Nick and his Experiences of Materialism in "The Great Gatsby"

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The Great Gatsby shows the ambition of one man's achievement of his goal, the disappointment of failing, and the hopelessness of it. During the era of this novel, which is around the 1920's, America was a country with huge misery, ambition, and lack of humanity values. The novel shows a reflection of this decade, it illustrates the burning passion one man has toward his objective and the different aspects of the American principles. As the sequence of events continues in the story, someone will narrate the singular aspects of it; exposing the idea of the conflicts that will happen among different social levels.

Nick Carraway, the chronicler of this exciting plot, moved out from the Midwest to New York in the early 1920’s, trying to get away from the restricted environment of his times of yore. He wanted to experience a different environment in a refined area with meticulous rules, so he accidently rented a small house near to the mysterious Jay Gatsby and across from his cousin’s house, which will be Daisy Fay Buchanan and her wealthy husband Tom Buchanan. In contrast, in the 1920's the spirit and ambition of the American people soared. Unlike their European counterparts who were trapped in the social class to which they were born, the American people knew that if they worked hard then they could rise to a higher social class. The flappers and the movement of women’s liberation are just two examples of how Americans expressed their social freedom, and it seemed that nothing was impossible to accomplish.

Nick Carraway, having fought in World War I, returned home to begin a career. Like others in his generation, he is restless and has decided to move to New York for him to pursue his career in business. Right after his gradua...

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...l in life is an absurd assumption to make, according to Nick. As we can see, he did not believe this at the beginning of the story, since his dream was to go and explore the world and be a wealthy style person. It was after certain time that his mind began to realize the real importance of being a human. Accordingly to my thoughts and experiences, society lies in a simple avariciousness, which is defined as the unreasonably strong desire to obtain and retain wealth. From my experiences throughout my life I have realized that a greater percentage of the population of the world prefers to have wealth instead of living happy. I am not going to negate that having money can sometimes pull you out of deep problems, but we as human beings have to understand that richness is not the ultimate goal of life. Before it we must accomplish our self-esteem and social value goals.

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