Wealth In The Great Gatsby

Honore de Balzac, a French novelist, once said that “Behind every great fortune is a crime.” This is true in both the new rich and old money in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The newly rich must work outside the law to ascend to wealth, and the old money, born rich, are criminal in their abuse of the newly rich, middle, and lower class. Gatsby’s story of failure to assimilate himself amongst the newly rich demonstrates this inescapable distinction. Fitzgerald’s representation of the disparity between classes is present in the life and failure of Gatsby and in the behaviour of old money throughout the novel, providing an insight into the inequality that those beneath the old money faced in the early 20th century. Gatsby’s attempt …show more content…
Tom is a cheater, a racist, and misogynistic, saying things like “It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.” and “They [the woman’s family] oughtn’t let her run around the country” while Gatsby only sold alcohol during prohibition, all in order to become rich like Daisy so they could be together and happy (Fitzgerald 13, 19). Despite the more noble motivation of Gatsby, Tom is the one who wins Daisy’s heart and manipulates some poor grieving man into killing Gatsby, leaving Tom happy and Gatsby dead. In the end it is only because of the class division between Gatsby and Daisy that leads Daisy to choose Tom over Gatsby. Daisy’s decision to stay with Tom embodies the unwillingness of old money to associate with anyone but old money, and carelessly destroys the life of those that the old money see as below them, not even evoking enough emotion to merit Daisy coming to Gatsby’s funeral apparently since she “hadn’t sent a message or a flower” (Fitzgerald 174). This failure of Daisy betrays her as not a cynical victim in a misogynistic world, but rather as a callous and unjust member of old money, walking all over new money just as Tom and the rest of her class