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Wealth and poverty essays
Poverty and wealth Essay
Poverty and wealth Essay
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There is one thing in this world that can really separate people, make them comment crimes, and make them completely change their entire outlook on life and that is money. The all mighty dollar is what they call it and it does a lot of good in this world but it can also cause a lot of pain and hurt. Everything we do in our lives revolves around money, what we do and what we don’t do. The real question though is does money really separate people in their daily lives drastically and if so how much does money play in our lives? In the book The Great Gatsby it really shows how the classes are separated and it shows how people with money think and act. Some people might say that people who have tons of money don’t have stress and don’t have to worry about anything but they really do. It might not be the same as people who don’t have money but they do worry about things in their lives. In some cases though people who are poor and people who have money want and need the same thing. For example the two of the women in The Great Gatsby, Daisy and Myrtle, come from two very different worlds. Daisy has had money all of her life and marries a very rich man, Tom Buchanan, so she has lived a life of luxury all her life and never really had to worry about much while she was growing up. Myrtle on the other hand was born into a poor family and we don’t learn much about her life but we known that she is married to George Wilson, a man who owns a garage in the Valley of Ashes. The place where she lives describes how her life is in a way; it is very dirty and gloomy. Myrtle has a long term affair with Tom and in no way is cheating a good thing, but it is a way that she can escape from her life that she so terribly hates. In The Great... ... middle of paper ... ...yle, but for different reasons. Tom is in this because he always has been and it is just the way he was raised and Gatsby who came from a very poor home worked very hard all his life to get all that money to get the women he loved. This book The Great Gatsby does a very good job at showing how the poor and rich mix and don’t mix. When people look at material things well of course the rich people have more but when you look deeper into the situation then maybe they are more alike than you think. Daisy and Myrtle both want a break or get away from the current life that they are living and Gatsby and Tom both want Daisy but for different reasons. Money does separate people in some ways but in other ways it doesn’t and maybe money doesn’t change you because Gatsby thought that if he got money than Daisy would love him but it didn’t change anything between them.
Despite the amount of property and money that Jay Gatsby acquired, he was not old money, thus, not worth Daisy risking her place in society.. Gatsby thought that having wealth would guarantee Daisy to be his again. His naivety about Daisy seemed childish, but in Gatsby wealth is hugely important to the characters. Despite the completely different settings of Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Great Gatsby, wealth affects the characters in many similar ways, including their happiness and success in their relationships. The relationships that the characters have are, despite not being based off of wealth, affected greatly by the lack or surplus of wealth.
Many characters in The Great Gatsby have money, and they all use it in different ways. Gatsby’s main goal is to win back Daisy Buchanan. He attempts this by getting wealthy so that she will fall for him again, for the sole purpose that he is rich. Myrtle Wilson tries to recreate herself by buying items to make her look wealthy. Daisy’s whole life has been a pampered one. She cannot live a life that is not filled with riches. Tom Buchanan was not born rich, but he is very used to being wealthy as well as his wife, Daisy. But Nick is not rich. He travels to the east looking for wealth, but in the end he sees that money only brings deception and destruction.
To begin with, social class has always been of great importance in society, more money means more power and more respect. Friendship and acquaintances are based purely on whom someone is in contact with and how much fame and money they have. In the “Great Gatsby”, Fitzgerald presents two distinct types of wealthy people. First, there are people like the Buchanan’s and Jordan Baker who were born into wealth. Their families have had money for many generations; hence they are "old money”. The “old money” people, Daisy, Tom, Jordan and their social class, are considered the elite group; the societies highest. They are judgmental and superficial failing to look at the emotions of the people around them and sometimes them selves. “It’s a b****’, said Tom decisively. ‘Here’s your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it”(Fitzgerald, 30). Tom is very aggressive verbally and nonverbally, he thinks he’s always right and likes bossing people around, to show them that he has power over them. All the “elite” are superior and never questioned as with their influence they can do anything. Second there are people like Gatsby who are from a l...
