Which Author Wrote About The Influence Of Money On People's Values In The Great Gatsby

In The Smashing Gatsby, money is a huge motivator in the characters' relationships, motivations, and outcomes. Most of the characters reveal themselves to be highly materialistic, their motivations driven past their desire for money and things: Daisy marries and stays with Tom because of the lifestyle he can provide her, Myrtle has her thing with Tom due to the privileged world it grants her admission to, and Gatsby even lusts after Daisy as if she is a prize to exist won. Later all, her vocalization is "full of coin—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and vicious in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' vocal of it. . . . Loftier in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden daughter. . . ." (seven.106).

So how exactly does materialism reveal itself as a theme, how can it help usa analyze the characters, and what are some mutual assignments surrounding this theme? Nosotros volition dig into all things money here in this guide.

Roadmap

Money and materialism in the plot
Key quotes nearly coin/materialism
Analyzing characters via money/materialism
Common assignments and analysis of coin/materialism in Gatsby

Quick Annotation on Our Citations

Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would merely work for students with our copy of the volume.

To find a quotation we cite via affiliate and paragraph in your book, you tin either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-fifty: offset of chapter; 50-100: center of chapter; 100-on: end of affiliate), or utilize the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

Money and Materialism in The Great Gatsby

In the opening pages, Nick establishes himself as someone who has had many advantages in life—a wealthy family and an Ivy League didactics to name just two. Despite non beingness every bit wealthy as Tom and Daisy, his second cousin, they see him every bit enough of a peer to invite him to their home in Chapter ane. Nick's connectedness to Daisy in plow makes him attractive to Gatsby. If Nick were but a middle-class lowest, the story could not play out in the same way.

Tom and Daisy's movements are besides supported by their money. At the beginning of the novel they movement to fashionable East Egg, subsequently moving around betwixt "wherever people played polo and were rich together," and are able to very quickly pick upwards and leave at the stop of the book afterwards the murders, thanks to the protection their money provides (i.17). Daisy, for her part, only begins her affair with Gatsby afterwards a very detailed display of his wealth (via the mansion tour). She fifty-fifty breaks downward in tears after Gatsby shows off his ridiculously expensive set up of colored shirts, crying that she's "never seen such beautiful shirts" before (5.118).

Gatsby'southward notoriety comes from, first and foremost, his enormous wealth, wealth he has gathered to win over Daisy. Gatsby was born to poor farmer parents in North Dakota, merely at 17, adamant to become rich, struck out with the wealthy Dan Cody and never looked back (6.5-15). Even though he wasn't able to inherit whatsoever part of Cody's fortune, he used what he learned of wealthy society to commencement charm Daisy before shipping out to WWI. (In a uniform she had no idea he was poor, especially given his sophisticated manners). Then, after returning home and realizing Daisy was married and gone, he set out to earn enough money to win Daisy over, turning to offense via a partnership with Meyer Wolfshiem to quickly amass wealth (9.83-7).

Meanwhile, Tom'due south mistress Myrtle, a car mechanic's married woman, puts on airs and tries to pass every bit rich through her affair with Tom, but her interest with the Buchanans gets her killed. George Wilson, in contrast, is constrained by his lack of wealth. He tells Tom Buchanan after finding out about Myrtle's thing that he plans to move her West, but he "[needs] money pretty bad" in lodge to brand the motion (seven.146). Tragically, Myrtle is hit and killed that evening by Daisy. If George Wilson had had the means, he likely would take already left New York with Myrtle in tow, saving both of their lives.

Hardly anyone shows up to Gatsby's funeral since they were simply attracted by his wealth and the parties, non the homo himself. This is encapsulated in a phone call Nick describes, to a human being who used to come to Gatsby's parties: "one gentleman to whom I telephoned implied that he had got what he deserved. However, that was my fault, for he was ane of those who used to sneer about bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of Gatsby'southward liquor and I should have known improve than to telephone call him" (9.69).

In brusk, money both drives the plot and explains many of the characters' motivations and limitations.

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Primal Quotes About Money

Then wear the aureate hat, if that will move her;
If you can bounce high, bounce for her also,
Till she cry "Lover, gold-hatted, high-billowy lover,
I must have y'all!"

—THOMAS PARKE D'INVILLIERS

The epigraph of the novel immediately marks money and materialism equally a central theme of the book—the listener is implored to "wear the golden hat" as a way to print his lover. In other words, wealth is presented as the key to love—such an important key that the word "gold" is repeated twice. Information technology'southward not plenty to "bounce high" for someone, to win them over with your charm. You need wealth, the more than the amend, to win over the object of your desire.

