Material Love

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Recommended: Literary Analysis Of'The Great Gatsby

“We are living in a material world.” This quintessential quote of Madonna’s from the song “Material Girl” equates mans relation with money. The world is not run by people, but by material goods and money. Ever since the beginning of monetary means, the amount of money one possessed dictated their status and opportunities for marriage. Likewise marriages can even center on money, and are often arranged to be profitable. This was especially true in the roaring 1920s and in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is a story about social standing, riches, and love in that time period centering on Jay Gatsby and his affection for Daisy Buchanan, wife of the controlling philanderer Tom Buchanan. Their story is told from the point of view of the narrator and Gatsby’s neighbor Nick Carraway. In the novel Gatsby is a symbol of the opulence of the time period and he has no problem flaunting his massive fortune. People in the novel are defined by their wealth and as a result true loves between the characters manifests itself as a love of money.

Gatsby was not born into a life of luxury. Originally James Gatz, an ambitious young man from Minnesota, he was never happy with his position in the world. He refused to accept that his impoverished farming parents as his real parents (98), and his lust for a better life became a craving for money. When young Gatz met the older wealthy Dan Cody he got a taste of the good life, and from then on he was hooked. He even changed his name to Jay Gatsby in order to create a new persona that emanated affluence. His whole life then became based on money. Everything he did from then on was based on his want for money and the status that came with it.

When World War One broke out Gatsby was draft...

... middle of paper ...

... anyone else around them. Money, and the love for it, is a fortress allows them to weather the storm. This love may not have emotions, but it wipes away all sins and keeps them together.

In the novel The Great Gatsby Daisy is Madonna’s “Material Girl”. To her “the boy with the cold hard cash is always Mr. Right”. Daisy needs a man with money to win her. She, and many of the other characters, fall in love with someone because of their money, and fall out of love for the same reason. Whoever has the “cold hard cash” wins Daisy’s love, even temporarily, until a man with more of it or the right kind comes along. The line between real, emotional love and a love for money becomes so distorted that they become one and the same. As emotions fade, love becomes cold and lifeless like money itself.

Works Cited
Madonna. "Material Girl." Like a Virgin. Sire/Warner Bros, 1984.

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