Preview

Old Money In The Great Gatsby

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
137 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Old Money In The Great Gatsby
After WWI. there was an influx of economic growth. This lead to an overwhelming amount of "new money" people. Nonetheless, old money looked down upon these new money people much like they did with no money people. With this, an inference is made that old money believes they are intellectually, morally, and socially superior to everyone. However, this belief in old money is an egregious outlook that American society had at the time. Everyone is driven and corrupted by the same forces. No one class of people can be distinguished as a higher-caliber of persons as any other. Moreover, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows an exceptional understanding of this fact in the Great Gatsby. In his book, he alludes to the stereotype that old money is believed to be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The second relevant issue that Fitzgerald depicts in his work is “The 1%” of rich people in the American social ladder. Fitzgerald demonstrates the corruption of “Old money” through the behaviors of Daisy and Tom after Gatsby’s death. In the novel, he characterizes Daisy as “The 1%” of American who abuses her power and wealth. She never admits her crime of killing a woman and did not pay for respect Gatsby’s death. Likewise, her husband, Tom, takes revenge by informing Gatsby’s killer. Fitzgerald expresses, “I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The cross between old money and new presents an enormous role in the way characters are portrayed in The Great Gatsby. Old money is referring to those who have a history of wealth running in their family that has been passed down through generations and onto them. New money refers to those who have made their own fortune out of nothing within their own generation. In the novel, The Great Gatsby written by Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Buchanan is an example of old money and Jay Gatsby is an example of new. This book is largely focused on America's obsession with wealth and social status. Though they may seem the same, Fitzgerald uses lots of imagery in order to further prove the major differences between having old money and new.…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What did gatsby do to become new money ? When gatsby met Daisy he only wanted her for her money and not for her.When gatsby wanted to marry daisy he didn't have enough money to maintain her. He left daisy to go to war and when he comes back from fighting he discovered that daisy married a guy named Tom that is old money but he's cheating with her with another woman. When gatsby met daisy again later on he fell in love but he is married with another woman. When Daisy finds out gatsby is wealthy what wills do does she regret not staying with him when he was poor ?…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Can money buy happiness? This age old question is a recurring theme in the novel The Great Gatsby. Throughout the novel we see that wealth creates loneliness, isolation and corruption in people. Through the examination of the main character’s behaviours present in The Great Gatsby, it is clear that wealth negatively impacts people.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Money can symbolize certain statuses in the world. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays these views of money among the characters in the novel. Wealth and money becomes an issue as the novel progress, once you begin to analyze each character.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jeff Benzos said “I don’t think wealth actually changes people”. To me, this quotation means…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the illustration of the contemporary American society of the Jazz Age. It is noted in the text that social status and class prevail there and play very significant roles concerning various issues in the light of American Dream. This classification is mainly an aftermath of World War One because of disillusionment and pursuit of wealth. Three types of social class people, upper class, middle class, and lower class, are nicely presented by Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby. The dominance of the rich over the poor is a noted effect of this social stratification in this novel. People try to change their existed social class and upgrade reputation by any means. As a result, the characters of the novel become…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby delves into “the most expensive orgy in history” (Pruitt), exploring the jazz age from an insider’s point of view. An innate dissimilarity between old and new money is explored through Fitzgerald’s characters, a point emphasized at the end of the novel. Fitzgerald showcases the distinct behavior and carelessness of generational wealth breeds, ultimately deepening the novel’s theme of Old vs. New money. In the novel, Fitzgerald emphasizes that how money is acquired does matter. This is because there’s a difference in the behaviors and mannerisms of old and new money, allocating them into different social classes regardless of wealth.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In The Great Gatsby money is a symbol of success. Money controls the lives of the characters in the story, but it is easy to see that it could not bring happiness. Each of the characters thinks that having money will solve all of their problems and make them successful, but that is not true. These are a few examples of characters in the story who think that money is the answer to being successful, when it actually does not bring them true happiness.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story that uses money as its main symbol. Some of the characters in the book are rich and own large houses; most of the characters that are rich live in East Egg but Jay Gatsby lives in West Egg. Money plays a major role in The Great Gatsby as most of the characters live to make money and get rich. Nick Carraway would be a great example of a character that wants to get rich; he moved from the Midwest to West Egg next to Gatsby’s house. George Wilson is similar to Nick in that he also works very hard to make money; he owns an auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes. Money is important to all of these characters because they all want to be rich someday. Money in today’s society is also very important for people to live because it can get you anything you want. For example, you need money to get the basic needs for human life such as food, shelter, and clothes.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Daisy is a great example of how greed can obstruct your judgement and morality. The fact that in the story, Daisy says "Rich girls don't marry poor guys" and "You don't have enough money for me to marry you", tells us that she is all about monetary gain, even if it's at the cost of true love. Even when Gatsby, the man she said those things to, shows back up in her life with a new-found wealth that he obtained solely so he could obtain Daisy's love, she turns him down and stays married to a man stuck in the ways of the "old…

    • 105 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates the destructions and immorality, caused by the unrestrained pursuit of wealth, through the symbolism of the village of ashes and Gatsby’s feelings for Daisy.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The concept of money creating power is a characteristic seen far too often in society. The news always has different stories of wealthy individuals acting irresponsibly or obtaining money unethically. This is a trait highlighted in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. In this fast-paced novel about the life and struggles of the 1920s elite, it is clear to see the idea of money causing character to darken and motives to become less ethical. Whether it is Tom abusing the system of marriage and the lower class or Gatsby’s suggested illegal income source, the flaws money creates are entirely shown. While Fitzgerald’s main purpose of writing such a novel may not have been to highlight these flaws, he accurately portrays questions of character in and out of the family and the greed driven questionable business ideas that have perpetually plagued society within his novel.…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby is a classic novel in which many characters lives revolve around money, however money cannot buy happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald pursued many things writing the book The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald offers many themes in the book he shows power, greed, and betrayal. Fitzgerald showed Gatsby as a Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups but, in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. By creating distinct social classes old money, new money, and no money Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism running throughout every strata of society.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, there is a distinct gap between the old money crowd and the new money crowd. Gatsby’s version of the American dream was never fulfilled despite having a seemingly unlimited supply of money. It was Daisy that Gatsby desired. Daisy on the other hand,…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays