The Effect of Money on Jay Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby relates to today’s society with corruption and unhappiness that money brings. The novel shows how people’s morals back then and today are basically the same. If Gatsby has money and all the rich nice things, like his house and his cars in life then people assume Gatsby has it all. Money also exploits the people who will be fake just to be around all the nice money-oriented objects. Fitzgerald also exploits Gatsby‘s shallowness through his mansion to represent that the lavish lifestyle does not always bring him or others happiness. In the book, Fitzgerald uses the money to represent a falsifying dream, unhappiness, loneliness, and the fact that new money can not buy back time.

In the beginning of the novel, if someone were looking in on Jay Gatsby’s life, the reader would say he had all the materialistic objects a human could want. However, Jay Gatsby was not content with his life, out of the luxuries he had, the one important desire he wanted he he was forbidden to have. For example, Gatsby had flashy cars, a gigantic mansion, expensive clothes, but he was lonely. In the novel, Nick Carraway states, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”. Therefore, Gatsby bought his mansion to feel closer to Daisy, the one indulgence he wanted, that he did not have. Furthermore, the researchers of LiteraryDevices.net state that “Gatsby’s lavish mansion symbolizes his unbound love for Daisy.” They went on to say, “the mansion shows inner conflict with Gatsby himself and foreshadows loneliness behind his lavish estate”. Gatsby was chasing after Daisy with the idea that money would win her attention and affection, but in the end, his extravagance just makes him feel lonely because all he is left with are all the materialistic items he has purchased.

The second point was Jay Gatsby was trying to live in a dream that he has made up in his mind. Gatsby hosted monstrous parties, where almost anyone could simply make an appearance. However, Mr. Gatsby did not only host these parties to meet all the people who wandered in. In fact, he was never to be seen at these parties himself, and if he was, it was for a short amount of time. He was planing that one night Daisy would wander into his parties and they could simply start over or rekindle their love. Gatsby imagined that nothing had changed in the past five years that he and that Daisy and him would be together again. For a moment, it’s as if Gatsby thought that Daisy would never change, and would almost wait on him. For example Nick Carraway, the narrator states, “Almost five years! There must have been moments…when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams…..but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion”. Hence to say that Jay was a little crazy over Daisy, so crazy that in his mind, time has stopped and somehow, the two can just pick up where she had left him. Furthermore, studies show that “Gatsby’s luxurious lifestyle seems like a falsifying dream”. This concludes that Gatsby was trying to almost buy Daisy back with his money-oriented objects. Jay Gatsby was indeed trying his hardest to recreate the past.

Thirdly, because of Jay Gatsby’s struggles to win Daisy back by trying to recreate the past, he eventually dies alone. For example, Gatsby almost believed the reason Daisy did not come to him was because he did not have the money and luxuries she had. He had told her lies at the beginning of their relationship to give her hope, for her to stay. However, she still ended up leaving. In the novel, Nick Carraway, the narrator states “He might have despised himself….he had taken her under false pretenses… he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security. He let her believe…he was a person from the same stratum as herself”. Hence to say that he lied to Daisy, so she would not leave him. In literarydevices they state that “Gatsby uses the new money to buy things,’ including Daisy, “that old money had taken away”. In conclusion, as soon as Jay Gatsby got a chance, he tried to win Daisy back with money. The same money that he feels like took her away.

The Great Gatsby reflects off today’s time with money. It is perceived in the world that if someone has money, then they must be happy and content with their life. They’re living the “American Dream.” The world simply does not care how a person got their money, if it was in a dirty or clean way. The world also does not care about their feelings. There are a lot of people in the world that are money hungry. Jay Gatsby just happened to get so caught up in the money, and the lifestyle that he didn’t even see what he does to himself. Mr. Gatsby had all the money he could have dreamed of, he was still unhappy, lonely, and living in a fantasy dream. This is a novel that teachers should still be having their students read today. This novel characterizes all the unhappy people in the world who die from becoming obsessed with money. It helps kids, teens, and even adults understand that money is not their happiness, they have to find it within themselves as a human.