Ewan Dietsche Lewis 11 10/16/16 The Destruction of the American Dream: How Rampant Materialism Disassociates Wealth from Greatness Fitzgerald illustrates rampant materialism to demonstrate social stratification and the ultimate decline of values and nobleness surrounding the American Dream. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s lifestyle and Nick’s constant awareness of the wealth around him to demonstrate the uninhibited pursuit of wealth in 1920’s America. During Gatsby’s life, getting rich was an end that justified most means. For instance, Gatsby broke the law by bootlegging to become wealthy. When Tom tries to expose Gatsby during their fight over Daisy, he says, “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in …show more content…
That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong” (133). For Gatsby, wealth became far removed from hard work or individual ideas, rather a facade of artificial success and meaningless achievement. Gatsby turned to crime in order to achieve wealth, illustrating how he values a “wealthy and sophisticated” image at any cost. He seeks to show the world his wealth: he drives a very expensive car, lives in a huge mansion, wears expensive clothing, and has servants. These lifestyle choices just add to his image, giving his character no depth. Nick illustrates the rampant materialism in a slightly different way. Throughout the novel, Nick notices and cherishes symbols of wealth around him and idolizes wealthy individuals. Describing the “fashionable” East Egg, Nick says, “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water” (5). The language “white palaces” paired with “glittered along the water” illustrate Nick’s glamorization of and heightened focus on both wealth and class. East Egg’s population consist of the …show more content…
At Gatsby’s parties, nobody interacts with him, knows him personally, or even receives a personal invitation. The party lacks meaning on a personal level, and serves only to confirm one’s class. Describing his parties, Nick says, “At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his motor-boats slid the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains” (39). Gatsby’s parties exist to attract socialites and wealthy individuals. Their attendance at parties where they neither know the host nor receive an invitation, illustrates their superficial desire to feel a part of a wealthy and elite class. For example, activities like “diving from the tower” or “an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city” demonstrate a shallow, short-sighted, desire for pleasure and extravagance. Furthermore, parties like these allow the wealthy to feel unified by their money, perpetuating their feelings of superiority. For example, Fitzgerald writes “Instead of rambling this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing
Nick observes, “On week-ends his Rolls Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains” (Fitzgerald 39).Gatsby not only hosts massive parties, his vehicles collect his uninvited guests so that they can attend his parties with ease.The majority of the guests do not know Gatsby, yet arrive in droves to participate in the surfeit of pleasure. Gatsby believes hosting massive numbers of people will increase his chance of finding someone who can reconnect him to Daisy. As well, his strategy is to have the story of his excess get back to Daisy so she will be impressed with his material wealth. Symbolically, the instruments that provide a reconnection to Daisy are Gatsby’s flamboyant automobiles. Gatsby 's cars represent his need for attention and his lack of a true identity beyond materialism.These failures lead to his eventual
After achieving enormous wealth by unethical means such as selling liquor illegally during the prohibition he purchases a mansion on West Egg, Long Island, just across from Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s mansion. He bought that mansion only in pursuit of Daisy and throws countless parties to try to lure her in. When Gatsby befriends Nick Carraway he begins lying to Nick about his past just like he did to countless others. He tells Nick that he “the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West — all dead now”( Fitzgerald 65) and that he “was brought up in America but educated at Oxfo...
...on materialism and social class. While novel is widely considered a zeitgeist of the time period, it is also a warning for the American Dream. Although the Dream is not Marxist materialism, it is certainly not traditional individualism and freedom. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby poses a question: what is the American Dream?
Gatsby throws lavish parties to create a image of wealth for those attending. However, the people who show up do not care about Gatsby, rather they care about the “show” he puts on through these celebrations. The party-goers are only seeking an escape, they are lured to the bright lights and excessive alcohol, like moths to a flame. Not ever paying attention to a wondering Gatsby (if in fact they even know
Materialism has a negative influence on the characters in the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. “The most terrible thing about materialism even more terrible than its proneness to violence, is its boredom, from which sex, alcohol, drugs, all devices for putting out the accusing light of reason and suppressing the unrealizable aspirations of love, offers a prospect of deliverance.” This quote, stated by Malcolm Muggeridge, says that people get bored with the things that they have when they get new things all of the time. When they get bored with these things, they turn to stuff like sex, alcohol, and drugs. In The Great Gatsby, Myrtle, Daisy, and Gatsby are greatly influenced by money, and material things. The negative influence that materialism has on these characters is shown throughout the entire novel.
To illustrate, the parties that are hosted at Gatsby’s house are magnificent, filled with professional entertainment, music and dancers, and guests varying from politicians to movie stars. Fitzgerald paints the picture of the parties at Gatsby’s house in great detail in this passage “The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names.” (Fitzgerald 44). It can be seen that these were extravagant parties filled with lust and alcohol. The evidence shows that no ordinary man would be throwing parties of this form, only a man with great wealth and resources would pull of such a feat.
Materialism may be defined as attention to or emphasis on material objects, needs or considerations, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual values.
