Wealth In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

James Lutz Mrs. Edelman ELA 10 (H) 15 May 2024 To love is to act, they say, Gatsby would. “The Great Gatsby” is a book written by () and plays off of the prosperity of the 1920's. It takes place on 2 islands, east and west. East Egg and West Egg represent 2 different kinds of wealth. This paper focuses mostly on a character from West Egg named Jay Gatsby who is incredibly wealthy and hosts extravagant parties but is also having an affair with Daisy, a married woman, another focus will be Nick, Gatsby's neighbor who lives in West Egg is not wealthy like the rest. Another focus will be Daisy's husband Tom, who is a big man with a lot of money. Throughout the story, various factors contribute to Gatsby's going from a very reserved man into one

In the early parts of the book (plot-wise), we can see Gatsby talking to Nick after pulling himself away from Daisy into a separate room with Nick and states. “It’s the funniest thing, an old sport,” he said hilariously. “I can’t — When I try to ——” (Fitzgerald 71). Gatsby's statement of these words is quite interesting, he is talking about his inability to maintain his composure around Daisy and to talk to her. As we can see, Gatsby is quite nervous and is having difficulty maintaining his composure and difficulty forming statements around Daisy, as well as his nervousness breaching over and creating difficulty for him forming thoughts about his emotions directed at Nick. This is quite interesting because we can see at the beginning of Gatsby and Daisy's relationship he is quite nervous, is not comfortable around Daisy, he’s unable to act naturally, and struggling to form coherent thoughts. This shows Gatsby's lack of social skills and more reserved nature as he is unable to act reasonably and struggles to maintain composure. Later in the story when Daisy is at one of Gatsby's parties for the first time, Nick narrates “Daisy and Gatsby