In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main characters Tom and Gatsby are both similar and different in their attitudes and their status. Both Tom and Gatsby have attained great wealth and live in very lavish conditions. They differ greatly, on the other hand, in the way that they acquired this wealth, and the way in which they treat other people. Even though both characters have great amounts of wealth, they are almost complete opposites due the way in which they acquired their wealth.
The novel The Great Gatsby shows many different aspects of the upper class. From corruption to being uncaring many characters never change personalities and don't even try to change. Daisy stayed the same careless, materialistic woman throughout the book and Tom stayed hypocritical and angry. Eventually both run away never accepting responsibility for the damage that they caused. They thought that because they have money they would never have any problems and if they did money would get them out. Money was everything to them and Daisy loved money more than she loved her own daughter. Tom thought that because he had money he could cheat on his wife and that love meant buying his wife a necklace which to his wife was love because it cost a lot of money. Both characters never realized what money couldn't buy them. Between Daisy and Tom money can buy love. To them money equals happiness.
The Great Gatsby shows the dehumanizing nature of wealth by creating a contrast between the rich and the poor. The point of this contrast is to illustrate the class struggle that was occurring in the country when Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby. The comparison between rich and poor is first developed in the beginning of the book when Tom and Nick are driving to New York. Fitzgerald further elaborates on the gross differences between rich and poor when Gatsby manages to avoid a speeding ticket. Fitzgerald also uses popular songs from the time period, “Aint’t We Got Fun”, to build his case of the class struggle between the rich and the poor. Fitzgerald uses The Great Gatsby to try and illustrate the issues that were facing the poor at the time while the rich enjoyed life and ignored the problems of the poor.
Gatsby started off as a poor man who has to struggle through life. The only nice clothes that he has is his army uniform, which Daisy, his girlfriend enjoys when he wears she thinks that he looks nice. Gatsby is in love with Daisy and she is in love with him but because he was so poor they cannot get married. To survive Gatsby has to join the army and when he goes to war Daisy marries Tom, a rich stockbroker from New York, who gives Daisy a life of luxury. The problem, unbeknown to Daisy is that he is cheating on her. When Gatsby returns from battle he notices that Daisy has married a rich man and after realizing that Daisy was after Tom’s money Gatsby figures that the only way to get her back is by becoming rich himself. Once Gatsby has his dream of being rich he makes it his goal in life…to fulfill the needs of Daisy and marry her. Although luring ones wife into marrying yourself is not polite, it does make Gatsby great because it takes a strong willed man to make a life goal and stick to it
During the whole story, the rich have a sense of carelessness of money and material goods that are usually unobtainable by most. Prime examples of this carelessness are the huge parties that Gatsby throws; everybody who is anybody would attend: the party guests “[arrive] at twilight . . .” (Fitzgerald 111) and stay until daybreak, and “sometimes they [come] and [go] without having met Gatsby at all, [come] for the party with a simplicity of heart that [is] its own ticket of admission” (45). Gatsby puts enormous amounts of money into these parties, even though he does not enjoy them one bit. He, however, continues to have them because he believes happiness can be bought (101), that the glitz and glitter will ultimately bring Daisy to love him (Swilley). To Gatsby, he must continue to throw these parties. Gatsby is new money and he has to show off his money and prove to the world that he is rich (Karen). In addition to his elaborate parties, he wears extravagant pink suits with gold ties and drives an eye-catching yellow car. All this he does in order to gain Daisy’s attention (Gatsbylvr). In contrast, the opposite is true for Tom. Karen says that Tom is old money and, therefore, does not have to show the world that he has money. Tom does not need Gatsby’s flashiness; his house is arranged to his liking and he seems to be more conventional -- Tom rides horses as opposed to driving a flashy car (Karen).
