The Great Gatsby Materialistic Analysis

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The American Dream, which was started out as a good intention, was eventually perverted in the 1920s. In the world of The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is synonymous with money and status. Most of the characters reveal themselves to be highly materialistic, their motivations driven by their desire for money and material goods. Let's start with materialistic Myrtle, who admits that she regrets marrying George after she discovered that he was poor: “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman. I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe...The only crazy I was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in, and never told me about it” (3.38-9). Daisy only begins her affair with Gatsby after a very detailed display of his wealth via the mansion tour in Chapter 5. She even breaks down in tears after Gatsby shows off his ridiculously expensive set of colored English shirts, crying “stormily” that she’s “never seen such beautiful shirts before” Everyone who comes to the parties is attracted by Gatsby’s money and wealth, making the culture of money-worship a society-wide trend in the novel, not just something our main characters fall victim to. At the confrontation in the Plaza Hotel, Tom mocks Gatsby as “Mr. Nobody from Nowhere” due to Gatsby's background and new wealth. Daisy is upset by Tom's mistreatment of Gatsby, but eventually chooses to go back to cold, vulgar Tom again. She is unwilling to risk the uncertainty and loss of status that would come through divorce and marriage to a bootlegger. In other words, Gatsby’s huge dreams, all precariously wedded to Daisy are as flimsy and flight as Daisy herself. Even Gatsby, who makes an incredible amount of money in a short time, is not allowed access into the highest social class, and loses everything in trying to climb that final, precarious rung of the ladder, as represented by Daisy. So this fact means that the American Dream itself is just a fantasy, a concept too flimsy to actually hold weight, especially in the fast-paced, dog-eat-dog world of the 1920s in

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