Money

Groucho Marx once said "While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.” The American Dream of money is the belief that having a lot of money will satisfy the cravings people have for wealth. People strive to accomplish a life filled with money and success because money promises a life of happiness and greatness. The idea of having a large quantity of money is one that has consumed people and altered the dream of hard work and success. Although this dream brings many fortunes and privileges, the dream also brings decay and corruption. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, people can see the flaws within the American Dream of money. Fitzgerald uses Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby to show the power the wealthy have over society and the consequences that money has: money causes people to become insensitive and creates a sense of loss and destruction within a person. Through Tom Buchanan, Fitzgerald shows how wealth can cause a person to become insensitive to people and life around them. When people have a large sum of money, they feel the need to get more and more money and after a period of time money is all they care about. Money does not only buy expensive cars and fancy mansions, but money has the ability to buy someone out of dealing with consequences for their actions. Fitzgerald describes Tom Buchanan and his wife, Daisy as “...careless people, Tom and Daisy ---they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (Fitzgerald 148), showing the little regret or remorse the established elite can have. Those who are of the wealthier society like the Buchanan family, have known little to no shame or guilt because money buys them anything and gets them out of anything. The upper class is displayed as a group of people with no sincere feelings because they