the importance of wealth

• all characters are driven by wealth - involvement in the 1920s consumerist culture which emerged following the post WW1 economic boom

• fitzgerald focuses on different locations to describe different levels and types of wealth to critique the flawed money-driven nature of 1920s america

  • lavish lifestyle of east and west eggers contrasts directly with poverty-stricken valley of ashes

  • fashionability of the old-money east egg sits in direct opposition to the overly-compensating flashy display of west egg’s newly-acquired wealth

• fitzgerald’s uses different characters wealth to explore motif of materialism and consumerism and how it affects morality and ethics of society

• class divisions are so explicit that the novel almost becomes a satire of the different characters’ ridiculous lives, and a brutal expose of how americans’ morality if affected by this race towards wealth

• buchanans set the stereotype of the selfish, careless aristocracy who understand the ability of their money and class to ease their way through life, allowing them excess privileges

• gatsby is inherently good and suffers the consequences

  • those who suffer like gatsby die by the end of the novel

  • the deaths of gatsby, myrtle, and wilson serve as overarching metaphors of fitzgerald’s condemnation of the results of such empty wealth pursuits

wealth as an important factor for first impressions

• epigraph is by thomas parke d’invilliers - a fictional character in fitzgerald’s debut novel this side of paradise

  • establishes themes and context even before nick’s narration begins

• ‘wear the gold hat’ - use material deception ostentatiously to capture the heart of a woman

  • gatsby’s efforts to immerse himself in displaying vast materialism, figuratively wearing the gold hat, in an attempt to win daisy

• hat and high bouncing is clownish and highlights absurdity of advice - fitzgerald’s satirical undertone

  • party is ‘an amusement park’

  • car is a ‘circus wagon’

    • highlights absurdity of gatsby’s materialistic obsession in his quest for daisy and what she represents

• ‘i must have you!’ - consumerism and demanding materialism of the roaring twenties, bouncing hat wearer captures her materialistic attention, not her heart

• ‘gold-hatted gatsby’ and ‘the high-bound in lover’ were under consideration for the novel as working titles

  • highlights epigraph’s notions of wealth and aspiration

  • rich colours dominate wealthy representations throughout the novel

the importance of class

old money

• includes the buchanans and nick - elite of american society and have fortunes dating back for generations

• wealth and privilege is inherited - no justification or extravagant display as they hold undisputed family titles

• all new england states, new york, and virginia were originally inhabited by wealthy families of european descent, meaning those who sought to create their own wealth went westward to a new america

  • created a new class of ‘new money’

new money

• jay gatsby - profited from 1920s boom

• no aristocratic heritage and resolve to display their wealth lavishly through conspicuous consumption

  • gatsby flaunts wealth through purchase and parading of hydroplane and ‘monstrous’ rolls-royce

• gatsby’s goal of integrating into social elite is unsuccessful and forced

  • addresses everyone as ‘old sport’ - attempt at appearing old money, points him out as new money

• car is an ‘emblem of his gilded success’ (morgan)

  • make a statement to passers-by as they can see gatsby belongs to the moneyed classes

• gatsby trusts daisy with this prized possession - betrays this trust by killing myrtle and ultimately killing gatsby - tragic punishment for having such an eye-catching item under daisy’s control

no money

• the wilsons, workers, servants, or unemployed

• unable to acquire any of the american dream’s monetary or social gains

• overlooked by the emergence of a new class conflict between new money and old money

  • embodied by struggle between tom and gatsby over daisy, whose love they attempt to gain

• tom wins daisy twice from gatsby because of his status from a solid aristocratic wealthy background

  • failure of the american dream - careless and privileged people always in the end

    • do not support new money dreamers like gatsby or the lower classes like myrtle who are willing to sacrifice everything to break through

• directly oppressed and exploited by old and new money

  • symbolised by myrtle’s death - caused by old money daisy in gatsby’s ‘death car’, the symbol of his wealth

‘her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestrates which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in new tunes’

• music as a metaphor for daisy’s affluent life serves as a direct parallel to the lifestyle of many in american society during the jazz age

  • superficial, snobbish, sad but equally pleasant and cheerful

• nick’s association of daisy with nature and musicality indicates her natural beauty

• daisy does not need to try hard or overcompensate because of her position

• she is attractive in more ways than one and manages to capture the heart of gatsby

‘as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and tom belonged’

• daisy is aware of her status privilege and is also aware of the exclusivity of being rich and elite

• myrtle and gatsby lust for her social advantages and status, but they remain unobtainable

• gatsby and myrtle die from their futile attempts to associate themselves with higher society

