Fitzgerald's View Of Money In The Great Gatsby

Anna Gorski
Oct. 15, 2010
Period 5
AP Eng.
The Great Gatsby
Money can symbolize certain statuses in the world. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays these views of money among the characters in the novel. Wealth and money becomes an issue as the novel progress, once you begin to analyze each character. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, “old money” and “new money” describes the gap between the rich and the poor, for an example Gatsby and the Wilsons, West Egg and the Valley of the Ashes. On a smaller scale the “old money” and the “new money” refer to as East being the “old” and West being the “new”. The East Egg represented the established aristocracy or inheritance, as the West Egg was the self-made rich. Gatsby
had represented the West Egg, compared to Daisy as being the East Egg and inheriting money from Tom. In overall to the point of the novel about money, money can’t always buy your way through life. People begin to take money for granted. Although Daisy may think that, it can’t always happen. Gatsby is also a good example of this quote. In the novel, Gatsby throws extravagant parties, spending tons of money, and everyone comes but in the end he had no one left. As a result, money ends up corrupting societies, crushing the dreams people once had if not handled properly. “The Great Gatsby” describes the decay of the American Dream and the want for money and materialism.
World War one had just ended and people began reveling in the materialism that came with the end of it. The ending period began new mass produced commodities such as motor cars and radios. Cars were becoming a social symbol, as in the book Gatsby had five cars. That had showed the dream as ugliness and the ruin of moral values because of the desire of wealthy status. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays people obsessed with self-image, wealth, and of loveless relationships. Referring back to Daisy and Gatsby they are once again perfect example of people obsessed with self-image, wealth, and relationships. Daisy loves money and she will basically do anything for it and because of that she marries Tom for his money. Daisy just wanted have all the things she ever desire. Due to that action she ends up falling back in love with Gatsby, causing more conflict. Daisy only fell back in love with Gatsby because Gatsby was “new money” and he always had parties and such. Daisy loved that fact about Gatsby because Tom never did stuff like that and it had showed that Gatsby was rich and Daisy liked that. Gatsby in the other hand worked hard for his money and tried to use it to gain happiness by buying many clothes and items. He built a house to impress Daisy with his so-called wealth, trying to win the love through money and
wealth. In the world that Jay Gatsby lived in the novel “The Great Gatsby” portrays the pursuit of wealth and status as one of the main focuses. The attempt to capture the American Dream becomes the central with different dreams to different people. For Gatsby, the dream was that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness. Gatsby devotes most of his adult life trying to recapture his dream but then dies in its pursuit. In the past, Gatsby had a love affair with Daisy. He knew he could not marry her because of the difference in their social status. Once he achieves the wealth, he moves near Daisy. He throws parties in hopes of her showing up in one of them. Soon enough Gatsby finally meets Daisy again. As the final conclusion begins to brew up in the end, Gatsby pursuit ends when Wilson kills Gatsby for assuming that Gatsby was seeing Myrtle, and then tragedy happens. Money played a big role in the novel “The Great Gatsby”. The statues of becoming wealthy had each character on their tip toes. It had led to conflicts among each other, with judging statuses and what you had to prove that you were well off. Love and money had become an issue. It portrayed the loveless relationships that Daisy, Tom and, Gatsby had. In the real world money can do a lot of things, to some it brings happiness but overall it can lead to hardship and sometimes failure.