The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a timed writing during the 1920s. Shortly after War World I there is an economic boom that hits all of America just before The Great Depression. With the success of the war raising the people’s morale and as a result put their trust in the economy and the stock market. There is a spread in both business prosperity and wealth. The wealthy became wealthier and the poor became poorer. With the wealthy being too filthy rich to know what to do with themselves there starts this pattern of association between carelessness and wealth. Those who were rich bought things just to have unnecessary expensive things, and did careless things because the wealthy believed they were all high and mighty, and nothing …show more content…
In The Great Gatsby the area of East Egg is symbolic of those who were inherited their wealth, and with characters like Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker who live in this area, readers see how their wealth makes them careless people, endorsing the theme that wealth breeds carelessness. Tom Buchanan is a prime example of old money, so his carelessness for others is much more evident as a result. Tom is introduced to the readers as a resident of East Egg, someone who used to go to Yale with the narrator, Nick Carraway, described to have “arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face...a cruel body” (Fitzgerald). From this the audience already knows that Tom isn’t exactly a modest man, his dominating personality as a result of his wealth. This dominance and arrogance is seen in his relationship with others, most notably Mr and Mrs Wilson. Mrs. Wilson, or Myrtle, is Tom’s mistress and to Tom she really is not worth enough to him to be given respect. Despite he might seem to love Myrtle, Tom still tries to control his mistress and …show more content…
It’s not clearly stated that she lives in East Egg, but she spends a lot of time in East Egg in Tom and Daisy’s house, therefore she is associated with the qualities of East Egg, which is old money and arrogance. When Nick meets her at Tom and Daisy’s house he recalls her popular status as a female athlete. He describes her as “The bored haughty face that turned to the world concealed something” (Fitzgerald). Readers see her as this mysterious woman who is very hard to please, which is very true materialistically. Jordan turns her nose at those of those who are less wealthy than her. Fitzgerald establishes this when Nick and Jordan interact for the one of the first times, Jordan makes a snide, almost disgusted, comment on how Nick lives in West Egg. Fitzgerald expands on her expensive tastes when Nick bumps into Jordan at his first Gatsby party. Jordan explains how she loves Gatsby parties because of their intimacy and how big and grand they are. Jordan values things at surface level, and beyond that she could care less. If it’s not expensive or grand Jordan Baker will not waste her time with it. She is a very materialistic person, and this derives from her wealth. As mentioned before, many rich people did not know what to do with their wealth, so they spent it on luxury goods. Jordan’s wealth has made her jaded from regular goods, and only luxury goods can please her. Which is to be expected from
Jay Gatsby is know to be a man of many riches and enjoys to throw humongus parties every weekend. However, based on Nick Carraway’s description, Gatsby’s parties are very prodigal. Nick describes the amount of workers and tools need to fix Gatsby’s house after a party: “[a]nd on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears…” (Fitzgerald 39). By listing the amount of servants needed, Nick exploits the recklessness of Gatsby’s parties. In addition, by using the word “all day” the reader can infer there was quite a big mess the servants were tasked with cleaning. Thus, Gatsby’s gigantic party is just money spent to create a huge mess. Nick also describes the
The first example of Gatsby's belief that money can buy his happiness is when Nick Carraway describes the subdivision in which he lives, West Egg. The subdivision across the water is East Egg. The houses are very luxurious to say the least. On the other hand, there is a distinction between the two. The West Egg house are more recently built and are elaborately decorated, where as the houses in East Egg are still as big but very conservative in architecture. The two neighborhoods represent the division in the upper class at this time in America. During the 1920's, the conservative "old rich" despised the "new rich". A good example of an "old rich" family would be the Rockefellers, where as a "new rich" family would be the Kennedys. The East Egg represented the conservative money of the "old rich". For generations their money passed down giving them the belief that the "new rich" with their newly acquired wealth were still lower and not equal to them. The "new rich" liked to display their wealth in lavish ways that the conservative wealthy did not approve. In addition, the "new rich" often did not earn their money in legitimate ways; most earned their money from boot legging. Carraway in an ironic way is neither "new rich" nor "old rich". He lives in a rather modest house compared to Gatsby's huge mansion. Gatsby owns a huge house but is the only person living there besides some servants. Gatsby tries to use the house to win the happiness and respect from others. Another reason for the house is to hide the way in which he really makes his money.
The novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, deals heavily with the concept of the American Dream as it existed during the Roaring Twenties, and details its many flaws through the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy and ambitious entrepreneur who comes to a tragic end after trying to win the love of the moneyed Daisy Buchanan, using him to dispel the fantastic myth of the self-made man and the underlying falsities of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s close association with the American Dream, however, Fitzgerald presents the young capitalist as a genuinely good person despite the flaws that cause his undoing. This portrayal of Gatsby as a victim of the American Dream is made most clear during his funeral, to which less than a handful
When Myrtle and Tom get into an argument, Tom unleashes his violent side by slapping his mistress in the face, causing her to break her nose. (Fitzgerald 39) This does not negatively influence their relationship and the two continue to openly see each other. Tom happens to also be the one who investigates Gatsby’s past once he begins the relationship with Daisy: his education and the source of his money. The reason for Tom’s inspection is to expose Gatsby’s past and illegal life, and inform Daisy of his negative thoughts on Gatsby. Additionally, Tom makes his dominance noticeable through his wealth and social status, with the use of racism: "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out […] Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they'll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white." (229), believing that he is better than everybody else, coming from a rich aristocratic background; he believes superiority is in his blood. This fuels his main source of power that he exudes within society. Tom is very honest about his affair with Myrtle to his own wife. But, he doesn’t grasp the concept of morality; he is hypocritical, accusing his wife for her affair with Gatsby, but still proceeding with his
In the novel “ The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick describes Tom and Daisy as careless people which they are. Nick and Daisy are careless people because they can afford to be careless because of their money and use other people or do nothing at all for their own benefit. For example, When tom told Myrtle that he could not marry her because he was in a relationship with daisy and she was catholic and did not believe in divorce and told lies to myrtle to use her as a toy even though myrtle was also using Tom to get to a higher social class for her own benefit even Nick stated that when she was with Tom that she would act like from a higher class when she was with tom. Another example of Tom 's and Daisy 's carelessness is that daisy wanted Gatsby and had her fun with Gatsby for a while, but did not face the consequences when it was time to tell Tom the truth of Daisy and Gatsby and instead ran away. Another reason that tom and daisy are careless is that neither Tom or
West Egg is where the “middle class” live. Residents are wealthy, but they’re much rowdier than their East Egg neighbors. They throw loud, eccentric parties and “they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks” (45). Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway are both residents of West Egg. Their homes, however, are completely different in size and grandeur. Nick described his house as “. . . an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor's lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month” (9-10). The neighbor, later revealed to be Gatsby, is of higher class than Nick, even though they live in the same region due to the size of his home, and his riches. The citizens of West Egg, like Nick and Gatsby, don’t come from wealthy families. Their “non-pedigree” status stops them from getting what they want. For example, Daisy gets tired of waiting for Gatsby to get back from war and acquire wealth, and she marries Tom, a very rich man with family history, instead. The residents of West Egg are stuck between the poverty they escaped and the status they want to achieve, this ...
Tom Buchanan is arguably the character who possesses the most corrupt set of morals. His actions can be described as “some of the most immoral and senseless actions in the entire novel” (“Ranking…). He cheats on Daisy “simply because he can” (“Ranking…”). This shows that he has no care or regard for anyone but himself. He is going to do what he wants no matter how it affects other people. It is this mindset that causes the deaths of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Mr. Wilson. He knows this, but “he runs away from the entire situation… as if he was never part of it in the first place” (“Ranking…”). He and Daisy mess things up and leave. They go back to their normal, careless life of wealth and leave someone else to fix their mess (Fitzgerald 187-188). Together Tom and Daisy are absolutely incorrigible people with no regard for others.