"They had spent a twelvemonth in France, for no item reason, then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together." (1.17)

Our introduction to Tom and Daisy immediately describes them equally rich, bored, and privileged. Tom's restlessness is likely i motivator for his affairs, while Daisy is weighed downward by the knowledge of those affairs. This combination of restlessness and resentment puts them on the path to the tragedy at the end of the volume.

"In that location was music from my neighbor's business firm through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths amongst the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the belfry of his raft or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, cartoon aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On calendar week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the urban center, between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants including an extra gardener toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before…." (three.1-3.six)

The description of Gatsby'due south parties at the beginning of Chapter iii is long and incredibly detailed, and thus information technology highlights the extraordinary extent of Gatsby's wealth and materialism. In contrast to Tom and Daisy's expensive but not overly gaudy mansion, and the small dinner party Nick attends in that location in Chapter one, everything about Gatsby'due south new wealth is over-the-acme and showy, from the crates of oranges brought in and juiced i-past-one by a butler to the full orchestra.

Everyone who comes to the parties is attracted by Gatsby's money and wealth, making the culture of money-worship a society-wide tendency in the novel, not just something our main characters autumn victim to. Later all, "People were not invited—they went there" (iii.seven). No i comes due to close personal friendship with Jay. Everyone is there for the spectacle alone.

He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, ane by ane before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel which lost their folds equally they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-light-green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian bluish. Suddenly with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to weep stormily.

"They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her vocalisation deadened in the thick folds. "It makes me distressing because I've never seen such—such cute shirts before." (five.117-118)

Gatsby, like a peacock showing off its many-colored tail, flaunts his wealth to Daisy past showing off his many-colored shirts. And, fascinatingly, this is the first moment of the 24-hour interval Daisy fully breaks down emotionally—non when she showtime sees Gatsby, not after their offset long conversation, not even at the initial sight of the mansion—but at this extremely conspicuous display of wealth. This speaks to her materialism and how, in her earth, a certain corporeality of wealth is a barrier to entry for a relationship (friendship or more).

"She's got an indiscreet voice," I remarked. "It's full of——"

I hesitated.

"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly.

That was information technology. I'd never understood before. It was total of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and barbarous in it, the jingle of information technology, the cymbals' song of information technology. . . . High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden daughter. . . . (seven.103-106)

Daisy herself is explicitly connected with money here, which allows the reader to run across Gatsby's desire for her every bit want for wealth, coin, and status more generally. So while Daisy is materialistic and is drawn to Gatsby once more due to his newly-acquired wealth, we see Gatsby is drawn to her besides due to the money and condition she represents.

I couldn't forgive him or similar him but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and and then retreated back into their money or their vast abandon or any it was that kept them together, and allow other people clean up the mess they had made. . . . (9.146)

Here, in the aftermath of the novel'southward carnage, Nick observes that while Myrtle, George, and Gatsby have all died, Tom and Daisy are not punished at all for their recklessness, they can but retreat "back into their coin or their vast carelessness… and let other people clean upwards the mess." And then money hither is more than but condition—it'due south a shield against responsibility, which allows Tom and Daisy to deport recklessly while other characters endure and die in pursuit of their dreams.

Money: the ultimate shrug-off.

Analyzing Characters Through Materialism

Nosotros touched on this a bit with the quotes, merely all of the characters can be analyzed from the point of view of their wealth and/or how materialistic they are. This assay tin can enrich an essay most onetime money versus new money, the American dream, or even a more than straightforward character assay, or a comparison of ii different characters. Mining the text for a character's attitude toward coin can be a very helpful style to sympathise their motivations in the earth of 1920s New York.

If yous analyze a character through this theme, make sure to explicate:

#1: Their attitude towards coin.

#ii: How money/materialism drives their choices in the novel.

#3: How their terminal upshot is shaped past their wealth status and what that says about their place in the world.

Character Analysis Example

As an example, let's look briefly at Myrtle. Nosotros get our best wait at Myrtle in Chapter 2, when Tom takes Nick to run into her in Queens and they end up going to the New York City flat Tom keeps for Myrtle and hosting a small gathering (after Tom and Myrtle claw upward, with Nick in the next room!).

Myrtle is obsessed with shows of wealth, from her outfits, to insisting on a specific cab, to her flat's decoration, complete with scenes of Versailles on the overly-large furniture: "The living room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely likewise large for it so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles" (ii.51). She fifty-fifty adopts a unlike persona amongst her guests: "The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently afflicted moment by moment and as she expanded the room grew smaller effectually her until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air" (2.56).

In Myrtle's eyes, money is an escape from life with her husband in the valley of ashes, something that brings status, and something that buys class. After all, Tom's coin secures her fancy apartment and allows her to lord it over her guests and play at sophistication, even while Nick looks down his nose at her.

