Jaden Cervantes
4th period
McGrath
Great Gatsby Analyticle Essay An important theme of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is wealth and the process of attaining it. This yearning for material wealth and possessions is known as materialism. Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan are both extremely materialistic and put a lot of value into the possessions and wealth of a person while Nick Carraway doesn’t display any materialistic desires and accentuates the contrast between characters. Gatsby’s materialism is driven by his longing for wealth and civility. He loves the idea of Daisy because she is the embodiment of wealth and the ideal lifestyle of
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Before he even meets Daisy, he already wanted to become wealthy in any way he can and live a different life from those of his parents. Creating strict schedules while living with his parents, he tries to better his mind and become a more civilized person.. Gatsby’s father knows that “Jimmy was bound to get ahead”(173). As a part of this altercation of his entire being, he changed his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby. His resolve to become man of wealth and civility is only strengthened by his obsession with Daisy since he believes that she will take him back if he simply lives in extravagant as she does. A major component of Gatsby’s obsessive love with Daisy is due to the wealth and status that she represents. She symbolizes the ultimate high life - a life that Gatsby has been struggling to attain for his entire existence. Flaunting his many possessions in hope that she will be impressed is a large portion of Gatsby’s efforts to win her back, which works remarkably well because of Daisy’s similar value of possessions. The rainstorm being over, Gatsby makes his boasting obvious when he demands to show off his mansion next door during his reunion with Daisy in chapter five). He tries to accentuate the grandeur of his house by saying that “his house looks well doesn’t it?”(89), and asks if they can “see how the whole front of it catches the light?”(89). Not …show more content…
His lack of obvious materialistic qualities in his character allows Fitzgerald to use Nick to demonstrate the contrast between the more materialistic characters in the novel. Nick is mainly used to show contrast between him and Gatsby or Daisy. The comparison between Nick and Gatsby is very prevalent, since he becomes a good friend of Gatsby during the book and has a large number of interactions with him. Every time Nick is with Gatsby it’s easy to tell that Gatsby simply has more than Nick. As soon as Nick moves to the West Egg he notes that his house is “squeezed between two huge places” and that “his own house is an eyesore”(5). This immediately shows the difference between Nick and Gatsby and introduces Gatsby as mysterious, rich character. Early on in the book it becomes clear that Gatsby has far greater means that Nick, but that isn’t the only part of Gatsby’s character that can be compared with Nick. There is also Gatsby’s constant hunger to increase his wealth and social standing, which Nick lacks. At one point, Nick respectfully denies a job offer from Gatsby by explaining that “he’s got his hands full” and that “he's much obliged but he can’t take on any more work”(83). Nick doesn’t show much of any interest in the job, which contrasts greatly with Gatsby’s
Like his house, Nick is not showy, this characteristic allows people to easily trust him, which supports his role as the narrator of the story. Despite the fact that everything revolves around him, Nick is never actually involved in the events of the story, he simply acts as a vehicle for the other character’s wants and needs. Nick describes his house as "an eyesore” (Fitzgerald 11) compared to the mansions around it and say that “it had been overlooked" (Fitzgerald 11) in the presence of such glamorous homes. Similar to Nick himself, his house is strangely out of place among the mansions that are beside it, but is small enough that people overlook how much it does not fit in. Fitzgerald uses Nick 's house in order to show how Nick fits in, in Gatsby’s world, similar to his home, he is overlooked in the presence of such wealthy people. Nick 's House serves as a meeting place where Gatsby and Daisy meet up. Parallel to how Nick serves as an object that allows Daisy and Gatsby to reunite. Nick is unfamiliar with the world of the extravagantly wealthy, though he begins to adapt throughout the novel, he is generally out of place in the world of the rich, and blends in to the
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby recounts a love story of fortune, sacrifice, and passion. Mystified by the foreign land of excessive capital and immense material possessions, the narrator, Nick Carraway, judges or exalts numerous inhabitants of the East and West Eggs, especially Jay Gatsby, whose mystery and secrecy attracts many. Although it seems like Mr. Carraway obsesses about Gatsby, strictly, for his wealth, a careful look at craft choices and his characterization reveals that Jay Gatsby captivates Nick because he is one of the only characters, who, unclouded by prosperity, recognizes his own fascination with money.
