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Lily LeDuc

Mr.Smith

Junior English

12/14/22

The Contradictions of Wealth

Success is often thought of as how much money a person has. The 1920’s were a time of

dramatic change within America. There was a huge rise in the economy which led to more

consumers and the idea that the more money and things you had the more successful you were.

In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the idea of success based on wealth is

questioned. The Great Gatsby displays a contradiction of wealth; for Tom, wealth is success,

while Gatsby views wealth as a means to success.

Although Gatsby was extremely wealthy and had everything he wanted materialistically,

there was still a part of him that was missing which was the love of his life Daisy. Gatsby's

wealth didn’t make him happy or successful, his relationship with Daisy did. Gatsby uses his

wealth to attract Daisy, author Katherine B. Trower states that “By means of this process, given

original impetus by the power of his vision and implemented by his wealth, Gatsby attempts to

convert his great house into a pleasant place which will attract and hold his lost lover, who had

been transformed from a lovely girl into the image of a blossom five years earlier”(Trower 14).

Gatsby knew all along that his one desire was to be with Daisy, who at the time was married to

her husband Tom Buchanan. Gatsby waited 5 years to reunite with Daisy and during that time

became very wealthy and eventually used his money and his mansion to gain back Daisy's love.

This is demonstrated in his efforts to reconvene his relationship with Daisy. Gatsby realizes that

Daisy is what makes him happy, author John F. Callahan states that “Until Gatsby makes love to
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Daisy, he projects little soul or feeling, only a self-absorbed passion mixed up with his urge to

defy American boundaries of class, status, and money. The experience of love deeply moves and

changes Gatsby, but so pervasive is the culture of material success that his new reverence and

tenderness toward her are inseparable from money and possessions”(Callahan). Before Gatsby

was reunited with Daisy he was very focused on money and buying all of these extremely nice

things because he thought it would fill in the empty gap in his life. After he finally reunited with

Daisy after 5 years of being apart from each other he realized that their love was all he ever

wanted in his life and was all he needed to be happy. Gatsby realized that he didn’t need all this

money he had acquired or all these luxury things for his life to be considered successful, as long

as he and Daisy were together his life was a success. Trower explains how it wasn’t Gatsby’s

wealth that made him successful, he used his wealth to attract Daisy's love. Callahan adds that

before Gatsby reunited with Daisy he idolized himself and the idea that he could become

anything. As soon as he reunited with Daisy his focus changed and he now idolized her and their

relationship. Despite all of the wealth and luxury items Gatsby had acquired he wasn't truly

happy and content with his life until he was reunited with Daisy.

Tom’s wealth did lead to success within his life because it allowed him to possess power

over others and get what he wanted without having to work for it. The difference with Tom was

that he was born into his wealth, he didn’t have to work for his money it was handed to him. As

long as he maintained the luxurious life he was given and was able to please the people he cared

about he was happy and his life was a success. In The Great Gatsby the area in which you lived

played a huge role in how you were viewed, author Malin Sjöström stated that “Tom and Daisy

Buchanan all use location to elevate their social standing”(Sjöström). Tom lived in East Egg

which was the “old money” neighborhood in New Work. He used his wealth to show people his
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power. For Tom success meant being above everyone else, he used his wealth to accomplish this.

Similar to using wealth to possess power, Tom also used his wealth to please people, “Here's

your money go and buy ten more dogs with it”(Fitzgerald 32). When Tom and Myrtle were on

their way to the city Myrtle expressed to Tom that she really wanted to buy a dog. Tom without

hesitation gave Myrtle enough money for not only one dog but enough for ten. Tom used his

extreme wealth to make Myrtle happy which as a reflection made him happy because it

strengthened Myrtle's want for him. Sjöström demonstrated how Tom used his mansion in East

Egg to be successful in terms of social standings and how others viewed him. Fitzgerald adds

that Tom also used his wealth to take advantage of others by offering to buy them things. Tom’s

wealth didn’t directly make him happy but the way he used his wealth to show his power over

everyone else and please people made him happy. Tom’s extreme wealth did lead to happiness

and success within his life because all he really wanted was to be above everyone else and have

power over them and his wealth allowed that to happen.

