A summary of [SECTION] in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Great Gatsby and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans Jan 13, · The description of Gatsby's parties at the beginning of Chapter 3 is long and incredibly detailed, and thus it 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 there in Chapter 1, everything about Gatsby's new wealth is over-the-top and showy, from the crates of May 04, · For Jordan, fall is a time of reinvention and possibility - but for Gatsby, it is literally the season of death. The Great Gatsby Chapter 8 Analysis. Now let's comb through this chapter to tease apart the themes that connect it to the rest of the novel. Themes and Symbols. Unreliable Narrator
Best Analysis: Money and Materialism in The Great Gatsby
Book Guides. In The Great Gatsbymoney is a huge motivator in the characters' relationships, motivations, and outcomes. Most of the characters reveal themselves to be highly materialistic, their motivations driven by their desire for money and things: Daisy marries and stays with Tom because of the lifestyle he can provide her, Myrtle has her affair with Tom due to the privileged world it grants her access to, and Gatsby even lusts after Daisy as if she is a prize to be won.
After all, her voice is "full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it. High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl. So how exactly does materialism reveal itself as a theme, how can it help us analyze the characters, and what are some common assignments surrounding this theme?
We will dig into all things money here in this guide. Our citation format in this guide is chapter. We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsbyso using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it Paragraph beginning of chapter; middle of chapter; on: end of chapteror use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.
In the opening pages, Nick establishes himself as someone who has had many advantages in life —a wealthy family and an Ivy League education to name just two. Despite not being as wealthy as Tom and Daisy, his second cousin, they see him as enough of a peer to invite him to their home in Chapter 1. Nick's connection to Daisy in turn makes him attractive to Gatsby, great gatsby analysis essay. If Nick were just a middle-class everyman, the story could not play out in the same way.
Tom and Daisy 's movements are also supported by their money, great gatsby analysis essay. At the beginning of the novel they move to fashionable East Egg, after moving around between "wherever people played polo and were rich together," and are able to very quickly pick up and leave at the end of the book after the murders, thanks to the protection their money provides 1. Daisy, for her part, only begins her affair with Gatsby after a very detailed display of his wealth via the mansion tour.
She even breaks down in tears after Gatsby shows off his ridiculously expensive set of colored shirts, crying that she's "never seen such beautiful shirts" before 5.
Gatsby 's notoriety comes from, first and foremost, his enormous wealthwealth he has gathered to win over Daisy. Gatsby was great gatsby analysis essay to poor farmer great gatsby analysis essay in North Dakota, but at 17, great gatsby analysis essay, determined to become rich, struck out with the wealthy Dan Cody and never looked back 6.
Even though he wasn't able to inherit any part of Cody's fortune, he used what he learned great gatsby analysis essay wealthy society to first 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, great gatsby analysis essay, he set out to earn enough money to win Daisy over, turning to crime via a partnership with Meyer Wolfshiem to quickly amass wealth 9. Meanwhile, Tom's great gatsby analysis essay Myrtlea car mechanic's wife, puts on airs and tries to pass as rich through her affair with Tom, great gatsby analysis essay, but her involvement with the Buchanans gets her killed.
George Wilsonin contrast, is constrained by his lack of wealth. He tells Tom Buchanan after finding out about Myrtle's affair that he plans to move great gatsby analysis essay West, but he "[needs] money pretty bad" in order to make the move 7.
Tragically, Myrtle is hit and killed that evening by Daisy. If George Wilson had had the means, he likely would have already left New York with Myrtle in tow, saving both of their lives. Hardly anyone shows up to Gatsby's funeral since they were only attracted by his wealth and the parties, not the man himself.
This is encapsulated in a phone call Nick describes, to a man 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 one of those who used to sneer most bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of Gatsby's liquor and I should have known better than to call him" 9. In short, money both drives the plot and explains many of the characters' motivations and limitations.
One of the single most important parts of your college application is what classes you choose take in high school in conjunction with how well you do in those classes.
Our team of PrepScholar admissions experts have compiled their knowledge into this single guide to planning out your high school course schedule, great gatsby analysis essay. Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry "Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you! The epigraph of the novel immediately marks money and materialism as a key theme of the book—the listener is implored to "wear the gold hat" as a way to impress his lover.
In other words, wealth is presented great gatsby analysis essay the key to love—such an important key that the word "gold" is repeated twice. It's not enough to "bounce high" for someone, to win them over with your charm.
You need wealth, the more the better, to win over the object of your desire. Our introduction to Tom and Daisy immediately describes them as rich, bored, and privileged.
Tom's restlessness is likely one motivator for his affairs, while Daisy is weighed down 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 book. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower 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, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam.
On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city, between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon great gatsby analysis essay 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 great gatsby analysis essay before…. The description of Gatsby's parties at the beginning of Chapter 3 is long and incredibly detailed, and thus it highlights the extraordinary extent of Gatsby's wealth and materialism. In contrast to Tom and Daisy's expensive but not overly gaudy mansionand the small dinner party Nick attends there in Chapter 1everything about Gatsby's new wealth is over-the-top and showy, from the crates of oranges brought in and juiced one-by-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 trend in the novel, not just something our main characters fall victim to. After all, "People were not invited—they went there" 3.