As a young man, Jay Gatsby was poor with nothing but his love for Daisy. He had attempted to woe her, but a stronger attraction to money led her to marry another man. This did not stop Gatsby’s goal of winning this woman for himself though, and he decided to improve his life anyway he could until he could measure up to Daisy’s standards. He eventually gained connections in what would seem to be the wrong places, but these gave him the opportunity he needed to "get rich quick." Gatsby’s enormous desire for Daisy controlled his life to the point that he did not even question the immorality of the dealings that he involved himself in to acquire wealth. Eventually though, he was able to afford a "castle" in a location where he could pursue Daisy effectively. His life ambition had successfully moved him to the top of the "new money" class of society, but he lacked the education of how to promote his wealth properly. Despite the way that Gatsby flaunted his money, he did catch Daisy’s attention. A chaotic affair followed for a while until Daisy was overcome by pressures from Gatsby to leave her husband and by the realization that she belonged to "old money" and a more proper society.
At seventeen, James Gatz already hated the life he was leading. When he saw the riches of the east, he despised that he had to live in rags while others went to parties each night. And so he changed his identity, to break the bond he had with his past life, and created a new life for himself, with a new name and a new sense of hope. The boy that he was before was gone replaced by the confident and charismatic Jay Gatsby. This man was the one who won over the beautiful Daisy. When she ran away to Tom for he did not have the money she desired to live a lavish and comfortable lifestyle, he made it his aim to win Daisy back. With this determination, Gatsby made it his only goal to climb up the social ladder. He even stooped down to the level of organized crime, but it was so that he could achieve his dream of climbing his way to the top of the social ladder. For people with inherited money, they have no true dedication to any work he or she did. For a man like Gatsby, unhappy with his situation, and who started out at the bottom, it took full determination for him to achieve his goal. " 'He bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.' (Fitzgerald 78)" To Gatsby, the money would buy back the love that Daisy once had for him. Although his pursuit of Daisy is blind, everything he does, from all the books he buys to every party he throws shows his resolve to win Daisy back
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him. Initially, Gatsby stirs up sympathetic feelings because of his obsession with wealth.
Jordan’s and Gatsby’s memories of Daisy, the piecing together of Gatsby’s actual history and Nick’s reflections on his own life belong to different eras and possibly jumping between these different timelines and impressions and Nick’s present impressions would have been inelegant. Fitzgerald places him in this hard position for a reason, to help him reveal just how befoul the society was becoming. Rather, William Voegeli, a critic of “Gatsby and the pursuit of happiness” shows a different side to this, he states, “Nick rents, Gatsby buys, and the Buchanans inherit,” also stating “”you’re no better than anybody else and no one else is better than you” (William Voegeli 1). Which shown in the novel is not true, Nick is a middle class character compared to the magnificent West Egg class.
At the beginning of the book Nick sees Gatsby as a mysterious shady man. In the beginning of the chapter Nick somewhat resents Gatsby. In Nick’s opinion Gatsby was the representation of “…everything for which I have unaffected scorn.” (Fitzgerald 2). Nick sees Gatsby as what he hates the most in life, rich folk. Since the start of the novel it was obvious that had “Disapproved of him from beginning to end.” (Fitzgerald 154). As time passes, Nick realizes his neighbor has quite a mysterious past. Some think he’s a bootlegger, and a different person wa...