The very rich, such as Gatsby, had an undoubted high standing social status, that bared no worries of expense, but only of the luxuries he could display. One of Gatsby’s many luxuries were his cars. One day upon sight, Nick describes Gatsby’s automobile and states, “I’d seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns” (Fitzgerald 64). It was no mistake that Gatsby’s wealth and status had shown expression through his cars. Nick’s tone towards Gatsby seemed to be criticizing his unnecessarily large and flashy car, like when he uses the words “monstrous”, and “swollen”. Despite Gatsby’s impressive status, there were also those who did not have as imposing of a standing, such as Nick Carraway. Nick was an average stock-broker who made decent pay and lived in a small cabin next to Gatsby, clearly stating his lower status in society. As Nick explains his summer, he recalls, “an old Dodge,” (Fitzgerald 4) that wasn't elegant like that owned by an increasing number of Americans, but just another typical car. That ownership showed that Nick had money, especially throughout his family, but not nearly enough to elevate his social
America has been labeled "The land of opportunity," a place where it is possible to accomplish anything and everything. This state of mind is known as "The American Dream." The American Dream provides a sense of hope and faith that looks forward to the fulfillment of human wishes and desires. This dream, however, originates from a desire for spiritual and material improvement. Unfortunately, the acquisition of material has been tied together with happiness in America. Although "The American Dream" can be thought of as a positive motivation, it often causes people to strive for material perfection, rather than a spiritual one. This has been a truth since the beginnings of America, such as the setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, which is an example of this set in the 20’s. The characters in this novel are too fixed on material things, losing sight of what is really important.
...ween the reader and Nick in order for the reader to accept Nick's opinions as impartial. He places Nick in a typical situation where wealthy people interact. The reader is encouraged to view the upper class as superficial and as a group of clones who choose to fit into a single self-created stereotype. By focusing on only a few individuals at Gatsby's party, Nick presents the entire class' pretentious behaviour quickly and effectively to the reader. The importance of appearance and recognition to these people is noted several times by Nick when he describes groups of people behaving in their typically superficial manner. The narrative point of view adopted by F. Scott Fitzgerald thoroughly supports this novel's criticism of wealthy people and how they choose to lead their lives.
Gatsby realizes that life of the high class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby's time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an "enormously wealthy" family, seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind (Fitzgerald 10). Nick describes Tom's physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a "hard mouth and a supercilious manner...arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face...always leaning aggressively forward...a cruel body...[h]is speaking voice...added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed" (Fitzgerald 11). The wealth Tom has inherited causes him to become arrogant and condescending to others, while losing his morals. Rather than becoming immoral from wealth as Tom has, Gatsby engages in criminal activity as his only path to being rich. His need for money had become so great that he "was in the drug business" (Fitzgerald 95). Furthermore, he lies to Nick about his past in order to cover up his criminal activity. Gatsby claims to others that he has inherited his wealth, but Nick discovers "[h]is parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 104). Gatsby enters a world where money takes precedence over moral integrity. Materialism has already overshadowed a portion of his spiritual side. A quest for true love is doomed for failure in the presence of immorality. Once wealth has taken priority over integrity, members of the high social class focus on immediate indulgences, rather than on long-term pleasures of life such as love.
The novel’s narrator, Nick Carraway, is surrounded by wealthy people in the novel. He is scornful towards the wealthy, yet “only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction-Gatsby who represented everything for which I have unaffected scorn” (Fitzgerald 6). Daisy Buchanan’s relationships with both Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan are perhaps the most representative of the power and effects of wealth in the novel: “her whole careless world revolves around this illusion: that money makes everything beautiful, even if it is not” (“The Great Gatsby”, Novels for Students).
While those such as Gatsby and Nick may have worked hard to earn their wealth, they will still never attain the same status as the old and aristocratic East Egg, since they lack the intangible established history already possessed by those who live in East Egg. This is what is frequently used to distance the old money from the new, and also what causes people like Tom Buchanan to denounce the newly found success of West Egg. The East Egg feeling of superiority over West Egg emerges out of the fact that unlike Tom’s pre-existing wealth, Gatsby emerged out of nowhere, sort of like a slightly mysterious and sinister figure. At one of Gatsby’s parties, Tom asserts that “a lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers” (p.114). Nick also observes that even Daisy “was appalled by West Egg… its raw vigor… [and] saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand” (p.114).
The world is filled with cheapskates, phonies, and two-faced people. Many use others for their own benefits. In The Great Gatsby, through the motif of superficiality, Fitzgerald critiques the theme that displaying materialism and superficiality can ruin true love and a chance at true love. Objects cannot define a relationship; it should be the feelings developed that defines the relationship of two people. The characteristic of materialism is a barrier for true love between two people. Nick Carraway has just moved to a West Egg, and his mysterious neighbor is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s long living dream is to rekindle his love and relationship with Daisy Buchanan, who is currently married to Tom Buchanan. He attempts to pursue his relationship with Daisy through his unexplained wealth. However, their love couldn’t be true because of their focus on “things” rather than each other.
Hugh Hefner once said, “I looked back on the roaring Twenties, with its jazz, 'Great Gatsby' and the pre-Code films as a party I had somehow managed to miss.” The parties of the Roaring Twenties were used to symbolize wealth and power in a society that was focused more on materialism and gossip than the important things in life, like family, security, and friends. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays the characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan as the epitome of the era. The reader sees these characters acting selfishly and trying to meddle with others’ lives. On the other hand, Nick Carraway, the narrator, acts more to help others and act honestly. Initially the reader sees Carraway’s views towards Jay Gatsby as negative as Gatsby’s actions are perceived as being like the Buchanan’s. As the novel moves forward, the reader notices a change in Carraway’s attitude towards Gatsby. Carraway sees Gatsby for whom he truly is, and that is a loving person who only became rich to win Daisy’s heart. But in this the reader also sees how corrupt and hurtful Gatsby’s actions were to the love of his life. Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy reveals that just as Gatsby’s dream of wooing Daisy is corrupted by illegalities and dishonesty, the “American Dream” of friendship and individualism has disintegrated into the simple pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure.