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What Does The Shirts Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

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In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby, a mysterious wealthy man who lives in a mansion in West Egg, gives Daisy Buchanan a tour of the castle like home. Daisy is a beautiful woman, married to Tom Buchanan, whom Gatsby had fell in love with before the war and had lost touch with. When Daisy and Gatsby meet for the first time in 5 years, Gatsby offers to give her a tour of his house to show her his wealth and status. The Great Gatsby addresses the problem of Materialism and is illustrated in this passage through the attempt to impress with possessions, as well as admiration for inanimate objects. Daisy exemplifies the theme of Materialism by showing strong admiration and emotion towards Gatsby’s shirts. Fitzgerald writes, “‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the …show more content…

The word choice of “sobbed” expresses how the shirts impact her emotionally and how she impacted more by these than Gatsby himself. The use of the -- as well as such being used twice illustrates her lost for words when she sees the shirts. Her lack of very strong emotion that is showed to gatsby contrasts her admiration for the shirts. Gatsby’s materialistic culture leads him to try to intrigue Daisy with luxury possessions. Gatsby tries to show off his wealth by setting up a confrontation and tour of his house with Daisy. Fitzgerald writes about Gatsby, “I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes.” (Page 91). Gatsby “revalues” his everything his house based on the reaction it got from daisy because he wanted to impress daisy and the objects are the easiest way to do this. Gatsby shows Daisy his luxuries, instead of impressing her with his personality, outlining the materialistic society. Materialism is shown throughout the book by the values of the character, being wealth and

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A little bit later in the book, the group goes into the mansion, where Gatsby shows them the collection of shirts he has. Then, Daisy states, “‘They’re such beautiful shirts.’ …’It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.’”. While she is saying this through her sobs, we can infer that the shirts can represent Gatsby’s wealth and personality. Daisy probably thinks that she could have been in a happier and better relationship with Gatsby than the one she is in with Tom.

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Gatsby travels back to the first time he saw Daisy at her grand home and goes into vivid detail of her house, “There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than the other bedrooms of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year’s shining motor cars and of dancers whose flowers were scarcely withered”. Gatsby goes into the nitty-gritty details of Daisy’s home, calling it ‘beautiful’, ‘gay and radiant’ and ‘breathing’ in order to demonstrate how symbolic the home is to him. This is the first taste of the upper class that Gatsby has ever experienced and serves as the true epitome of wealth to Gatsby. He falls in love with the newness of her home and the activities of the rich. Because of Gatsby’s love for the home, when he sees Daisy become consumed by her own luxuries, he feels betrayed; “She vanished into her rich house, into her rich full life, leaving Gatsby-nothing”.

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Fitzgerald uses clothing and fashion as a comparison to the “American Dream” because it is forever changing and its value is different to every person. Daisy herself is a metaphor of the “American Dream”, she being dressed in white symbolizes the “purity” of the “Golden Dream”. Gatsby spends his whole life trying to reach her, like the green light, but in his eyes he is never successful. Even though to many people Gatsby has achieved the American Dream he himself is not content because of his obsession with destroying and preserving his past. He would never be happy with his wealth or having Daisy, unless she said that she only ever loved him, and he came from old money.

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In an attempt to win Daisy back from her lifestyle of “Old Money”, Gatsby becomes excessively greedy with his money. While he himself may not care about wealth, he knows Daisy does. Therefore, when Daisy comes to his mansion, he flaunts his expensive shirts. “‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.’”

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Pursuing this further, Gatsby shows off his wealth to Daisy again by flaunting his expensive clothing. At this point in the story, Gatsby shows off his money in any way that he can. Daisy states to Gatsby, " 'It makes me sad because I 've never seen such – such beautiful shirts before '" (92; Ch 5). Gatsby 's shirts are part of his lifestyle, they were made to impress others. Daisy 's world is made up of wealth and flashy materials, and when she realizes that Gatsby is now connected to money, she breaks down.

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But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there—it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at his camp was to him” (158). The phrase “breathless intensity” characterizes Gatsby’s reaction to seeing such wealth, and the word “air” expresses a sort of intangibility of her wealth. The juxtaposition between Gatsby and Daisy’s perspectives, “breathless” versus “casual,” allude to an insurmountable gap between the idea of the self-made man and the difficulty of actually achieving upward class mobility in America. Here, Fitzgerald suggests that true wealth and class also require a comfortability and casualness toward luxury as evidenced by his comparison of Daisy’s house to Gatsby’s tent. Even when Daisy is ready to leave Tom and Gatsby has the extravagant lifestyle, he is not satisfied.

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