Everyone has fantasized about being rich and all the luxury that comes with it. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing of “The Great Gatsby” suggests how money ruins the lives of many. It ruins those who possess it and those who don’t. Fitzgerald explains through Myrtle Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan that money and materialism causes us to lose sight of our values and what is truly important.
Myrtle Wilson is very desperate to leave the Valley of Ashes. It is an industrial wasteland full of pollution. Myrtle describes her husband as someone who “wasn’t fit to lick [her] shoe” and that she was “crazy when [she] married him” (34,35). Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, mentions that Tom was “the first sweetie she ever had” (35). When Myrtle is caught in an altercation with her husband, she runs out to what she thinks is Tom’s car,
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He believes he’s made it when he integrates himself with Daisy. Unfortunately, this victory won’t last long, and neither will he. Gatsby had run off from home young, leaving his family behind in the pursuit of money. “...his imagination never really accepted them as his parents at all” (98). Along the way, he meets Dan Cody, who teaches how to act rich. When he dies, “...the vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the substantiality of a man” (101). In due time, he reconciles with Daisy and gets into an affair with her. However, when Daisy kills Myrtle, he starts to lose her as she and Tom “[conspire] together” (145). Gatsby has lost when George comes and kills him. This shows what money does to a man. It has left three people killed, including himself. Daisy was never loved by Gatsby, at least, not her person. Daisy is this symbol of achievement for Gatsby. If he marries her, then he’s made it. He throws his parents aside and yearns for a girl he, probably, would never have. He involves himself with a married woman and covers up her murder. All for this golden