“I am always wary of decisions made hastily. I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to my mind if I have to make a decision. This is usually the wrong thing. I have to wait and assess, looking deep into myself, taking the necessary time.” Pope Francis, the 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church expresses his belief that decisions are something that is needed to have a volume of time used on them. Decisions are something that should not be taken lightly and that creates either rewards or consequences that are received. Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby superficial characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, show this. Through the novel you can see that they are always making quick and unthoughtful
Everyone in the world is different. People have come to acknowledge the variety of differences that comes to surround one today. Differences do not always mean race or religion, but rather the individual characteristics that make up one specific person. Everyone has characteristics of themselves that are either the best or the worst. The good traits are usually concealed and hidden because people mainly focus on the negative sides of people. Conversely, the worst trait is more visible and apparent to the eye. In literature, the same applies, but the bad trait leads to larger ramifications for a character and others around them. In F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby, the recurring trait of recklessness is found throughout the classy and lavish denizens of
Throughout the novel, one of Tom 's biggest careless acts was when he cheated on Daisy. Tom is a cocky, confident man shown many times throughout the novel like when Nick arrived at his house and "Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch" (Fitzgerald 6). His stance showed his arrogance, and how highly he thought of himself because of his wealth. Tom was a man who often acted without thinking things through, like having an affair with Myrtle. Despite both Tom and Myrtle being married, they both had affairs. Tom doesn 't hide his affair from Nick and introduces him to his mistress Myrtle at Wilson 's garage. Tom doesn 't seem to care if anyone finds out because he feels as though nothing would change due to his wealth. While at Myrtle 's husbands garage, Tom tells Myrtle to meet him at the train station. They end up going to their apartment in New York City that they keep for their affair. While at the Morningside Height 's apartment Myrtle starts to talk about Tom 's wife Daisy, ""Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I 'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-"" (Fitzgerald 37). Tom didn 't like Myrtle overstepping her boundaries and to show
"They'll keep out of my way," she insisted. "It takes two to make an accident."
Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s visionary writing style during the early twentieth century revolutionized a new style for other writers. “Theme is most dramatically expressed through character, and Fitzgerald used the people he created to convey his personal vision of the world” (Keshmiri 2). As Keshmiri states, Fitzgerald, unlike many other writers at the time, expresses his stories through the development of the characters. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and the Damned illustrate the many flaws of human nature and how these flaws contribute to the downfall of the characters through their obsession with status, their inability to accept reality, and the use of alcohol.
...and the upper middle class members mixed in the neighborhood, creating a disturbing mix. West Egg provided a direct confrontation to the establishment that disturbed the rich such as Daisy Buchanan (107). The residents of the city have foreign names like “Joens”, “Muldoon”, and “Eckheart” with uncouth professions such as actors and politicians (63). Epitomizing the qualities of the people and the buildings of West Egg is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby possesses a house designed to imitate royalty. However, Gatsby fills that very house with the risque parties, juxtaposing the old idea of wealth with a new one. The juxtaposition between the two ideas strongly characterizes the West Egg resident.
The behavior of the wealthy has a higher standard of living compared to the rest of the people. The way the wealthy acts is by buying living space that is the most expensive and luxury houses such as mansion that is so over the top.The wealthy want to impress others that try to achieve their standards of living. Like the Gatsby and his house to impress others. Said by Nick seeing Gatsby “fifty feet away a figure emerged from the shadow of my neighbor's mansion and was standing” (Fitzgerald 20). Witnessing a figure coming from a lavish mansion and observing this wealthy man who was Gatsby.For Nick, this was profoundly a great deal of a wow factor to just see this wealthy individual show from absolute darkness also for him the mansion made his
Tom Buchanan is described as having a strong and repugnant presence. He was a star athlete at Yale and is restless after his glory days of playing there, “…had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven-a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anti-climax” (page 10). He is arrogant and seems to believe that he can have anything that he wants. Even though he has a wife and child, he has no problem with having a mistress on the side and does not care that others, including his wife, know about it. In addition, Tom is very self-absorbed and cares only about himself and his own desires. Tom was what Daisy’s family considered to be suitable for their daughter. That, along with his money, is mainly why she married him.