Does Money Buy Happiness In The Great Gatsby Analysis

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Does money truly buy happiness? Many people don’t believe that it does, but in The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan lives her life searching for money that she can hide all of her problems in. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, A wealthy man named Gatsby throws outrageous parties to attract his old love, Daisy Buchanan, who lives across the New York Sound with her wealthy and arrogant husband Tom. The novel revolves around a group of affairs and lies told by all of the characters in the story. In the end, most of the characters realize the hard way, that money doesn’t buy happiness but in fact ruins most of their lives. Daisy Buchanan is a self-absorbed, vacuous socialite whose decisions lead to the destruction of both Jay Gatsby …show more content…
This was completely untrue though because in Daisy’s mind, Gatsby had nothing worth waiting for. Daisy, “Wanted her life shaped now, immediately – and the decision must be made by some force – of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality – that was close at hand.” (Fitzgerald 151). Gatsby had none of these. Daisy knew that Gatsby wasn’t extremely wealthy so didn’t feel the need to wait for him to return from the war. Instead she married the wealthiest man that she could find, Tom Buchanan, so that she would be safe. When Daisy meets Gatsby again she questions whether or not she would be happier with Gatsby but she realized that, “She is unable to leave Tom because the Buchanan name is too valuable. At the same time, Gatsby 's own wealth dazzles her as seen when his vast collection of shirts provides the catalyst for her emotional response to their reunion.” (Morgan). Not only was Tom Buchanan a good person to be married to, but Daisy felt as though the Buchanan name itself was too valuable to leave. Although Gatsby was extremely wealthy now, the fact that he got his money from illegal activities made Daisy question if his money would be stable. This just shows how much Daisy truly only cared about money, because of how she reacts to simple things, such as Gatsby’s …show more content…
In this story, the Author was trying to show the reader that money cannot solve everyone’s problems. Most of the characters in the novel are fairly wealthy, and none of them end up happy with how their life had turned out after the year portrayed in the story. Many people want what they cannot have. Once they get it however, they realize that it’s not as great as they thought it would

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