Patently there is physical chemistry driving her affair with Tom, but she seems to get as much (if non more) pleasure from the materials that come with the affair—the apartment, the clothes, the dog, the parties. So she keeps up this matter, despite how morally questionable it is and the run a risk information technology opens upwardly for her—her materialism, in other words, is her primary motivator.

However, despite her airs, she matters very little to the "old coin" crowd, as cruelly evidenced start when Tom breaks her olfactory organ with a "short deft move" (ii.126), and subsequently, when Daisy chooses to run her over rather than get into a car accident. Myrtle'south character reveals how precarious social climbing is, how materialism is not actually a path to happiness/virtue.

In this novel, bodily mountain climbing is safer than social climbing.

Common Assignments and Discussion Topics About Money and Materialism in The Peachy Gatsby

Here are means to call up about frequently assigned topics on this the theme of money and materialism.

Discuss Tom & Daisy equally people who "smash things and retreat into their money"

Every bit discussed higher up, coin—and specifically having inherited money—not only guarantees a certain social class, it guarantees safety and privilege: Tom and Daisy can literally live by different rules than other, less-wealthy people. While Gatsby, Myrtle, and George all end up dead, Tom and Daisy go to skip town and avoid whatever consequences, despite their direct involvement.

For this prompt, you can explore earlier examples of Tom'southward carelessness (breaking Myrtle's nose, his behavior in the hotel scene, letting Daisy and Gatsby bulldoze back to Long Isle after the fight in the hotel) likewise as Daisy'due south (throwing a fit just earlier her nuptials merely going through with it, kissing Gatsby with her husband in the next room). Show how each instance reveals Tom or Daisy'southward carelessness, and how those instances thus foreshadow the bigger tragedy—Myrtle'due south death at Daisy's easily, followed by Tom's manipulation of George to impale Gatsby.

You can also compare Tom and Daisy's actions and outcomes to other characters to help make your betoken—Myrtle and Gatsby both contribute to the conflict by participating in diplomacy with Tom and Daisy, just evidently, Myrtle and Gatsby don't get to "retreat into their coin," they both end upwards expressionless. Conspicuously, having one-time coin sets y'all far apart from anybody else in the world of the novel.

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What practice Nick's comments about coin reveal virtually his attitude towards wealth?

This is an interesting prompt, since y'all take to comb through passages of Nick's narration to discover his comments near coin, and so consider what they could hateful, given that he comes from money himself.

To get you started, hither is a sample of some of Nick'due south comments on money and the wealthy, though there are certainly more than to exist found:

"Only Gatsby, the man who gives his proper name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn." (1.four)

"My ain house was an eye-sore, but it was a small-scale eye-sore, and it had been overlooked, and then I had a view of the water, a fractional view of my neighbour'southward lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month. (i.fourteen)

"They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, so drifted here and at that place unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together." (one.17)

Nick'south comments about money, especially in the beginning affiliate, are by and large critical and cynical. First of all, he makes it clear that he has "an unaffected scorn" for the ultra-rich, and eyes both new money and erstwhile money critically. He sarcastically describes the "consoling proximity of millionaires" on Westward Egg and wryly observes Tom and Daisy'due south restless entitlement on Eastward Egg.

These comments might seem a chip odd, given that Nick admits to coming from money himself: "My family take been prominent, well-to-do people in this middle-western city for three generations" (1.5). However, while Nick is wealthy, he is nowhere most as wealthy as the Buchanans or Gatsby—he expresses surprise both that Tom is able to afford bringing ponies from Lake Woods ("Information technology was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy plenty to practise that" (1.sixteen), and that Gatsby was able to buy his own mansion ("But immature men didn't—at least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didn't—drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Audio" (3.88)), despite the fact they are all nigh 30 years quondam.

In other words, while he opens the volume with his father's advice to think "all the advantages [he's] had," Nick seems to have a chip on his shoulder almost still not being in the highest tier of the wealthy class. While he tin observe the social movements of the wealthy with razor precision, he always comes off equally wry, detached, and perhaps even bitter. Perhaps this attitude was tempered at Yale, where he would have been surrounded by other ultra-wealthy peers, but in any case, Nick's cynical, sarcastic attitude seems to exist a encompass for jealousy and resentment for those fifty-fifty more wealthy than him.

Why does Gatsby say Daisy's vocalism is "full of money"? What does it reveal well-nigh the characters' values?

Gatsby's comment near Daisy's phonation explicitly connects Daisy the grapheme to the hope of wealth, old money, and even the American Dream. Furthermore, the rest of that quote explicitly describes Daisy as "High in a white palace, the King's girl, the golden girl…" (7.106). This makes Daisy sound like the princess that the hero gets to marry at the end of a fairy tale—in other words, she's a high-value prize.