• secrets of old money are not easily shared or reached, the codes are difficult to grasp, and the taboo regarding cross-class marriage helps maintain the status quo

‘just as daisy’s house had always seemed to him more mysterious and gay then other houses, so his idea of the city itself, even though she was gone from it, was pervaded with a melancholy beauty’

• direct focus on her house rather than her physical self shows gatsby’s consciousness of her status and her possessions, which appeal to him

• romantically described yet denotes the most selfish or materialistic aspects of gatsby’s desires

  • louisville house daisy and gatsby made love in symbolises more than just young maturing love, but a dream of wealth and material acquisition

‘why they came east i don’t know. they had spent a year in france, for no particular reason, and the drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together’

• nick questions tom and daisy’s purpose in life as they appear empty, drifting around where affluent society revolves and associates and attempting to occupy themselves with rich peoples activities

• daisy has the world at the tip of her finger but she is dissatisfied with the privilege that means she is handed everything on a silver platter

  • she is aware of her status but desires the forbidden, which makes her pursue gatsby

• daisy is restless despite her permanent resolution remaining largely passive throughout the novel

‘gatsby bought that house so that daisy would be just across the bay’

• gatsby hopes to one day cross the social boundary between new money and old money with his mansion

• bay serves as the physical barrier between the two classes

  • distance is further than gatsby anticipates and the more her tried the closer to his tragic doom he becomes

• presents gatsby the dreamer through the romanticisation of living across from daisy rather than her next door neighbour

• gatsby represents the antithesis of what the buchanans and east egg represents

• spiritual metaphor for his social aspirations; buying the house is an attempt to cross social boundaries

• his attempt will inevitably fail because daisy and her old money acquaintances are so close but are forever separated by a body of water

marxist criticism

• inability to realise that he lost daisy in 1919 leads to his journey to acquire immense amounts of wealth to charm daisy and convince her that he is of an aristocratic background to win back her love

• class consciousness revealed as he attempts to conceal his blue-collar background

  • partial class consciousness = wants to play the game and pass for old money rather than critique the game

• gatsby’s longing for wealth makes him sacrifice everything, including his morality

  • fatal flaw = partakes in criminality such as questionable dealings with wolfsheim to achieve the impossible

  • white card presented to the policeman symbolises corruption and escaping justice using his status

• myrtle’s cramped apartment on 158th street serves as a metaphor for her social and material aspirations, as well as tom’s contempt for people of her class

  • very top floor = neglect in the relationship

    • top floors are often the cheapest and her rooms are described as ‘small’

    • insignificance of the relationship to tom

  • comedic representation of tom’s and myrtle’s extramarital affair as well as visual representation of myrtle’s outsized aspirations

• myrtle’s adoration of her apartment demonstrates her pride of her small achievement whereas nick’s narration highlights pathetic nature of the apartment and the affair, which appears of little value to tom

  • nick’s satirical tone of myrtle’s pompousness as she attempts to appear more refined and upper-class by imitating a lady’s dress

    • dualistic life = mrs wilson in the valleys, tom’s mistress in new york

• wealth is a corrupting symbol as it undermines traditional social institutions such as marriage

  • myrtle’s aim of acquiring a higher social standing inevitably sets her out as ‘artificial’ and requires her to betray tom

• critique morals and ethics of 1920s american society as it promotes an artificial dualism of the individualism as they aim to assert their chosen identity

  • myrtle and gatsby = aim to transcend the social barrier between their no money roots and old money

    • gatsby is stuck in the purgatorial new money, which does not allow him to claim and reshape his identity successfully to match east eggers

‘all i kept thinking about, over and over, was ‘you can’t live forever; you can’t life forever’

• rationale for pursuing affair stems from carpe diem urgency which highlights her hedonistic, amoral approach to life

• repetition emphasises desperate ambition of attaining social prestige, which becomes her fatal flaw

• similar to gatsby = both search for money that is accessible but fail to achieve the social status they repeatedly search for

‘the intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. her laughter, her gestures, her assertions become 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, creaking pivot through the smoky air’

• transformation from sensuous persona into some who is desperately attempting to appear affluent and reshape her identity

• conceit is contrasted with her lively personality in the garage setting - her natural habitat - which she attempts to stray from unsuccessfully

• violent imagery signifies the metaphorical claustrophobia which presents itself as an ability to disconnect herself from her valley identity as she is trapped in a small room with her ‘smoky air’

• myrtle’s persona is much more transparent and simplistic than gatsby’s elaborate attempts to blending into east egg society, yet both are seen through and exposed by mick