The Materialism Of Society In The Great free essay sample

Gatsby Essay, Research Paper The Materialism of Society in The Great Gatsby Every individual has a longing in her bosom, a desire for greater felicity she needs to make full. Whether it be love, power, cognition, or societal position, every individual at one clip strives to make full an emptiness through stuff addition. Materialism is the inclination to prefer material ownerships and physical comfort to religious values ( Isaacs 924 ) . Today s society is occupied with mercenary things. The Great Gatsby is a premier illustration of this. This philistinism of society is shown in F. Scott Fitzgerald s The Great Gatsby through the undermentioned characters: Jay Gatsby and Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald found the affluent glamourous and destructive. Although he was affluent, Fitzgerald was neer accepted. He was ever on the outside looking in. His compulsion for stuff characterized him as an writer and a adult male ( Magill Critical 966 ) . He thought his money would do him a better individual. Fitzgerald felt as if the loss of vision was every bit bad as the illusory quality of ideals of civilization ( Magill American 367 ) . Materialism is one of the chief subjects in The Great Gatsby. America had produced an idealism so intangible that it had lost touch with world and a philistinism so heavy that it was inhuman ( Mizener 101 ) . America is considered as the continent of lost artlessness and semblances ( Way 110 ) . There are many misinterpretations in today s mercenary society. One can t purchase unity with money ( Bruccoli 52 ) , and immature work forces think that wealths change the yesteryear and can recapture love ( Martine 9 ) . Both of these thoughts are false. American society has a changeless trust on money for emotions and individuality ( Bruccoli 46 ) . The Great Gatsby is interpreted as a warning to future coevalss ( Magill Masterplots 2652 ) . The warning is to non establish 1s life on material things, because this could take to a ruin. Jay Gatsby is a successful moonshiner. He came from poorness and ignorance ( Bryfonski 244 ) , and has come into a new wealth, which is derived from his concern. Although Gatsby achieves this success, he fails to recognize how money works in society ( Tate 104 ) . He thrives on material things. He owns a immense estate, has expensive properties, and splurges his money for show. Jay Gatsby stands for American idealism- so he loses touch with world ( Lehan 114 ) . He assumes that stuff ownerships are the manner to his dream, and he looks on material things to satisfy this hunt ( Bryfonski 244 ) . Finally, Gatsby sees that achieving an object brings a sense of loss and non fulfillment ( Way 107 ) . In the terminal, he is destroyed by the stuffs. Gatsby is in love with Daisy Buchanan. He has loved her since he was a immature adult male. When he is sent to contend in the war, Daisy meets Tom Buchanan and marries him. Old ages subsequently, Gatsby and Daisy are reunited. By this clip, Gatsby is affluent and feels as if he is worthy of her love. He still loves her as much as the twenty-four hours he left and is willing to make anything to win her over. He thinks that her love can be bought ( Bruccoli 51 ) , and attempts to recapture her through his stuff ownerships ( Martine 10 ) . Gatsby is the heady dreamer who can non take the common-sense position, who refuses to accept an ambiguous love ( Piper 102 ) . When Daisy leaves him at the terminal, he loses everything. He loses his young person, hope, and anticipation. ( Lehan 108 ) . Daisy Buchanan, is a Southern Belle from Louisville, Kentucky, and comes from a affluent household. She is entangled in mercenary values. Her life is full of money, power, and a high societal position. When she speaks, her voice is full of money ( Lee 55 ) . Daisy loves to travel out to parties to dance, dri nk, and hold merriment. She is married to Tom Buchanan, but their relationship is non a theoretical account relationship. They are both unfaithful to each other, and neither of them seems to care. Daisy has a basic falseness towards her matrimonial state of affairs ( Piper 108 ) . Daisy loved Jay Gatsby when she was younger. Although she loved him, she could non get married him because he was hapless. Rich, immature misss did mot marry hapless male childs. Daisy had two powerful beginnings of attractive force ; they were money and sex ( Bloom Modern 90 ) . That is what attracted Gatsby to her. She was the substance of Gatsby s dream ( Bloom 90 ) . He lived for her. When he found her once more, he expected her to be a demoiselle in hurt waiting to be rescued ( Piper 124 ) . Tragically, she did non run into these criterions. Tom Buchanan came from a affluent household. He graduated from Yale as a football fable. Tom was chesty and objectionable and stood for a philistinism that was cold ( Lehan 114 ) . He gained his confidence from his money and place in society ( Bloom Modern 92 ) . Like Daisy, Tom wasn t faithful for he was holding an matter besides. He was a corrupt adult male and was conceived as the incarnation of immorality by Fitzgerald ( Piper 138 ) . The universe of the Jazz Age in which Fitzgerald lived and wrote The Great Gatsby, was brimming with mercenary values. Fitzgerald conveys a sense that the original, more spirited significance of the American dream has been corrupted by greed ( Bloom Bloom s 37 ) . In the book The Great Gatsby, each character is in chase of felicity through material fulfilment. The book describes the philistinism of an age. It was written in a clip where values were more concerned with self-fulfillment and felicity than anything. In The Great Gatsby, the chase of felicity through stuff addition is conceited and pointless. Fitzgerald was non strikingly optimistic about the procedure of our state being damned by our philistinism, or of our dreams lasting its web with a peculiarly expensive object ( Bloom 24 ) . The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the philistinism of society through these characters: Jay Gatsby and Daisy and Tom Buchanan. Plants Cited Bloom, Harold. Bloom s Major Short Story Writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Broomall: Chelsea House, 1999. Bloom, Harold. erectile dysfunction. Modern Critical Interpretations: F. Scott Fitzgerald s The Great Gatsby. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. Bruccoli, Matthew J. erectile dysfunction. New Essays on The Great Gatsby. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985. Bryfonski, Dedria. erectile dysfunction. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol 1. Mendelson, Phyllis, Carmel. 2nd erectile dysfunction. Michigan: Gale Research Co. , 1978. Lee, Robert A. ed. Scott Fitzgerald: The Promises of Life. London: Vision Press, 1989. Lehan, Richard D. F. 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