Daisy's Wealth In The Great Gatsby

Money is no issue to most of the characters in The Great Gatsby because whether it is from inheritance, polo playing, or suspicious means, they are very wealthy. However, with great wealth comes great responsibility. Apparently nobody from the early 1920s got the memo. Throughout the story we constantly see examples of these absurdly privileged people use their status to justify reckless and childish behavior. When Tom takes Nick into the valley of ashes and forces him off the train to meet myrtle Nick says “The supercilious assumption was that on a Sunday afternoon I had nothing better to do.” (page 24) this goes to show that tom has no regard for anyone’s time but his own because he values himself over others due to his wealth. Any marginally
This is possibly due to his upbringing in poverty, but it is clear that everything Gatsby sis with his wealth was done for Daisy. When Gatsby comes home from the war and learns that Daisy has married Tom, Gatsby quickly and mysteriously amasses large amounts of money in hopes that his wealth will bring Daisy back to him. When Gatsby throws his crazy parties, he isn’t doing it because he enjoys it, he is doing it because he thinks Daisy will enjoy it. “He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray.” (page 92) Even when Gatsby does get Daisy’s attention again, he does everything he can think of to keep her interested by showing off all of these useless glittering things that he has collected. It starts with him showing of a grand organ in the foyer, for which he keeps a person staffed to play whenever he desires, and ends with him literally shoving his wealth in her face by throwing all of these fine shirts at Daisy. Only when she starts crying does he stops and she says it’s because she’s never seen such beautiful shirts before. Gatsby never gets caught up in all of the shining parties he throws and doesn’t seem to care about anything he owns that daisy doesn’t find suitable. Gatsby even treats Nick with genuine kindness and tries to dispel harmful rumors about himself because he cares what nick thinks of him as a person. Gatsby is the only wealthy person in this book to never show unnecessary malice unless Daisy is