Corruption In The Great Gatsby

Throughout The Great Gatsby, wealth is portrayed as one of the roots of corruption in society. It’s viewed this way not by the characters, but by us, the readers. We witness the kind of toll money and materialistic desires can take on a person and we also begin to understand how Fitzgerald feels about wealth. We apprehend that he is trying to warn us that materialism is unreliable, and that money cannot buy happiness. In his novel, Fitzgerald separates the characters into two opposite sides. They live in either West Egg or East Egg. Inhabitants of West Egg represent “new money,” while those in East Egg display “old money.” “New money” refers to first-generation wealth, whereas “old money” refers to money that has been passed down for a few generations. People of “old money” tend to try to save their money so that it stays in the family. The people of “new money” on the other hand built their wealth from the ground up all on their own, and as a result tend to spend it quite lavishly. However, what these people do not …show more content…
This statement became quite clear on page 92 when Daisy began to sob as Gatsby “took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one.” It was at that point in the novel that Daisy realized she could have had happiness and money if she had just stayed with Gatsby, despite him being poor at the time.
Instead, she gave into her materialistic desires and chose security over true love, and that cost Daisy her happiness.
What money can buy is material items such as clothing, jewellry, houses, goods, and cars. That idea was made awfully apparent by Jordan on page 78 when she explained the reasons behind Gatsby’s disregardful shopping. He “bought that house just so that Daisy would be just across the bay,” and was able to afford throwing extravagant parties every weekend. Notice again here that in the end, his money did not help him acquire neither happiness, nor Daisy’s