The Great Gatsby – Reasons to Become Rich Essay Sample

IIntroduction
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a narrative about wealth. power. love. machinations and offense. demoing the lives of a group of people. all members of the societal upper category. One of the narratives chief subjects is wealth and power. This subject concerns all the characters in the book but particularly interesting is the relationship which the chief character has to wealth and power – Jay Gatsby. He is rich. socially recognized and powerful. but for really different grounds. In this paper I will seek to indicate out his motives for acquiring affluent every bit good as his relation to money and the societal upper category. As Jay Gatsby is the chief character of the narrative this paper should foremost give an penetration into his grounds to work so difficult and to construct up his tremendous luck. And secondly it will look at Daisy?s influence on his relation to money. his grounds for his life style.

The narrative of The Great Gatsby is set in the early 1920s merely after the terminal of World War I in New York and Long Island. Two of the chief characters in the narrative. James Gatz alias Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. live separated from each other in two different countries of Long Island called „West Egg“ and „East Egg“ . As we get to cognize right in the beginning. the „East Egg“ is the more stylish of the two countries. where the societal elite of the clip so lived. The physical separation between the upper category and the absolute societal elect maps as a statement. stand foring the fact that even if you have everything there still will ever be something you long for.

IIWealth and Power – Jay Gatsby
Jay Gatsby. who was born as James Gatz. made his manner from “zero to hero” . Coming from a hapless and uneducated background. he worked his manner up to a point where he could afford socializing with the monied young person. It appears that Gatsby?s someway saw himself as determined to be affluent. even in his childhood. when the merely individual promoting him was his male parent. He indefatigably worked on his personality and his visual aspect. So when he eventually got the opportunity to alter his life to what seemed a better life to him. he took the opportunity. This opportunity comes in the form of Dan Cody?s yacht and Gatsby doesn?t waver a 2nd to throw his former life over board. Although his transmutation begins a batch earlier. this is the minute when Jimmy Gatz dies and Jay Gatsby is born. When he meets Daisy he feels drawn and closely bonded to her but at this minute he can?t afford offering her the life he finds suited for the both of them. He is driven by the thought of money and about feels obliged to belong to the wealthy and rich aristocracy. His compulsion with wealth goes every bit far as he risks losing Daisy by traveling off once more over profusion. Through legal or illegal methods. rumor has it he?s a moonshiner. he compiles a immense luck and necessarily ends up at Long Island and in New York where the privileged young person gather?s to observe their life and wealth.

Despite his tremendous luck. Jay Gatsby lives on the less stylish „West Egg“ which implies that because of his dubious beginning he hasn?t managed to go a full member of the societal upper-class elite. The separation of East and West Egg constitutes non merely a physical separation but a differentiation by category. Although Gatsby managed to go every bit rich as all the other?s about. he is still seen as the alien. who?s beginning is ill-defined and who?s methods for gaining money give grounds for guesss and rumors. But despite his dubious repute people gather. like insects round the visible radiation when Gatsby starts throwing his epicurean. effete parties. Peoples come together from all of Long Island and New York to observe their life and wealth in the sign of the zodiac of a adult male. who barely anyone of them knows in individual. Gatsby creates an aura of luxury and sloppiness by throwing the most expensive and effete parties in Long Island. By come ining his sign of the zodiac. people enter a dream universe where perfectly nil is excessively expensive to be bought or excessively cherished to be used.

In his blue gardens work forces and miss came and went like moths among the rustles and the bubbly and the stars. … On weekends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus. bearing parties … while his station waggon scampered like a alert xanthous bug to run into all trains. … Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York…” ( p. 45 )

He gets boxes full of fresh fruits. dozenss of the finest nutrient and an tremendous sum of intoxicant. which in times of prohibition represents the particular position the upper category so had. Gatsby could attempt to interrupt the jurisprudence in order to entertain his invitees. He invariably shows his wealth openly and wants people to cognize about his luck. This seems at first sight to be a despairing effort to set up himself in the aristocracy. Gatsby knows that his dubious beginning constitutes a barrier to the upper category which he can neither interrupt nor disregard. All he can make is to travel on pretense that he is one of them and to seek to convert them by proofing that money doesn?t affair for him at all.

One of his invitees. Lucille. Tells at one of his parties that at a predating event she experienced Gatsby?s generousness herself.

“When I was here last I tore my gown on a chair. and he asked my name and reference – inside of a hebdomad I got a bundle from Croirier?s with a new flushing gown in it. … . It was gas blue with lavender beads. Two hundred and 65 dollars” . ( p. 49 )

This states an illustration for his extraordinary disbursement qualities and his immense sloppiness about money. When Lucille tears her frock apart she gets a new one from Gatsby. This of class is non merely an act of pure good heartedness. On the contrary – the merely intent this gift has is to demo to the others that Gatsby can afford purchasing an expensive frock to a unusual adult female. who he doesn?t even truly cognize and whose ain mistake it was to destroy her gown. And further it shows how less Gatsby attentions about wealth. It doesn?t intend a thing to him at all. Where other rich work forces seek hard to acquire even richer. this adult male doesn?t care a spot where all his luck goes. every bit long as everybody near him respects and admires him. All this contributes to the image of a baronial adult male. a secular adult male and a concern adult male and in the terminal that?s the image Gatsby wants to convey. Merely subsequently in the narrative we find out that there is a 2nd and more meaningful intent to his behaviors. he does all this to acquire Daisy?s attending. All his parties. all the people he gathered around him. are merely at that place to acquire Daisy to detect him.

