Examples Of Greed In The Great Gatsby

Gatsby has always had the ambition to become wealthy and live a grand life. Nick quotes the moment through Gatsby’s perspective as he was about to kiss Daisy for the first time, “He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.” (Fitzgerald 110) After that moment, Gatsby understood the desires and love he will seek for this woman would change everything. He still pursued his goals of becoming wealthy, but for different reasons. Deep down, he knew that a wealthy girl would never settle for a poor boy.

“It evokes not only the ambiance of the Jazz age search for the American dream of wealth and happiness, but also the larger questions of fading traditional values in the face of fading traditional values in the face of increasing materialism and cynicism” (Povlovski2). Throughout his life Gatsby lives his life, from wealth to his love for Daisy, blinded by his dream. “He has a blind hope in the abilities of life-he trusts money can buy him Daisy’s love” (123HelpMe1). By Gatsby believing money can buy Daisy’s love; it shows a lack of morals in himself. The extravagance of his parties, house, clothes, and cars is a way of him trying to win Daisy through his wealth.

Gatsby became corrupted in his quest to attain Daisy when he participated in criminal activity to earn money. He tells Nick that he “carr[ies] on a little business on the side, a sort of sideline” (Fitzgerald 82). Gatsby earns most of his money from illegal activity because of his desires to attain as much money as possible to meet Daisy’s standards which shows he is desperate and corrupted. Gatsby sees Daisy as more than just his happiness as he says, “Her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald 120). As Daisy becomes drawn to Gatsby for his new wealth, Gatsby is also drawn to Daisy’s status and wealth which shows Gatsby’s American Dream also involves wealth as a part of his happiness which causes Gatsby to become corrupted because he expects more from Daisy then just her love and happiness she bring to him.

“Instead of loving people and using money, people often love money and use people” (Trotman np). Greed, regarding wealth, reoccurs thematically throughout the Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald incorporates the theme of the quotation throughout his didactic novel, the Great Gatsby. Societal members of the Great Gatsby  appear, in many cases, excessively materialistic and poisoned with greed . Anything from exposing Gatsby’s pretentious parties to the culture of the 1920’s helps Fitzgerald advocate his wish for a less materialistic society.

In The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald shows how society gets corrupted trying to achieve the American Dream through the characterization of many characters like Gatsby. Jay Gatsby was a man who rose from nothing to being extremely wealthy, many would consider him as someone who has reached the American Dream. However after so much work he never really got the one thing that made him happy. Many critiques like Fussel argues that Gatsby is corrupted by the values and attitudes he holds in common with the society that destroys him. Others like Callahan and Gunn believe that the Great Gatsby tries to convince people that money and success is everything but they failed in the end by showing how miserable Gatsby is without Daisy.

Greatness is gained and kept with responsibility, it is not found in those who are just wealthy, but in those who are grateful, truthful, and noble. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, displays the story of a rich man, Jay Gatsby who had it all. Gatsby was a millionaire, he owned luxurious cars, and he lived in a mansion in which he threw extravagant parties. But Gatsby was missing the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, who he had broken up with because at the time he was poor and he felt he was too poor to give her the lifestyle she deserved. It is rumored that Gatsby got his money through bootlegging, and that is what Gatsby did to get Daisy back.

Gatsby spent their years apart motivated to win over Daisy by gaining wealth. In his eyes, gaining wealth became equivalent to getting Daisy. He stated, “her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald, 2004, p.120). His life revolved around money and Daisy, who had symbolically chosen Tom’s pearls and wealth over Gatsby’s letter of love. He threw parties in order to attract her with his wealth.

When people are greedy, they are often only think about themselves. They should learn how to be a better person by at least being thankful to others or trying to give back in return. In the stories, “The Fisherman and His Wife”and The Great Gatsby, characters like Alice and Daisy are unappreciative which made them lose everything. In the story, “The Fisherman and His Wife”, Alice was still not satisfied with any of the gifts she was granted.

Greed and love, in most cases go hand in hand. People will sometimes become jealous when a loved one show affection or chooses someone else over themselves. This in many cases can drive a person to horrible or outrageous things this fact is one of the main parts in the novel The Great Gatsby. This can be summed up by one sentence and used as a theme statement and that sentence is “sometimes people will do anything to get what they want. Daisy is a prime example of how sometimes people will do anything to get what they want.

Gatsby is the classic example of the American dream, which is shown from his routine featured in chapter 9; ‘practise elocution, poise and how to attain it’, which is example of the American dream due to the fact that it is a sign of self-improvement; he is planning out his life to better it and become more successful. The American dream is the American way of life which strives to be wealthy and successful. Although Gatsby is wealthy, in the Buchanan’s eyes Gatsby’s money is worthless and Gatsby will always be classed as poor. This allows us to deduce the difference between the wealthy and the poor to determine the more genuine characters. Gatsby’s love for Daisy is genuine, throughout the play Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby’s infatuation with Daisy as sincere.

Gatsby has spent his whole life trying to prove to Daisy and everyone around him that he is worthy of her. The only way to be on the same social level as her is to turn himself into new money. Since this is not possible, he has to try to convince to others that he truly is old money. To do this, he becomes rich, and lies about his past, but the only way for him to complete this idea is if he is with Daisy. She is the final piece in his American dream.

This shows how desperate Gatsby is to get the fortune, risking the danger of going to jail. Not to mention that he wants to be able to throw parties all the time, which costs money; Hoping that Daisy would just wander in someday. “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night,” went on Jordan, “but she never did” (P. 84) Since that never worked, he decided to change who he was and his

Gatsby does not love Daisy, he is in love with the idea of Daisy. He notes about Daisy, “Her voice is full of money,” (120). To Gatsby, Daisy represents what it is to live rich: a life of pleasure, money, and fame. Gatsby does not want it, he needs it, and in order to do that, he needs to win Daisy’s love. He achieves this goal by becoming rich and spending it on unnecessary luxuries.

In “The Great Gatsby”, Gatsby himself has set his focus on being viewed as this wealth man who did in fact come from wealth (even when he did not). He consistently portrays this man to hide the past and create an image for himself. He also pursues his dreams of winning over the heart of Daisy to create happiness. He did everything in his power to get her to notice him: moved to live near her, threw roaring parties in hope that she would eventually show up,

American novel deals in depth with the theme of Greed as an aspect of human conscience crisis which leads to dilemma, problems, and predicament for human being. Novels such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, Henry James’s Washington Square , Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery, and others expose clear image for the theme of Greed and its implications. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the human predicament of Americans in 1920s, through his best novel The Great Gatsby . In this novel Fitzgerald deals with the theme of a lust for money and greed .