More handpicked essays just for you.
American economy in the 1920s
American economy in second half of 19th century
The american dream in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Additionally, possessing materialistic good and wealth is all people want at this time. No matter where someone lives, the want for wealth and materialism is always there. People may have everything and still want more whereas there are people who do not have anything but the idea of materialism. It is all anyone wants and they manage to get it one way or another. Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, lives in the Valley of Ashes with her husband but she wants to leave that place and live the American Dream. Unfortunately, it is not in her husband’s reach because they do not have much money which leads Myrtle to want so much in New York when she is with Tom. Nick describes what Myrtle is doing when he says, :… she bought a copy of Town Tattle and a moving picture magazine, and in the station drug-store some cold cream and a small flask of perfume…’I want to get one of those dogs.’” (Fitzgerald 27). …show more content…
Myrtle does not own many things that she wants because of their lack of money.
But when Myrtle comes to New York with Tom, she buys a lot which shows her compulsive want for materialistic things. Tom is a very wealthy man who gets what he wants as well as showing it off. Tom displays his materialistic goods the day before his wedding when, “He came down with a hundred people in four private cars and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred fifty thousand dollars.” (Fitzgerald 75). Having an entire floor to a hotel is very expensive and something just to enhance the fact that he is wealthy. He wanted the entire floor because having anything less does not satisfy him. Tom develops the idea of how the people who have so much still want more. Daisy is a woman who is very materialistic. As stated earlier, Daisy married Tom for his wealth and social class, showing that she prefers to possess materialistic goods over her own
feelings. Daisy brings up the idea of going to Town and that is when Gatsby talks to Nick about Daisy. It is completely factual when Gatsby talks about Daisy and says, ‘”Her voice is full of money.’” (Fitzgerald 120). Daisy is seen as a woman who is all about money and that that is all she cares for. Gatsby sees that she only cares fir status and wealth which shows her to be yet another person who is absorbed into the idea of having materialistic goods. Corruption and an obsessive want for wealth is illustrated through Myrtle, Tom and Daisy as they all have a compelling want for materialism.
“The apartment……. Meanwhile Tom brought out a bottle of Whiskey from a locked Bureau door” (Fitzgerald ch. 2). Tom owns the apartment, but as is described, really he does not care about it. This is evident by how none of the furniture really fits, the only possessions in it are that of Myrtle’s, and the first thing Tom does in it is get a bottle of whiskey. All of this indirectly shows how Tom really does not care about any of that, but is just in it for his affair with Myrtle. Furthermore the purchases within the apartment describe the characters attitude towards their relationship. Tom bought the apartment for Myrtle however Myrtle bought everything inside for her to enjoy such as the reading material and puppy. Wanting all of these possessions in the apartment makes Myrtle look much more caring compared to Tom. She thinks of the apartment really as her second home as is evident by how she wants to outfit it with things to make it more hospitable. Very differently however Tom is just paying for what Myrtle wants to make sure she continues to spend time with
Andrew T. Crosland, an expert on the Jazz Age writings of author F.Scott Fitzgerald, wrote that Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby included over 200 references to cars (Crosland). This is not surprising as the automobile, like the flapper were enticing novelties at the time this book was written. The main characters in The Great Gatsby who, by the way, all drive cars are Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle and George Wilson. Attractive, yet enigmatic, Gatsby tries to win the love of an aristocratic woman, who rebuffs Gatsby for her upper class husband. This leads to Gatsby’s tragic murder after he is falsely accused of killing Myrtle with his Rolls Royce. The automobile, as
The dawn of the 20th century was met with an unprecedented catastrophe: an international technological war. Such a horrible conflict perhaps threatened the roots of the American Dream! Yet, most do not realize how pivotal the following years were. Post war prosperity caused a fabulous age for America: the “roaring twenties”. But it also was an era where materialism took the nation by storm, rooting itself into daily life. Wealth became a measure of success and a facade for social status. This “Marxist materialism” threatened the traditional American Dream of self-reliance and individuality far even more than the war a decade before. As it morphed into materialistic visions (owning a beautiful house and car), victims of the change blindly chased the new aspiration; one such victim was Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. As his self-earned luxury and riches clashed with love, crippling consequences and disasters occur. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby delves into an era of materialism, exploring how capitalism can become the face of social life and ultimately cloud the American Dream.
One more way that F. Scott Fitzgerald describes Daisy as materialistic is when Gatsby said, “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!”(130). When Gatsby says that Daisy only married Tom because she was tired of waiting for him and that he was poor, makes the reader think that she chose money over true love. In the novel, women’s in the 1920s only cared about having fun and spending money. They did not care about being independent; they just married a wealthy man because they loved money more than anything.