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a man of meager wealth who chases after his dreams, only to find them crumble before him once he finally reaches them. Young James Gatz had always had dreams of being upper class, he didn't only want to have wealth, but he wanted to live the way the wealthy lived. At a young age he ran away from home; on the way he met Dan Cody, a rich sailor who taught him much of what he would later use to give the world an impression that he was wealthy. After becoming a soldier, Gatsby met an upper class girl named Daisy - the two fell in love. When he came back from the war Daisy had grown impatient of waiting for him and married a man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby now has two coinciding dreams to chase after - wealth and love. Symbols in the story, such as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the contrast between the East Egg and West Egg, and the death of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson work together to expose a larger theme in the story. Gatsby develops this idea that wealth can bring anything - status, love, and even the past; but what Gatsby doesn't realize is that wealth can only bring so much, and it’s this fatal mistake that leads to the death of his dreams.
Gatsby is a dreamer, he dreams that one day he and Daisy will be able to be together once again. To achieve this dream, Gatsby has made himself a rich man. He knows that in order to win Daisy back, he must be wealthy and of high social stature. Gatsby is rich, has a beautiful mansion, nice things, things like shirts “They’re such beautiful shirts. . . It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful clothes” (pg.98).Gatsby believes his dream will come true because of all the money and nice things he has.
Throughout the novel, wealth is a factor that propels the decisions and actions of the characters. Jay Gatsby's American Dream is to marry Daisy Buchanan, the "golden girl". Gatsby uses the glitz of money and power to make Daisy, who is married to Tom, fall in love with him. While Daisy is looking around his house, Nick notices Gatsby "hadn't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes"(91). Gatsby came from humble beginnings and worked hard ...
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.
(Fitzgerald, 33) Nick's perspective is also clouded by the fact that he does not know Gatsby at the beginning of the novel. Because of this, he has a biased opinion when he meets Gatsby. He only hears rumblings of Gatsby's extravagant parties and expects him to be magnificent and beyond human. Also, at Nick's first Gatsby party he continues to hear rumours of the host, which has him creating a picture in his head of who Gatsby is. Therefore, the reader is surprised along with Nick when it is discovered that Gatsby is not who he had believed he
In the film The Great Gatsby, many prominent themes were portrayed. Critics from Philip French, Matt Zoller Seitz, and Chris Nashawaty argue that the only themes present in the movie were excess materialism and wastefulness of the rich. I disagree with these critic reviews. I think that the movie also portrayed the lack of the American Dream and society’s declining morality. The one theme that was not very prominent in the film was isolation and dissatisfaction.
The characters in The Great Gatsby take a materialistic attitude that causes them to fall into a downward spiral of empty hope and zealous obsession. Fitzgerald contrasts Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway to display how the materialistic attitude of the 1920’s leads many to hopeless depression and how materialism never constitutes happiness. Fitzgerald uses Jay Gatsby, a character who spends his entire adult life raising his status, only to show the stupidity of the materialistic attitude. Rather than hard work, Gatsby turns to crime and bootlegging in order to earn wealth and status to get the attention of Daisy Buchanon, a woman he falls in love with five years earlier. "He [Gatsby] found her [Daisy] excitingly desirable. He went to her house… There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool then the other bedrooms… It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisy—It increased her value in his eyes" (155-156). Gatsby falls in love with everything about Daisy. It is not only her that Gatsby desires, it is her riches and possessions as well. The fact the many other gentlemen want Daisy simply increases her worth in Gatsby’s eyes. All of these things are the reasons Gatsby "commit[s] himself to the following of a grail" (156). The grail symbolizes a quest for perfection, the...
Jay Gatsby believes he can buy happiness. For example, Gatsby's house is “ A factual imitation of some Hotel De Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (The Great Gatsby 9). His house is nothing more than an perfect symbol of his vast income. Gatsby uses the house in an attempt to win happiness and respect from his peers. Furthermore, Gatsby also tries to impress others with such unimportant possessions as his clothing, as when Daisy emotionally comments, ”beautiful shirts… It makes me sad because I have never seen such beautiful shirts before”(98). Crying over articles of clothing is outrageous, yet it is not the shirts that overwhelm Daisy. Their symbolism of Gatsby’s unlimited wealth and faith in money is truly saddening. Also, Gatsby realizes that Daisy’s main and only concern in life is money. Gatsby pursues immoral and often illegal actions in pursuit of wealth, subconsciou...