The Great Gatsby Money
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby,” the predominant theme is money cannot buy love or happiness. This theme is shown through five symbols: Gatsby’s golden toilet seat, Myrtles dress, Gatsby’s house, the conflicts at Gatsby’s parties, and Gatsby’s act of replacing the woman’s dress that ripped at one of his parties.
The description of Gatsby’s golden toilet seat is just one example of the countless amount of luxurious material goods that Gatsby has collect over the years; none of which he truly cares about. “His bedroom was the simplest room of all---except where the dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold"(97). The main reason why he gets these expensive possessions is to impress Daisy and to give others the impression that he is a wealthy respectable man. He thinks that the only thing that was missing from his relationship with Daisy five years ago is wealth. Even if this were the case, it would be very wrong that their relationship only survived because of Gatsby’s wealth. This is a demonstration on Gatsby’s very superficial outlook on life and every aspect of it. He thinks that money is the answer to all his problems and if he has it, that mean that he should be happy, which clearly isn’t true. Another symbol in this novel that Myrtle’s dress, that money cannot buy love/happiness. Myrtle pretends that this dress that she wears when she is with Tom, “It’s just a crazy old thing,’ she said. ‘I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t care what I look like,’” (Fitzgerald 31). This quote shows that Myrtle changes from a poor mechanic’s wife to a rich person’s wife. But the dress does not make her happy, as she rants at Tom saying “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy” and then Tom punches her in the face. She was not happy about that, and that shows even that Myrtle is in this fancy dress, she is not happy. The description of Gatsby’s house, from the beginning of the book to the end shows how money cannot buy love and or happiness. In the
The description of Gatsby’s golden toilet seat is just one example of the countless amount of luxurious material goods that Gatsby has collect over the years; none of which he truly cares about. “His bedroom was the simplest room of all---except where the dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold"(97). The main reason why he gets these expensive possessions is to impress Daisy and to give others the impression that he is a wealthy respectable man. He thinks that the only thing that was missing from his relationship with Daisy five years ago is wealth. Even if this were the case, it would be very wrong that their relationship only survived because of Gatsby’s wealth. This is a demonstration on Gatsby’s very superficial outlook on life and every aspect of it. He thinks that money is the answer to all his problems and if he has it, that mean that he should be happy, which clearly isn’t true. Another symbol in this novel that Myrtle’s dress, that money cannot buy love/happiness. Myrtle pretends that this dress that she wears when she is with Tom, “It’s just a crazy old thing,’ she said. ‘I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t care what I look like,’” (Fitzgerald 31). This quote shows that Myrtle changes from a poor mechanic’s wife to a rich person’s wife. But the dress does not make her happy, as she rants at Tom saying “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy” and then Tom punches her in the face. She was not happy about that, and that shows even that Myrtle is in this fancy dress, she is not happy. The description of Gatsby’s house, from the beginning of the book to the end shows how money cannot buy love and or happiness. In the
Cited: Fitzergald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York; Scribners, 1953