By the end of the novel, despite having achieved vast wealth, neither man succeeds. Tom

said to Nick “ If you think I didn’t have my fair share of suffering look here, when I went to give

up that flat and saw that damn box of dog biscuits sitting there on the sideboard I sat down and

cried like a baby. By God it was awful”(Fitzgerald 187). At the end of the novel Tom didn’t

succeed, he lost one of the women that he loved and cared deeply about. Tom used his wealth as

a way to attract Myrtle to him, for example in the beginning of the novel Myrtle was begging

Tom for a dog so Tom got her a dog. Even though Tom used his wealth to buy her everything

she wanted, they still weren't together at the end. Tom didn’t succeed because at the end of the

novel he was very depressed about the death of Myrtle and wasn't able to use his wealth to please

Myrtle anymore. Similar to Tom not succeeding at the end of the novel Gatsby also did not
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succeed. Nick states, “At first I was surprised and confused; then as he lay in his house and

didn’t move or breathe or speak hour upon hour it grew upon me that I was responsible, because

no one else was interested-interested, I mean, with that intense personal interest to which

everyone has some vague right at the end”(Fitzgerald 172). Gatsby was always the one looking

out for others and using his wealth in a positive way to help people or bring people together

through his extravagant parties, when he died Nick was really the only person who seemed to

care. Even Though Gatsby and Daisy reunited with each other in the novel and fell in love, as

soon as Gatsby died Daisy left and didn’t even try to come to Gatsby’s funeral. At the end of the

novel Gatsby didn’t succeed because he was now dead and could no longer be with the love of

his life Daisy. Fitzgerald explains how even though both Gatsby and Tom were successful in

terms of their wealth they were both unsuccessful at the end of the novel. Gatsby was dead and

could no longer be with Daisy, and Tom was depressed.

Gatsby wasn't successful just from accumulating wealth, it was the way he used his

wealth to attract Daisy in which he was successful. Tom on the other hand was successful from

his wealth because it held him at a higher level than everyone else and gave him power over

people. Although Tom and Gatsby both were very wealthy and had different views of success at

the end of the novel neither of them were successful. Gtasby was no longer alive so he was apart

from Daisy and Tom had become very depressed after Myrtle's death. The novel The Great

Gatsby demonstrates a contradiction of wealth and how for some being successful means being

wealthy and for others success has nothing to do with wealth and materialistic things.
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Works Cited

Callahan, John F. "F. Scott Fitzgerald's Evolving American Dream: The 'Pursuit of Happiness' in

Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon." Twentieth-Century Literary

Criticism, edited by Linda Pavlovski, vol. 157, Gale, 2005. Gale Literature Resource

Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1420061759/LitRC?u=mlin_n_newhigh

&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=ebce9cbe. Accessed 27 Nov. 2022. Originally published in

Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 42, Fall 1996, pp. 374-395.

Fitzgerald, F. S. (2003). The Great Gatsby. Simon & Schuster.

Sjöström, M. (2015, September 9). Location and class: A study of the significance of place and

social standing in Fitzgerald's the great gatsby. DIVA. Retrieved December 14, 2022,

from https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A850258&d

swid=-6407.

Trower, K. B. (2017, July 10). Visions of paradise in the Great Gatsby - volume 25, issue 1,

autumn 1972. Renascence. Retrieved December 14, 2022, from

https://www.pdcnet.org/renascence/content/renascence_1972_0025_0001_0014_0023.
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Skill Not Foundational Proficient Advanced

Yet
Identifies a topic Appears in first Thesis establishes a
paragraph complex claim

Thesis establishes a
topic and a claim

Comments:
Thesis

Includes two or Includes evidence Includes specific,

fewer sources from at least 3 meaningful, and
critical/scholarly well-chosen
Some evidence articles that clearly evidence that relates
relates to the thesis relate to the thesis to the thesis

Includes evidence
Evidence from the text to
support
understanding of
scholarly sources

Comments:

Summarizes sources Explains how Explains well-

evidence supports selected points of
topic sentence of comparison among
individual sources and
paragraphs evidence and their
connection to the
Analysis Explains how thesis
evidence supports
the thesis of the
essay
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Comments:

Little connection Explains how the Clearly explains

between texts; texts/sources are relationships among
difficult for the related, though texts (how they
reader to see how points could be confirm or challenge
the texts are related more selective or each other, build on
better developed each other, provide
Synthesis differing
Includes multiple perspectives, etc.)
sources in each body
paragraph

Comments:

Some elements Heading is correctly No errors in MLA

missing or some formatted format
errors in MLA format
Pages are numbered

In-text citations are

correctly formatted

Works Cited format:

hanging indent,
MLA Format double-spaced,
alphabetized, starts
on a new page

Works Cited: each

source entry is in
correct MLA format

Comments:

Shows evidence of Most quotes are All quotes are

basic proofreading correctly integrated correctly integrated
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Follows essay Shows evidence of

Conventions organization careful proofreading

Shows evidence of
proofreading

Comments:

Lily,
The structure of this essay works well, and I can see that you put a lot of work into this. It was a
tough one, and through our conversations I can see a significant improvement. I will say that this
is still work to be done in translating the general ideas you have present to more complex
analysis. This comes with practice, and deeper readings of the text. Going forward, I want to
encourage you to read and reread… specifically thinking about the implications and
characterization of each character in a novel. Once you’ve done this, it becomes clearer how they
tie into your thesis.

Grade: B