No one comes due to close personal friendship with Jay. Everyone is there for the spectacle alone, great gatsby analysis essay. He took out a pile great gatsby analysis essay shirts and began throwing them, great gatsby analysis essay, one by one before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel which lost their folds as they fell great gatsby analysis essay 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-green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. Gatsby, like a peacock showing off its many-colored tail, flaunts his wealth to Daisy by showing off his many-colored shirts, great gatsby analysis essay.
And, fascinatingly, this is the first moment of the day Daisy fully breaks down emotionally—not when she first sees Gatsby, not after their first 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 world, a certain amount of wealth is a barrier to entry for a relationship friendship or more.
That was it, great gatsby analysis essay. I'd never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it.
Daisy herself is explicitly connected with money here, which allows the reader to see Gatsby's desire for her as desire for wealth, money, and status more generally. So while Daisy is materialistic and is drawn to Gatsby again due to his newly-acquired wealth, we see Gatsby is drawn to her as well due to the money and status she represents.
I couldn't forgive him or like 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 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.
Here, in the aftermath of the novel's 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 simply retreat "back into their money or their vast carelessness… and let other people clean up the mess. Money: the ultimate shrug-off, great gatsby analysis essay. This analysis can enrich an essay about old money versus new money, the American dreamgreat gatsby analysis essay even a more straightforward character analysisor a comparison of two different characters.
Mining the text for a character's attitude toward money can be a very helpful way to understand their motivations in the world of s New York. As an example, let's look briefly at Myrtle. We get our best look at Myrtle in Chapter 2when Tom takes Nick to see her in Queens and they end up going to the New York City apartment Tom keeps for Myrtle and hosting a small gathering after Tom and Myrtle hook up, with Nick in the next room!
Myrtle is obsessed with shows of wealthfrom her outfits, to insisting on a specific cab, to her apartment'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 too large for it so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles" 2. She even adopts a different persona among her guests : "The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur, great gatsby analysis essay.
Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, great gatsby analysis essay, creaking pivot through the smoky air" 2.
In Myrtle's eyes, money is an escape from life with her husband in the valley of ashessomething that brings status, and something that buys class. After all, Tom's money secures great gatsby analysis essay fancy apartment and allows her to lord it over her guests and play at sophistication, even while Nick looks down his nose at her.
Obviously there is physical chemistry driving great gatsby analysis essay affair with Tom, but she seems to get as much if not more pleasure from the materials that come with the affair—the apartment, the clothes, the dog, the parties. So she keeps up this affair, despite how morally questionable it is and the risk it opens up for her—her materialism, in other words, is her great gatsby analysis essay motivator.
However, despite her airs, she matters very little to the "old money" crowd, great gatsby analysis essay, as cruelly evidenced first when Tom breaks her nose with a "short deft movement" 2. In this novel, actual mountain climbing is safer than social climbing.
Here are ways to think about frequently assigned topics on this the theme of money and materialism. As discussed above, money—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, great gatsby analysis essay.
While Gatsby, Myrtle, and George all end up dead, Tom and Daisy get to skip town and avoid any consequences, despite their direct involvement, great gatsby analysis essay.
For this prompt, you can explore earlier examples of Tom's carelessness breaking Myrtle's nose, his behavior in the hotel scene, letting Daisy and Gatsby drive back to Long Island after the fight in the hotel as well as Daisy's throwing a fit just before her wedding but going through with it, kissing Gatsby with her husband in the next room, great gatsby analysis essay.
Show how each instance reveals Tom or Daisy's carelessness, and how those instances thus foreshadow the bigger tragedy—Myrtle's death at Daisy's hands, followed by Tom's manipulation of George to kill Gatsby. You can also compare Tom and Daisy's actions and outcomes to other characters to help make your point—Myrtle and Great gatsby analysis essay both contribute to the conflict by participating in affairs with Tom and Daisy, but obviously, Myrtle and Gatsby don't get to "retreat into their money," they both end up dead.
Clearly, having old money sets you far apart from everyone else in the world of the novel. Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to great gatsby analysis essay top choice colleges.
Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now :. This is an interesting prompt, since you have to comb through passages of Nick's narration to find his comments about money, and then consider what they could mean, given that he comes from money himself.
To get you started, here is a sample of some of Nick's comments on money and the wealthy, though there are certainly more great gatsby analysis essay be found:. Nick's comments about money, especially in the first chapter, are mostly 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 old money critically.
'The Great Gatsby' - Ten KEY QUOTES AND TERMS You Need to Know.
, time: 10:31Best Summary and Analysis: The Great Gatsby, Chapter 8
Many of these events from Fitzgerald’s early life appear in his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, published in Like Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway is a thoughtful young man from Minnesota, educated at an Ivy League school (in Nick’s case, Yale), who moves to New York after the war May 04, · For Jordan, fall is a time of reinvention and possibility - but for Gatsby, it is literally the season of death. The Great Gatsby Chapter 8 Analysis. Now let's comb through this chapter to tease apart the themes that connect it to the rest of the novel. Themes and Symbols. Unreliable Narrator A summary of [SECTION] in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Great Gatsby and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans
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