Is Money Important In The Great Gatsby

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Money- some say it’s what makes the world go round. Small green pieces of cloth fiber paper are what control how someone will live and act. Money has caused war, death, problems, depressions, and anything in between, making many wonder what the point of money is anymore. In The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, money is a key factor in the novel and especially affects characters such as Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, causing many twists, turns, and even fatalities to happen. The way money controls all the characters in the book is very intriguing, and just shows the many ways that wealth can change a person’s ideology and actions.

One way that money and wealth is such a key factor in The Great Gatsby, is the way it makes Tom Buchanan
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If a poor person commits a crime against a very wealthy person, the individual is thrown into prison immediately. However, if a rich person commits a crime against a poor person, they are able to get away with roughly no charges. If they do commit a serious crime, all they have to do is move out of the country for a bit, and come back later. The quote that justifies this the most is when Nick Carraway thought in his mind, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” Tom and Daisy did anything they wanted. They were on the rich side of life, and did whatever they wanted. When Daisy killed Myrtle with the car, she did not get in trouble, and no one knew that she was the one to do the killing. Also, another insane thing was when Tom got into the car accident with a mistress in his car. Tom did not go to jail, and neither did Daisy for their actions. All that Tom and Daisy did was leave the area for a while, and when everything was done, they came back to New York like nothing happened. Wealth can give the essence of being pure, and for Tom and Daisy it was true. Even in the modern world today, we still see rich people being constantly bailed out by their money. One example was the drowning of a “possible” prostitute in the trunk of Ted Kennedy’s car. Kennedy was not convicted, and the whole thing blew over due to the fact that he was rich. The Buchanans never took responsibility for their actions and criminal misbehaviors, and the way that they could easily escape authorities and avoid arrest due to the size of their bank account is absurd. The factor of wealth is definitely shown in the ways of criminal

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