Gatsby's Money - how money affects people

Essay by kuffstr July 2005

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In The Great Gatsby, money affects different people in different ways. For Gatsby, it means that he will finally have a chance at getting Daisy. But his money turns out to be somewhat of an obstacle in getting Daisy. Gatsby gained wealth to impress Daisy, he had what was considered "new money", and he tried to hide his wealth from people so that Daisy will not find out.

When Gatsby and Daisy first met, Gatsby was in the war and was very poor. He came from a middle-class family from the Midwestern United States. Daisy came from a wealthy family and because of the views of society, these two were not able to pursue their feelings for one another. Gatsby then dedicated his life to becoming wealthy so that one day he could possibly have Daisy to himself. He bought a gigantic house that appeared to be an imitation of the Hotel de Ville in Normandy.

When Nick invited Daisy over for tea so that Gatsby would be able to meet her, Gatsby had Nick's yard mowed, he sent over a fine silver tea set, and tulips to make Nick's house look more ritzy. Every weekend, he threw huge parties hoping, that by some odd chance, Daisy might show up at a one of the parties. At these parties, he had the best of everything. He had bands that played music of the time, he brought in crates upon crates of fresh vegetables and other foods, and he had a large number of crates of wine and other alcoholic beverages. He also had the finest in automobiles for the time. He had a yellow Rolls-Royce limo that was extremely expensive and rare. All of this was to impress Daisy and evidence existed of this in that he never went...