At first glance, The Great Gatsby is merely a classic American tragedy, portraying the story of a man's obsession with a fantasy, and his resulting downfall. However, Fitzgerald seems to weave much more than that into the intricate web of emotional interactions he creates for the reader. One interesting element is the concepts of greatness each has. For Daisy, it lies in material wealth, and in the comfort and security associated with it. Daisy seems to be easily impressed by material success, as when she is touring Gatsby's mansion and seems deeply moved by his collection of fine, tailored shirts. It would seem that Tom's relative wealth, also, had at one time impressed her enough to win her in marriage. In contrast to that, Gatsby seems to not care a bit about money itself, but rather only about the possibility that it can win over Daisy. In fact, Gatsby's extreme generosity gives the reader the impression that Gatsby would otherwise have never even worked at attaining wealth had it not been for Daisy. For Gatsby, the only thing of real importance was his pursuit of Daisy. It would seem that these elements are combined, too in the character Myrtle.
The life of Myrtle seems very secretive, especially the way that she interacts with Tom; this is influenced very much by his money and her desire to get some of it. Tom and Myrtle also had a brief abusive spat. “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” shouted Mrs. Wilson. “I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai ––“. Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.
Enormous parties, all for one girl. In The Great Gatsby, a dirt poor farmer, Jay Gatsby, became a filthy rich man by engaging in illegal business. He threw massive parties in hope that his love of his life, Daisy, would come one time to the parties and sees him. Him and Daisy met five years ago and fell in love but then Gatsby had to go to war and Daisy married a rich man. In chapter 3, Fitzgerald uses words, images, and figurative language to describe the enchanting but very destructiveness of Gatsby’s party and party goers.
The novel, The Great Gatsby focuses on one of the focal characters, James Gatz, also known as Jay Gatsby. He grew up in North Dakota to a family of poor farm people and as he matured, eventually worked for a wealthy man named Dan Cody. As Gatsby is taken under Cody’s wing, he gains more than even he bargained for. He comes across a large sum of money, however ends up getting tricked out of ‘inheriting’ it. After these obstacles, he finds a new way to earn his money, even though it means bending the law to obtain it. Some people will go to a lot of trouble in order to achieve things at all costs. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, conveys the numerous traits of Jay Gatsby through the incidents he faces, how he voices himself and the alterations he undergoes through the progression of the novel. Gatsby possesses many traits that help him develop as a key character in the novel: ambitious, kind-hearted and deceitful all of which is proven through various incidents that arise in the novel.
Myrtle is materialistic, and she does not appreciate how George couldn’t afford his own suit to get married in. She looks at Tom as someone who can afford to buy their own suit not just for his wedding but every party. Myrtle is attracted to not only Tom’s appearance but his money as well. Myrtle describes the first time she met Toms as, “He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn't keep my eyes off him but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head.” Myrtle is willing to ruin everything she has in life even though it may not be much, for a man who only wants her for her body. She believes that Tom is the ideal picture perfect man that represents the advertisement of the American Dream. Myrtle is considered to be lower class, as she doesn’t have a lot of money. People who are upper class are the ones that have money, drive fancy cars, and have nice, big houses. Myrtle isn’t one of those people, but desires to be one of them. This later on causes destruction, and destroys Myrtle. It also destroys Gatsby, neither one of them get what they thought the American Dream would give them, love, money, success, popularity. It all just an invasive illusion that will not come
In this economically booming era, materialism has become what signifies how happy you are. The more money you have the happier you are. This distorted perspective causes the average American pursuit to be one of wealth rather than happiness. It made the rich negligent of adhering to moral values and more along the lines of just whatever they feel like doing, because the apparent recurrent theme is that if you have enough money, you can get away with anything. The rich are impetuous, and we see examples of this with practically every wealthy character in the book. Tom can have affairs and have it mean nothing, Jordan is careless and cynical, Gatsby is looking for the love of his life and her validation of whether he is successful enough, and even Dan Cody when first introduced is shown as drunkenly sailing out in a storm that would've killed him if gatsby didn't save him.