ipl-logo

Wealth In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

592 Words3 Pages

In his novel The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald shows the rich elite's obsession with wealth and their inability to overcome the past. Gatsby's lavish parties and pursuit of Daisy represent his delusion about recapturing what he once had with Daisy. Daisy's marriage to Tom exemplifies her rush of status and wealth over actual love. Although Gatsby has all this money, he feels alone. The author depicts the consequences of dwelling on the past and not enjoying the present through the lens of wealth and status. The author also shows money is not everything in this world. Gatsby's obsessive pursuit of Daisy signifies his inability to let go of the past and his delusional belief that his newly acquired wealth can restore their love. ”He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy” (85). …show more content…

He wants to recapture that feeling of who he was when he loved Daisy before. His obsession with reliving that relationship reveals his inability to let go of their previous meetings. His fixation on recovering his past identity tied to loving Daisy drives his hopeless pursuit of her in the present. “He knew that when he kissed this girl and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.” (85) When Gatsby and Daisy kissed, I'm sure he felt a sense of relief that he could finally lay his lips on her again. A thousand thoughts could’ve crossed his mind after they kissed, of them getting married and living a problemless life together. If he got the chance to marry her again and live a happy life with her, his mind would never have to worry or count the days that they'd been away from each other ever again. Tom and Daisy's marriage was built on wealth rather than love. “Your wife doesn’t love you,” said

Show More
Related
1051 Words | 5 Pages

Another issue is that a partial amount of Gatsby's infatuation can be acquitted to the idea of Daisy rather than person herself. Gatsby equates his love for Daisy with the wealth of her surroundings. “Gatsby's, dream is established here:” States Gary Scrimgeour, “A combination of beauty, love, money, and success.” (Scrimgeour, 2). The conflation of all these ideas heightens his infatuation with Daisy.

Read More
1070 Words | 5 Pages

Daisy has proven herself to be materialistic and to fulfill her need for wealth she marries Tom to remain a member of old money upper class, not for

Read More
1677 Words | 7 Pages

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).

Read More
1057 Words | 5 Pages

Gatsby’s failure to see the truth about relationships leads to his downfall; he doesn’t understand that people change and love isn’t like it always was in the past. Additionally, Gatsby’s inability to deal with relationships is worsened by his relentless pursuit of the American Dream. In Gatsby’s mind, achieving success and wealth is linked to winning Daisy’s affection, therefore achieving happiness for himself. However, Fitzgerald suggests that Gatsby’s narrow definition of success blinds him to the true meaning of human connections. “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (5) Gatsby’s fixation on material wealth rather than approaching the girl himself shows his belief that love and happiness can be attained through material possessions.

Read More
805 Words | 4 Pages

Tom, Daisy’s immensely rich husband, gets into an argument with Gatsby that helps reveal to Gatsby that he has been perpetuating a juvenile delusion by blindly pursuing Daisy. In the middle of the heated conversation Daisy admits, “‘Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom’”(Fitzgerald 133). At this point in the The Great Gatsby, the futility of Gatsby’s dreams becomes blatantly apparent. Gatsby has always considered Daisy as worthy of his endless devotion and chooses to see past her flaws. Over time Gatsby’s dream becomes more about the idea of Daisy and being in love rather than Daisy as she actually is.

Read More
832 Words | 4 Pages

When Gatsby says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made”(Fitzgerald 137) he should have known getting intertwined with their relationship was a bad idea. As much as Gatsby loved Daisy, he only knew the old her; he did not know who she was now and what getting into a relationship with her would cause. As well as wanting a relationship, Gatsby wanted as much money and to experience as many things as possible. When describing his desire and fascination with life, Gatsby says, “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life”(Fitzgerald 9). Gatsby is captivated in a way by wealth and success.

Read More
876 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, material wealth is a major topic that works to convey the theme of class. There are three main classes in The Great Gatsby: old money, applying to characters like Tom and Daisy Buchanan, new money, applying to characters like Jay Gatsby, and no money, applying to characters like George and Myrtle Wilson. The no money class is overlooked in society, where the main focus in society is the rivalry between old and new money. Old money has many connections in society and their fortunes date to past ventures made by their families, whereas new money has almost no connections, and their fortunes are tied to success in 20th century America. Both look down upon each other, as old money views new money as having no taste with its lavish display of wealth whereas new money looks down to old money as being snotty.

Read More
648 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

Because of Daisy’s lavish lifestyle, the only way to win her back is with money. Gatsby knows this and “bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores” (Fitzgerald 103) and “sold grain alcohol over the counter” (Fitzgerald 103) in order to get the money and impress her. Because Daisy loves money, Gatsby alters his life in order to win her back. Gatsby commits a crime and covers it up with a fake story just to seem worthy of Daisy. Money has influenced Gatsby’s actions heavily because Daisy wants it.

Read More
1188 Words | 5 Pages

Kaden Selby Mrs. Costigan AP English III 15 May 2023 The Portrayal of Wealth Through Gatsby In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the main character and narrator, Nick Carraway, tells a tale of the extravagant lifestyle of the wealthy and elite in the 1920s. Role of wealth within the novel plays a vital part as each character’s desires, motivation, and personality derive from the status of their wealth. With many vivid descriptions and symbolic representations, Nick Carraway tells the reader the tale of decadence, superficiality, and moral bankruptcy that often accompanies wealth.

Read More
747 Words | 3 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby describes the life of Jay Gatsby in the 1920’s. The novel shares his love story and his loneliness. A major question the author raises is how does wealth impact class structure and society? Fitzgerald answers this question through the distinction between “New rich” and “Old rich” and the significance of East and West Egg.

Read More
1111 Words | 5 Pages

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the reader is immediately struck by Tom Buchannan’s wealth. He believes he is intrinsically superior and can afford to treat others poorly. Tom physically bullies others and discriminates against their wealth and social status. Tom represents “old money” and how his vast wealth strengthened his arrogance to look down on everyone. When Tom first meets Nick Carraway, he says, “‘Now, don’t think my opinion on these matters is final,’ he seemed to say, ‘just because I’m stronger and more of a man than you are’”

Read More
1142 Words | 5 Pages

Gatsby has always wanted to provide Daisy with “a sense of security,” and convince her that “he was a perfection much as the same stratum as herself” (Fitzgerald 149). This is where Gatsby goes wrong because he perceives himself to be something that he is not; the “old money” stature that both Tom and Daisy are. Gatsby belongs to the “new money” group, which consists of individuals who have recently acquired wealth and live in West Egg. Gatsby has the means to make himself great, and he has the wealth of what society considers great, but his refusal to let go of the past causes him to be blind to Daisy’s true character. Both Tom and Daisy’s inherited wealth secures them into a prestigious society, one that they both value and want to stay apart of.

Read More
2065 Words | 9 Pages

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.

Read More
1332 Words | 6 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby, as Jay Gatsby delves into his pursuit of wealth and need for materialism, his hopes and aspirations become shattered in a world of unobtainable and unreachable possibilities. While Jay Gatsby confidently believes that material excess will ultimately bring about love, admiration, and prosperity, the audience understands that the possession of material objects does not always lead to the possession of these intangible virtues. The richest and happiest man is the one who sets the joy and happiness of others in the center of his wealth. As Jay Gatsby dedicates himself to winning over Daisy Buchanan and falls in love with her aura of luxury, Gatsby becomes overwhelmed with an unremitting desire for money and pleasure that eventually triggers his downfall. He has one purpose in life: to attract Daisy with his ornate house on West Egg and with his overflowing sum of money.

Read More

More about Wealth In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Open Document