Examples Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

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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 …show more content…

Both Gatsby and Amory struggle with their materialistic tendencies and in the end it leaves both of the characters feeling empty. We see that Gatsby once Gatsby loses is dream or fantasy of winning over Daisy, he forgets who he is. “So I walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight – watching over nothing.” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925) Nick Caraway , Daisy’s cousin says this after a day in the city gone wrong; Tom ( Daisy’s husband) , Daisy , Gatsby and Nick decided to take a trip in the city for a day of fun. As the day progresses, more and more problems arise between Tom and Gatsby as his love for Daisy is exposed. This causes a confrontation between Tom and Gatsby which leads to Daisy be quite frantic. For the longest time, Gatsby has tried to change himself so that Daisy could love him; to him this meant doing anything to attempt to be at Daisy’s lever and this resulted to doing illegal business to attain wealth. In this society, although he was wealthy and threw extravagant parties, he was considered new money and at that time, if your wealth was not inherited from your family then it was not really credible. He also loses himself due to him trying so hard to climb a social chain when he is relatively at the bottom, whereas Tom is at the top). Gatsby has a constant need to be over the top, from his parties to him spending his money to impress Daisy. “The chauffeur he was one of Wolfshiem's protégés heard the shot afterward he could only say that he hadn't thought anything much about them.” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925) Gatsby’s life is ultimately taken when he is shot. This plays a big part in the novel not only because the main characters dies but it also symbolizes that the image Gatsby tried so hard to acquire with all the money, and clothes and the parties added up to nothing in the end because the person he was doing it for leaves and him and he

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