He fears that inquiring her in individual might be unequal and could do the both of them a great trade of problem since he knows about her matrimony. So he does everything to do himself celebrated in some ways and to tempt her to his sign of the zodiac where he wants to affect her with what he has achieved in such immature old ages. He succeeds in the terminal and Daisy and Nick visit Gatsby?s sign of the zodiac. This scene is important to demo Gatsby?s existent grounds for his life style. When he shows them around he makes certain they would travel “down to the route and [ enter – changed by writer ] by the large postern” ( p. 97 ) . He shows them through the Marie-Antoinette suites and his impressive library. All of it symbolizes his wealth. instruction and criterion. Since the hapless people could barely attempt proper instruction a library with existent books stands non merely for wealth but for high instruction. great cognition and universe openness.

But as we learn from the owl-eyed adult male in the library. the books have ne’er even been opened. They are merely a tool to affect people – people like Daisy. He presents himself to Daisy as educated. baronial adult male of the upper category. whose wealth he is willing to portion. In the beginning he shows them his official belongings. distanced values like furniture. boats. and books and so on. But later in his ain room he gives them an penetration into his really ain private country. demoing them his lavatory set made of pure gold and his hemorrhoids of neat folded shirts all made of the finest stuff. It is an effort to allow Daisy into his life. to demo her that he wants her to be a portion of his place. For him the luxury and money loses all its virtues if Daisy isn?t a portion of it. Nick explains that Gatsby “re-valued everything in his house harmonizing to the step of response it drew from her well-loved eyes” ( p. 98 ) . Everything he has done in his live had the end to win Daisy back and now that his dream seems to go true. world easy crepes up on him. He has to acknowledge that even in this perfect minute it had happened that

“Daisy tumbled short of his dreams … because of the prodigious verve of his semblance. It had gone beyond her. beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a originative passion. adding to it all the clip. adorning it out with every bright plume that drifted his manner. No sum of fire or freshness can dispute what a adult male can hive away up in his ghostly heart” ( p. 103 ) .

This is when he finds out what Daisy truly is – the dream image of a existent life individual he knew long clip ago. Nevertheless he tries to affect her with his ownerships. shows her around and nowadayss to her everything that could belong to her if she would merely take him over Tom.

At the terminal of the circuit through his sign of the zodiac Gatsby forces Klipspringer to play the piano for them. It is another presentation of his power. he is able to command people to function him ne’er mind at what clip or in whatever state of affairs. His lone want is to do his house as much a place for Daisy as possible. When Nick wants to go forth the house to give them a minute of privateness Gatsby foremost seems shocked to be left entirely with Daisy because of the consciousness he has merely made about Daisy?s imperfectness. But in the following minute he grabs her manus to demo to Nick. Daisy and even more to himself that she is the lone thing he desires and that he wants to keep on to her no affair what she is or had become.

For Gatsby this adult female is everything he ever dreamed of. But since this minute in the music room he has lost a portion of the simpleness refering her. When later in the game Nick asks him what it is in Daisy that fascinated people that much. Gatsby states that a great trade of her appeal lies in Daisy?s voice.

“She?s got an indiscreet voice. … It?s full of – … Her voice is full of money” . ( p. 126 ) This sentence every bit simple as it may look is a important statement sing Daisy and her relationship to Gatsby and people in general. It explains that her personality. her perceptual experience and everything about her is depending on her position. her wealth and her power. Daisy defines herself about her function as a rich upper category married woman with nil to believe of and worry about than the following trip to New York. the following party or the latest manners. Her attention freeness and relaxation is depending on money. She managed to get married. even if it was out of sheer opportunity and possibly even lovesickness. a affluent adult male who offers her the life she wants to hold.

Despite all these defects Gatsby holds on to his compulsion to the terminal. The lone minute he wavers is when they all are resembled in the hotel room in New York where he forces Daisy to squeal that she ne’er loved Tom and that she will ever love him.

“Oh. you want excessively much! … I love you now – isn?t that plenty? I can?t aid what?s yesteryear. … I did love him one time – but I loved you too” . ( p. 139 ) At this minute. Gatsby realises that Daisy had gone on life her life while his lone intent in life was to populate up to her outlooks. While he had used wealth. money and all the people around him to acquire to Daisy. Daisy had used all the people around her to acquire to wealth and money. As for Gatsby he would perchance hold managed a life without a great luck under more simple fortunes if he had merely had Daisy by his side.

IIIConclusion
Gatsby?s relationship to wealth is to be written on the same page as Gatsby?s relationship to Daisy as she is the chief ground for him to be the great adult male he had become. What makes the great Gatsby so great is that he is a great adult male non because he is rich and generous with his ownerships but because of the fact that his life from early yearss on had a finding in the individual of Daisy Buchanan. For Gatsby wealth has no value besides the obvious fact. that wealth brought him as stopping point to his beloved desire as he could hold perchance come in all his life. Wealth was the instrument with which he tried to accomplish his end. And although his finding is admirable on the one manus it is sad on the other manus if you think about the possibilities a adult male like him would hold had.