one's successes can lead to a person's downfall and destruction. The novel follows the story of Nick Carraway and his experience with a man known as Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a man who was not born into wealth but instead climbed his way to the top with one goal in mind, to be with his Beloved named Daisy Buchanan. But as the story progresses, Gatsby’s goal to be with Daisy takes a very drastic turn for the worse. In the story, there are two characters, Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson, whose lives are ruined by their pursuit of success and everything they want in life.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

In The Great Gatsby the characters in the novel come from various social classes. Nick, Daisy, and Tom are from Wealthy families who have been wealthy for a long time. These characters are referred to as “Old rich” because of their families’ long histories of wealth. Jay Gatsby, unlike Daisy and Tom, did not belong to a wealthy family, and he earns his wealth through his own hard work and success. Although Tom and Gatsby are both wealthy, Tom and the other “Old rich” people look down at Gatsby.

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The Connection of Wealth and Personality in Fitzgerald’s Works In our society, money is seen as the most important factor in decision making and in our overall lives. This is shown throughout all of Fitzgerald’s works and in many of his characters. His stories continually mention the effect that money has on the community. In one of her criticisms, Mary Jo Tate explains that “[Fitzgerald] was not a simple worshiper of wealth or the wealthy, but rather he valued wealth for the freedom and possibilities it provided, and he criticized the rich primarily for wasting those opportunities.

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751 Words | 4 Pages

Fitzgerald first introduces Tom to be affluent and insensitive, which follows the work’s message. Shortly after, the author introduces Gatsby to also be wealthy but this time more respected and

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When reading “The Great Gatsby” you will notice that an irrefutable theme constantly comes up, and that theme is Wealth. During the time at which “The Great Gatsby” takes place, everybody was constantly out partying, after all the “Great War” had ended, and so forth came a new era of consumerism and wealth. Although everybody seemed rich, only some people were. This was made apparent within Fitzgerald's book, with the distinct cast of characters he had created. Of these characters Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, and Tom Buchanan show off three separate aspects of Wealth within said era.

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