Corruption In The Great Gatsby Essay

Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby a common conflict of the corruption of American society and its means of materialism corrupting the American dream is expressed by F. Scott Fitzgerald. There is constant conflict among the wealthy, well to do class in America. Especially in the setting of Long Island, where resides the East Egg and the West Egg. The East and West Egg respectively represent the split among the upper wealthy class in society. The East Egg is of old money, aristocratic families where as the West Egg is of the "nouveau riche" families whose fortunes were recently acquired. The East Egg has more social influence and respectability than those residing in the West Egg. The East Eggers place great value on tradition, family background,
social convention, and manners, and they look with contempt upon others who were not born to their kind of wealth. East Eggers believe they’re essentially better than those in the West Egg and don’t consider themselves to be equals, which is represented by the dynamics of Gatsby and the Buchannans.
Daisy and Tom Buchannan represent the East Egg, those who have generations of wealth and respectability. Jay Gatsby however represents the West Egg and the new wealth of American society. Gatsby is essentially a social newcomer whom has made his money through commerce, bootlegging. West Eggers lack the sense of entitlement found among the East Eggers, and they are not "refined" or "polished" in their manners. West Eggers are portrayed in the novel as being over-enthusiastic with his money spending it carelessly on all extravagancies, almost to the point of being gaudy, like all of Gatsby's parties and his pink suit in Chapter 7. It is as if they don’t know what to do with their newly grossed riches and therefore try to copy what they perceive to be the possessions and manners of the pronounced rich of the East Egg. West Eggers envy the respectability of the East Eggers, and the wanted the same for themselves. Gatsby has always wanted to be a part of the wealthy society, and is enticed by East Egg and their luxuriousness. Everything Gatsby has ever wanted was part of the East Egg, including his long dreamed of love,
Daisy. Gatsby throws lavish, luxurious parties in which he flamboyantly shows off his prosperity in hopes of luring the East Eggs over to his West side, specifically Daisy Buchannan. She was the embodiment of his dream and efforts. No matter what Gatsby did for her, no matter his wealth, he never belonged with her. She was a dream that was held on so tightly; it had long been crushed yet gone unnoticed. She was panegyrized, put on a pedestal so high she herself could not reach it. Gatsby held his expectations of Daisy so high that for every thing that she did do, it was never enough for him. He always wanted something more, for her to live up to his impossible dream. In the end, it was too much. His dream had been corrupted by the fascinations of his mind and Daisy has long been corrupted by the hierarchy of wealth of society. It was not long before everything came to light; that all of Gatsby’s hopes and dreams died before his very eyes. "She never loved you, do you hear? She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me" (130) By this point Tom Buchannan had already become victorious, leaving Gatsby in the rubble behind him. It was as if Gatsby was not so great anymore. His dream was shattered, like a rug pulled out from under him and a vase full of flowers that shattered like thin glass. It was as if Daisy had withered away, like a true flower always must. Like the transient flower, Daisy's love for Gatsby withers and dies. Like the ephemeral flower, Daisy's love for Gatsby soon withers and dies. Nick, the narrator, even looks back attempting to envision what it was like for Gatsby, to have lost one’s dream, and even worse, to have what’s beyond the facade revealed. Daisy, the prime of his dream, is gone. Nick imagines what it’s like to have everything you worked to achieve to crumble before one’s eyes. Gatsby worked his whole life to achieve his “American Dream”. To become a wealthy man, worthy of Daisy, his one and only love, and now that she has made her choice of Tom over Gatsby, the last piece of his dream is gone. He lost his entire world- demarcated by a façade of money, lust and extravagance. His dream shattered in front of him, moment by moment, rippling out of existence. Gatsby’s dream was gone, only to be replaced by the harsh cruelty of reality. Gatsby “found what a grotesque thing a rose is”. There was no longer a façade, everything began to unravel. “He [Gatsby] must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered when he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how the raw sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.”() For every flower, no matter how beautiful, there is always a façade that disintegrates as time goes past. The beauty of its petals will each eventually wither away, the façade shall drop and the true nature of a departed flower is seen. With time the façade eventually decays away, and all that was once hidden amongst beauty is revealed. Even a rose, a symbol of lust and love, decays, and its true self concealed by beauty and appeal is finally expressed. Every flower is a delicate façade of beauty, hiding all its ugliness like a fog. Daisy, a flower by name, delicate by nature, held a façade that withered away by time. She was the essence of Gatsby’s dream. She was the reason behind his determination for wealth. Yet despite his efforts he was left in the water, all alone, a floating death. His dream wavered on the water, rippling in his final death bed. Until the very last moment, Gatsby had believed in his dream that Daisy would choose him one day, that it wasn’t all fruitless effort. Yet she never would have chosen him. She may have loved Gatsby, but when it came down to choosing she couldn’t leave the realm of her upper social hierarchy to be with someone below, even if he was just as rich. No matter how wealthy Gatsby might become, he would never belong to the Buchanans' upper social class because he was not born into it. He would always be an outsider looking in. No matter how much money he acquired or how he used it, he would never be in the same upper social class as the East siders. Wealth and materialism corrupted the East and West Eggs.