Daisy representing money also suggests coin is every bit alluring and desirable—or fifty-fifty more so—than Daisy herself. In fact, during Affiliate eight when we finally get a fuller recap of Daisy and Gatsby's early relationship, Nick notes that "It excited [Gatsby] too that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes" (eight.10). In other words, Gatsby loves Daisy's "value" as an in-need product.

But since Daisy is flighty and inconsistent, Gatsby'south annotate also suggests that wealth is similarly unstable. But that knowledge doesn't dampen his pursuit of wealth—if annihilation, it makes it even more than desirable. And since Gatsby doesn't give up his dream, even into decease, nosotros can come across how fervently he desires money and status.

Connecting new/old money and materialism to the American dream

In the earth of The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is synonymous with money and status—not so much success, career (does anyone but Nick and George even have a real job?), happiness, or family. But even Gatsby, who makes an incredible corporeality of money in a short fourth dimension, is not allowed admission into the upper echelon of social club, and loses everything in trying to climb that final, precarious rung of the ladder, every bit represented by Daisy.

So the American Dream, which in the first half of the book seems attainable based on Gatsby'southward wealth and success, reveals itself to be a hollow goal. After all, if fifty-fifty wealth on the scale of Gatsby's can't buy you lot entry into America's highest social class, what can? What'due south the point of striving so hard if only heartbreak and death are waiting at the end of the route?

This cynicism is also reflected in the fates of Myrtle and George, who are both trying to increment their wealth and status in America, merely end up dead by the end of the novel. You tin read more than about the American Dream for details on The Great Gatsby's ultimately skeptical, cynical mental attitude towards this classic American ideal.

Connecting coin to the status of women

Daisy and Jordan are both old money socialites, while Myrtle is a working course adult female married to a mechanic. You tin thus compare three very different women'southward experiences to explore how money—or a lack thereof—seems to change the possibilities in a woman's life in early 1920s America.

Daisy maintains her "sometime money" status past marrying a very rich man, Tom Buchanan, and ultimately sticks with him despite her feelings for Gatsby. Daisy'due south conclusion illustrates how few choices many women had during that fourth dimension—specifically, that marrying and having children was seen equally the main role any woman, but particularly a wealthy adult female, should fulfill. And furthermore, Daisy's willingness to stay with Tom despite his affairs underscores another aspect of women'southward roles during the 1920s: that divorce was still very uncommon and controversial.

Jordan temporarily flouts expectations by ""[running] around the land," (1.134) playing golf, and not being in a hurry to ally—a freedom that she is allowed because of her money, non in spite of information technology. Furthermore, she banks on her identify as a wealthy woman to avert any major scrutiny, despite her "incurable dishonesty": "Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever shrewd men and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a lawmaking would exist thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to suffer being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young" (iii.160). Furthermore, by the stop of the novel she claims to be engaged, significant that like Daisy, she's ultimately chosen to live inside the lines club has given her. (Even if she'south not actually engaged, the fact she chooses to tell Nick that suggests she does see engagement as her stop goal in life.)

Myrtle feels trapped in her marriage, which pushes her into her thing with Tom Buchanan, an affair which grants her access to a earth—New York City, wealth, parties—she might not otherwise take admission to. However, jumping upwardly across her roots, using Tom's money, is ultimately unsustainable—her married man finds out and threatens to move out westward, and and so of course she is killed by Daisy before they can make that move. Myrtle—both working class and a woman—is thus trapped between a rock (her gender) and a hard place (her lack of money), and perhaps for this reason receives the cruelest treatment of all.

So all three women button the boundaries of their expected societal roles—Daisy'south affair with Gatsby, Jordan's independent lifestyle, and Myrtle's thing with Tom—merely ultimately either fall in line (Daisy, Jordan) or are killed for reaching too far (Myrtle). So Gatsby ultimately provides a pretty harsh, pessimistic view of women'due south roles in 1920s America.

What's Next?

In The Great Gatsby, coin is cardinal to the idea of the American Dream. Read more than about how the American Dream is treated in The Great Gatsby and whether the novel is ultimately optimistic or pessimistic virtually the dream.

Money (or the lack of it!) is likewise why the novel's symbols of the green low-cal and the valley of ashes are so memorable and charged. Read more about those symbols for a fuller agreement of how money affects The Great Gatsby.

Desire the complete lowdown on Jay Gatsby's rags-to-riches story? Bank check out our guide to Jay Gatsby for the complete story.

Thinking about indulging in a niggling materialism yourself alà Gatsby? We've compiled a list of 15 must-have items for fans of The Great Gatbsy volume and picture show adaptations.

Looking for other literary guides? Learn more about The Crucible, The Cask of Amontillado, and "Do not go gentle into that good nighttime" with our expert analyses.

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About the Author

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in loftier schoolhouse, and went on to major in English language at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English language Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving pupil access to higher education.

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