F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

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Recommended: Literary Analysis Of'The Great Gatsby

Inheritance of money from previous family members is the starting point for the main characters in ‘A Thousand Acres’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ because it leads to their future wealth and education. Not always does one get their wealth handed down to them, instead through hard, sometimes illegal work, and patience. While wealth and education says a lot about a person and puts them in their “class”, wealth and greed can destroy a person and even an entire family. Having all the money in the world doesn’t save Jay Gatsby or Tom and Daisy Buchannan. When Ginny and Rose received inherited property from their father, Larry Cook, hoping to bring his family together, but instead set off a ticking time bomb of separation within their family. All the money in the world can’t keep someone alive or keep a family together, so why is there such a drive to live on the extreme pursuit of happiness and American dream?
In The Great Gatsby, a monumental difference between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby is how they came about their money. Tom, an infamous football player, came from a long line of money that he eventually inherited from a long family line. “His family were enormously wealthy— even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach— but now he’d left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away; for instance, he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that”
(Fitzgerald 6). This inherited money came along with other advantages for Tom who had also received a strong line of personal connections. Unlike Tom, Jay Gatsby had to earn his wealth. Although unknown how he came about so much money in just a short time, sev...

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...olteacher for a short time until she returned back to the farm with Pete. Ginny married Ty at the young age of 19 and became a housewife. When their mother died, Caroline was left to be raised by her two older sisters who made sure she left the farm to further her education at college where she would later become a lawyer. When Ty and Pete take over the farm, greed takes over and suddenly the one thousand acres are not suitable to the new owners. Large loans are taken out to increase the value of the property by adding state of the art hog sheds and bigger silos. Although the money is borrowed, to the unseen eye one would think the new addition meant they had a good year and were now rolling in the dough and were showing off just how much they could afford. Instead of inherited wealth in A Thousand Acres, they inherited knowledge of how to keep the farm prospering.

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