Great Gatsby and the Influence of Money and Greed on Characters
Money and corruption in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result of the greediness and desires of the main characters to become rich and wealthy. These character placed throughout the novel emphasize the true value money has on a persons place in society making wealth a state of mind.
The heart of the whole notion of wealth lies in the setting of the novel, the east and west eggs of New York City. The west egg was a clustering of the "Nouveau riche" or the newly acquired rich, and the east egg was where the people who inherited their riches resided. The eggs divided the people rich in two with the poor being limited to the middle, the "valley of ashes". Even the way the narrator, Nick Carraway, describes the two communities' gives off a feeling of superiority. Nick describes the east as " the less fashionable of the two, through this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them" (Fitzgerald, pg. 9) When discussing the other he states" Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East egg glittered along the water " (Fitzgerald, pg. 10)
This divide would not only be apparently in appearance of the two communities and their geographical locations but the divide was also present in the actions and attitudes the character
The heart of the whole notion of wealth lies in the setting of the novel, the east and west eggs of New York City. The west egg was a clustering of the "Nouveau riche" or the newly acquired rich, and the east egg was where the people who inherited their riches resided. The eggs divided the people rich in two with the poor being limited to the middle, the "valley of ashes". Even the way the narrator, Nick Carraway, describes the two communities' gives off a feeling of superiority. Nick describes the east as " the less fashionable of the two, through this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them" (Fitzgerald, pg. 9) When discussing the other he states" Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East egg glittered along the water " (Fitzgerald, pg. 10)
This divide would not only be apparently in appearance of the two communities and their geographical locations but the divide was also present in the actions and attitudes the character
Cited: Cohen, Adam. "Jay Gatsby is a man for our times" The Literary Cavalcade New York: Sep 2002. Vol.55, Iss.1; Pg.1-3 Donaldson, Scott. "Possession in The Great Gatsby" The Southern Review Baton Rouge: Spring 2001.Vol.37, Iss.2; Pg. 1-13 Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 1953 Gibb, Thomas. "Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby" The Explicator Washington: Winter 2005. Vol. 63, Iss.3; Pg. 1-3 Sorvino, Mira and Stephens, Toby. "Nothing Great About This Gatsby". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Jan 13,2001. Pg. 1-2