How does reading a story benefits an individual and improve his or her daily life? Extensive reading does not only serve as an entertainment purpose, but it is also beneficial to many readers because reading fiction can help enhance a person’s understanding of the type of society the reader lives in. For example, the famous novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is regarded as a brilliant work of literature, for it offers a detailed glimpse of the American life in the 1920s and comments on various social problems during that time period. The novel tells the story of a mysterious millionaire named Jay Gatsby who lives in the fictional town of West Egg, located on Long Island, during the summer of 1922. Gatsby wants to pursue his first
The world is filled with cheapskates, phonies, and two-faced people. Many use others for their own benefits. In The Great Gatsby, through the motif of superficiality, Fitzgerald critiques the theme that displaying materialism and superficiality can ruin true love and a chance at true love. Objects cannot define a relationship; it should be the feelings developed that defines the relationship of two people. The characteristic of materialism is a barrier for true love between two people. Nick Carraway has just moved to a West Egg, and his mysterious neighbor is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s long living dream is to rekindle his love and relationship with Daisy Buchanan, who is currently married to Tom Buchanan. He attempts to pursue his relationship with Daisy through his unexplained wealth. However, their love couldn’t be true because of their focus on “things” rather than each other.
They pursued the American dream of material wealth. Their lives were full of every materialistic object that one could imagine of, however they were very unhappy and sought to change their way of living. Tom drifts off to "forever seeking a little wistful for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(Fitzgerald 10) and he begins to read "deep books with long words in them"(17) just so that he can have a topic conversation with others. Tom is married to Daisy Buchanan; however, he has an apartment in New York and has an affair with Myrtle Wilson there. Daisy Buchanan is one who is empty on the inside, and she demonstrates herself to the world as if she is oblivious to her husband’s affair with Myrtle.
Myrtle is married to a mechanic, but is sleeping with Tom. Fitzgerald's novel seems to affirm the Biblical adage that the love of money is the root of all evil, for his characters value money inordinately. And this attitude is a central moral concern in the novel. Fitzgerald's characters erroneously believe money can buy them love, friends, and happiness. Gatsby tries to buy Daisy's love throughout the book.
Some people get so caught up in the dreams and fantasies of life that they forget what can actually be achieved. They set goals so high and think they have all the power in the world to obtain a goal that ultimately fails. One may pour all of one’s money into the goal, or every second of one’s day, or every ounce of energy in one’s body just to fail. Everything one ever wished for may be simply unattainable. It leads to the ultimate feeling of disappointment. In 2012, Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, felt disappointment and sadness when he lost the election. During some interviews after losing the election Romeny expressed his emotions after losing all that he worked for, “We were convinced we would win… It 's 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.
Materialism may be defined as attention to or emphasis on material objects, needs or considerations, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual values.
America has been labeled "The land of opportunity," a place where it is possible to accomplish anything and everything. This state of mind is known as "The American Dream." The American Dream provides a sense of hope and faith that looks forward to the fulfillment of human wishes and desires. This dream, however, originates from a desire for spiritual and material improvement. Unfortunately, the acquisition of material has been tied together with happiness in America. Although "The American Dream" can be thought of as a positive motivation, it often causes people to strive for material perfection, rather than a spiritual one. This has been a truth since the beginnings of America, such as the setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, which is an example of this set in the 20’s. The characters in this novel are too fixed on material things, losing sight of what is really important.
This shows the unjust traits that Tom as a human being as well as one of the main character in this novel. Furthermore, it shows how he is relatable to that of Myrtle’s character as she also has atrocious qualities. Myrtle cares for the finer objects in life just like Tom. As Scott Donaldson states, “But what Myrtle buys and plans to buy during the Sunday party in Chapter Two tellingly reveals her status. She aims for extravagance, but has had no experience with it” (4). Like Tom, Myrtle strives for material wealth without a care for anything else. Both Tom and Myrtle want the best of anything they can receive. With this mentality, they strive to achieve the best they can obtain and they are able to do so with Tom’s wealth as Tom has much wealth and glory to his name. Tom and Myrtle are also able to support one another. As Tom deliberately states to Myrtle, “‘Here’s your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it”’ (Fitzgerald 28). This portrays the extravagant behavior that Tom
While Gatsby always wanted wealth, his main incentive to become rich is his love for Daisy, the true love of his life. Gatsby uses money for love. Myrtle, on the other hand, truly desires money. Myrtle uses “love” in the form of a so-called romantic relationship with Tom to attain the lifestyle she desperately desires. Even though she says that she loves Tom, Myrtle, the most independent woman in the story, wants wealth so much that she puts up with a lot of humiliation at the expense of Tom whom she really is just using to better her social status. Myrtle’s affair with Tom is not because she actually loves him more than George. What she really loves is the life that she thinks that Tom can get her. Her motivations are more superficial than Gatsby’s and are illustrated by how impressed she was with Tom’s suit and her distain for the fact that George had to borrow another man’s suit to marry
As our society has become more modern and advanced, there has been an increase in the desire to acquire more material wealth. There are several examples of this phenomenon present in society. Celebrities in the entertainment industry help to fuel the world's desire for material materialistic gain by flaunting themselves publicly. In today’s world, it's common to witness people choosing money or status over family and good morals. The increase in this self centered behaviour is problematic to our society because true values and morals are being erased as the gap between the rich and the poor becomes wider. There are people in the world who use materialistic gains in order to fill a void such as emptiness or loneliness but these possessions