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Why Is Materialism Important In The Great Gatsby

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Title The Great Gatsby is a novel that illustrates the potential danger of materialism. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby illustrates materials and possessions are crucial to the plot development and represent the social status of the characters. Automobiles are a symbol that exhibits society and social classes but also play a crucial role in events of The Great Gatsby. The first important instance we see an automobile driven in the novel eerily foreshadows events towards the end. As Gatsby is throwing one of his frequent elaborate parties, a minor single-vehicle accident occurs as the party is dying down. The party goers are both heavily intoxicated and the car is crashed into a ditch. A man jumps out of the coupe and is mistaken as the driver or owner until another man emerges. Fitzgerald inserts a piece about people loving machines despite not knowing how they operate, in the dialogue. However, there is trivial mentions of automobiles mostly in passing, to show the materialism of the 1920s. Nick visits Tom and Daisy at their home; Daisy questions Nick about folks back home about missing her and he jokes that they are mourning by painting one of the wheels of the car black. Another trivial time is before the apartment party with Myrtle, Tom, and Nick. After exiting the train, the three are hailing a taxi but Myrtle refuses each one until she …show more content…

Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby demonstrates the materialism of the 1920’s. Materials have great importance to the events that take place but most importantly show the social classes of the characters. Gatsby fantasizes that money will bring him love and happiness; which brings him from the lower class to “New Money”. Despite his wealth, he cannot compare to Daisy’s husband Tom because they are from “Old Money”. Pursuing materials and money become deadly for Gatsby. Automobiles are important because they are a way to show off for “New Money” but are also a way for direct and indirect deaths of two

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Other than Daisy, only Gatsby knew she was driving when it happened, but his blind love for her sealed his fate. To support this, here is a quote from chapter 7 between Gatsby and the story’s narrator Nick Carraway. Nick asks, “Was Daisy driving?” “‘Yes,’ he [Gatsby]

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“Was Daisy driving?”  ‘Yes,’ he said after a moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was.” (Fitzgerald 154). Gatsby paints a picture of Daisy in his mind of what she’d be like. Since Gatsby imagines himself as an

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Gatsby’s car is a prominent symbol within the book and is used represent wealth and in some instances death. People from all over New York came to marvel at his Rolls-Royce, gleaming tangible proof of his undying wealth. The car is described as gorgeous and marvelous, which is the effect Gatsby intended to have because he originally purchased it to impress his love, Daisy. The reason why it is so symbolic of wealth is because it was Gatsby’s way of proving to Daisy that he had money and a high social class, just as she desired. He drove it around constantly, as it became an “omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city, between nine in the morning and long past midnight.”

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Fitzgerald uses his characters to perfectly convey the theme of secrecy and treachery. What makes this theme so important is that it creates the plot of The Great Gatsby. It’s what makes the story so exciting and heartbreaking. Without Daisy telling the truth that she drove the car that killed Myrtle, Gatsby would not be dead. If Tom had not cheated on Daisy with Myrtle, George would have never hit her, or found out about the affair.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, tells a story revolving around the life of the wealthy folk. Throughout the book, Fitzgerald describes and involves cars in the plot on several occasions. In The Great Gatsby, cars come to represent the carelessness of the wealthy. The cars’ symbolism first appeared in the novel after Gatsby’s first big party.

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Tom insists that Gatsby and Daisy take the car into town toward the end of the novel. The car, in this sense, corresponds to Daisy’s choice in a way; on the way into town, she was thinking of leaving Tom and marrying Gatsby, but afterward, when they take the yellow car, she is solidly with Tom. Tom also talks about selling his car to George Wilson. Daisy’s old car, as mentioned, was a white roadster to represent her innocence. Several collisions occur within the novel, carried out by Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and a drunk guest at Gatsby’s party.

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If we take a non-fiction book that was written in 1922, we might ask ourselves whether the book is relevant in this day and age. One such book was written by the author F. Scott Fitzgerald and it goes by; “The Great Gatsby”. The contents of the novel actually hold pretty valuable and relatable materials regarding materialism in today’s society. It also touches on the idea that people are not what they seem to be even if they say they are. This in and of itself is highly relevant because human behavior stays fairly comprehensible throughout history.

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