How Does Fitzgerald Present Wealth In The Great Gatsby

Wealth, through time, has always been something that everyone has searched for. Sometimes money and being wealthy is something to strive for; however, people tend to let their desire for wealth turn into a corrupted dream. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who consistently shows his distrust towards materialistic people, such as Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy. He shows how “old money” and “new money” people are flamboyant, in an excessive way, when it comes to showing off their wealth. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald portrays wealth as corruptive while distinguishing clear lines between old and new money. Both social classes represent how people are affected negatively from materialistic aspirations.

One of the main

dreams of Gatsby is to be accepted from the “old money” class; however, the two classes have very different views of one another. Each class uses their money for very different reasons. Old money, such as Tom and Daisy, use their wealth as a protector, hurting others in their path. Furthermore, Tom, Mr. Sloane, and Mrs. Sloane arrived at Gatsby’s mansion one day and mocked him, inviting him to dinner then leaving. Mrs. Sloane even said that they would be delighted to come to one of his parties. Even though she was only mimicking Gatsby, he still responded with, “‘Certainly; I’d be delighted to have you,’” (102). Even though the “old money” people mocked Gatsby, he still responded in a cordial manner, showing how the two classes are completely different from one another. New money, such as Gatsby and Nick, tended to have sumptuous parties with a copious amount of people. Gatsby dressed as a very lavish person and had expensive parties with hundreds of people in them, all as an act to display his wealth. Daisy and Tom showed their displeasement towards Gatsby’s parties, because they said the guests were acting in an unrefined way. To old money, new money will never be in the same social status as them, even though they are all extremely wealthy.
As the novel progresses, Gatsby truly believed that by showing Daisy his wealth, he would win her over. However, money does not buy everything. Fitzgerald constantly shows how most of the characters are shallow people who only care about money, only when it suits their needs. Money can buy material items, although these items do not mean as much as gifts of love. Gatsby created his wealth to finally be seen as and equal to be with his love, Daisy. Although his intentions were good at heart, his dream required a serious dependency on wealth, representing how money cannot buy someone’s love. Gatsby’s dream is to resurrect the past and have Daisy be a main proponent of it. But the reader wonders, is it truly Daisy that Gatsby is after of her money? Gatsby and Nick came to a consensus when they stated that Daisy’s voice was “full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it. . . . High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl. . . .” (120). Gatsby shows the reader that he loves Daisy for her wealth and her social status, showing that not only is he obsessed with money and material items, he had also been corrupted by his very own dream.
Fitzgerald, the author consistently gives the reader subtle hints that he shuns upon New York’s visions of wealth and materialism. He shows how wealth corrupts main characters, especially when Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson. One day, Tom took Nick and Myrtle to an apartment, used only for their affair. Later, they throw a party and other guests arrive, including Myrtle’s sister, Catherine. Catherine and Nick talk about how Myrtle came to have the affair on Wilson. Wilson was poor and Myrtle wanted something more, especially when she said, “‘he borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in, and never told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out . . . I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried . . . all afternoon,’” (35). Myrtle only cares about wealth, that's why she went to Tom: Wilson was poor and Tom was wealthy. Her dream of wealth corrupted her into committing a sin of adultery. This shows how Fitzgerald views all of New York, how all the elitists think that money is everything in their life.
Gatsby’s character experiences immense changes and events.

His whole life had been leading up to the moment when he and Daisy would finally be together. However, Daisy was not the same girl Gatsby fell in love with in Louisville. Tom was her man now; someone of the same social class and someone who had the extra cushion of inherited money. Gatsby’s dream of making Daisy his ended up causing his doom. The Buchanans used their money as an escape goat. Tom and Daisy “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,” (179). When Gatsby took the blame for both the death of Myrtle Wilson and her affair, neither of which were true, Daisy and Tom left town, leaving him as he laid to rest with their sins on his back. They hurt Gatsby, allowing him to pay the ultimate price, everyday getting a barrage of accusations, while he could not even defend himself. His exotic and out of reach dream pushed him to make something of himself; to become wealthy and this inevitably rose the position of his character.In his early years, Jay Gatsby truly thought “he was a son of God...” (98). From then, Gatsby created a more and more imaginative dream, one that was almost too perfect. However, his dream was his inevitable doom. After Daisy choose Tom over Gatsby, his identity and his fasade shattered under the gravity of

reality.
Jay Gatsby, a symbol of wealth and materialistic luxury, inevitably fell from his one true dream. Money and wealth mean nothing, if it ends up being corruptive and it does not satisfy one’s true goal. Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby continuously tried to fit in with the “old money” class; however, they did not accept the “new money” because they thought that they were unrefined. It was quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. Also, Fitzgerald designed his characters to show his dissatisfaction with New York’s social classes and how they all viewed wealth; they were all elitists who disregarded other people for their own personal gain. Gatsby’s dream made and broke his character. It allowed him to get into his wealth. But in the end, his dream and himself broke under its weight in his fruitless effort to buy his love’s affections.