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Colby Arel

Mr.Smith

Junior English

14 December, 2022

Pessimistic Portrayal of Wealth in The Great Gatsby

There is a large contrast in wealth in “The Great Gatsby” that gives many of the main

characters the ability to treat others with disrespect and push aside important wrongdoings. Such

a contrast in wealth gives characters such as the Buchanans an ability to live a carefree life with

no respect to those below them. There is a strong theme of taking advantage of lower class

characters that gets out of hand and leads to serious consequences for most of the main

characters of the story. The Great Gatsby is a pessimistic portrayal of wealthy Americans in the

1920s, as their actions are a consequence to the working class.

The wealth of the Tom and Daisy Buchanan results in carelessness that hurts lower class

characters while the Buchanans go on unbothered. Their actions reflect the wealthy people of

this time period as a whole who mistreated the lower class without remorse. Throughout the

novel, there are many examples of the careless actions of the Buchanans “Their class allowed

them to behave whichever way they wanted and get away with it without any consequences.

Daisy did not have to pay the price of killing Myrtle, Jay did. She moved away and continued

with her life like nothing happened.” (Šeda,17) after killing a woman and causing the death of

two others, a normal person would typically feel remorse and guilt. Daisy however goes on with

her life like nothing happened by getting back with Tom. Actions like these are common for the

Buchanans as their wealth allows them to push problems away and force others to deal with
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them. The carelessness of the Buchanans is exemplified multiple times throughout the story, this

is demonstrated by the way the Buchanans are described by their peers. The label of careless that

is put on Tom and Daisy is very common, so common that even nick shares the opinion and

states “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” (Fitzgerald 139) even people

close to the Buchanans, especially Nick Carraway, were able to understand and recognize the

careless tendencies of Tom and Daisy. Nick points out that their money and wealth is a key factor

in their ability to get away with their disrespectful actions. It is also implied by Nick that Tom

and Daisy are simple careless people by nature and not necessarily because of their wealth,

although the money makes it easy to do and get away with. The two pieces of evidence cite the

Buchanan's carelessness being due to social status and ability to use their money to cover up

their wrongdoings. Tom and Daisy are prime examples of characters whose careless actions have

consequences for those below them. Behind their ability to treat others with disrespect and push

their problems aside is their wealth and status.

Hidden behind the scandalous and extravagant actions of Gatsby and the Buchanans is

the lower class people that have to clean up the mess that is caused by the upper classes' poor

choices. A very obvious example of this is George Wilson and his wife Myrtle. George Wilson

constantly dealt with the actions of Tom Buchanan while his wife chased the dream of fitting in

with the wealthy. Myrtle Wilson desperately wanted to be accepted by the wealthy crowd which

is why “Myrtle behaves like a colonial subject. She seems to have internalized the same

colonialist psychology Tom has. But because she is on the lowest rung of the social hierarchy,

that psychology disempowers her and makes her especially vulnerable to Tom.” (Sameen, 5)
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Myrtle desperately wants to fit in with the wealthy and lead a similar life. In order to achieve

this, she acts as if she already has the riches that those around her do. She expresses similar

psychologies to characters such as Tom to further the persona that she is one of the wealthy.

Myrtle’s desperation to fit in, while actually being poor and from the lowest class, gives Tom the

ability to take advantage of her. Tom knows that if Myrtle argues or fights back against him, she

will lose her only connection to the wealthy world that she is so desperate to hold onto. While his

wife is off trying to fit in with the wealthy, George Wilson is repeatedly taken advantage of due

to Tom Buchanan seeing him as nothing more than a servant who does not have the brains to

defend himself. Tom repeatedly talks down to George and refers to him in many scenarios as

unintelligent including here “Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so

dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive.” (Fitzgerald, 22) this is a direct quote from Tom Buchanan, it

highlights his opinion and thoughts on George Wilson. Tom views himself as having a higher

understanding of the world than George when he refers to George as “so dumb he doesn’t know

he’s alive”. This is a very good example of how Tom feels about George and gives a good

understanding of why he treats George how he does. The pieces of evidence show the

perspectives that both George and Myrtle Wilson have on wealth and how it affects their actions.

Their status makes them both vulnerable to Tom Buchanan but in different ways. Myrtle is

reliant on Tom to hold onto the wealthy world that she so desperately wants to fit into. George is

deemed stupid by Tom due to his social status and therefore Tom treats him terribly. Both of the

Wilson’s are taken advantage of by Tom Buchanan. Their situations are examples of the power

that wealth holds in the relationships throughout the story.

The Buchanans are not the only characters in the story that use their wealth to get what

they want, Jay Gatsby uses his wealth to win over Daisy despite the source of his wealth being
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immoral. Throughout the story, wealth is a powerful way to get what you want. The Buchanans

are a prime example of this but even “Gatsby’s wealth, which he acquired through illegal means,

serves as a symbol of his desperate desire to win Daisy’s love and his willingness to do anything

to achieve that goal.” (Smith) Gatsby uses his wealth to pursue what he wants while disregarding

the immoral way that he went about getting that money. These illegal actions take advantage of

the lower class and others due to being an unethical way of achieving wealth. This is pushed

aside while the focus is solely on his pursuit of Daisy while the people that are being taken

advantage of are forgotten about. Gatsby wealth is a very good example of how wealth is

portrayed in the story and how it hurts the lower class. Nick Carraway sees it as romantic and

noble that Gatsby attempts to win over Daisy with money and riches but turns a blind eye to the

unethical ways of achieving the wealth that hurts others.

The actions of the Buchanans and Jay Gatsby show how the story is a pessimistic view of

wealth as their wealth enables them to treat others such as the Wilsons with disrespect and force

others to deal with their actions. Myrtle Wilson got caught up with the wealthy lifestyle and it

ended her life, while the Buchanans blamed it on someone else and went on with their lives. The

view of wealth throughout “The Great Gatsby” represents a lot of what life was in the 1920’s.

There were many very wealthy people who dominated headlines during the time period but at the

same time there were millions of lower class people trying to make it who were taken advantage

of by the wealthy. The Wilsons represent the working class people of the time period who had it

very rough despite the view of the time period being elegant and full of wealth.
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Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940. The Great Gatsby. New York :C. Scribner’s sons,

1925

Sameen, Humam Salah. “Analysis of George Wilson and Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby: A

Multi Theoretical Assessment.” The Criterion, Feb. 2018,

https://www.the-criterion.com/V9/n1/AM01.pdf.

Šeda, Lorena. "Women and Class in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby." Undergraduate thesis, Josip

Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2020.

https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:142:305982

Smith, J. “The American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.” Journal of American

Literature, vol. 34, no. 2, 2018, pp. 124-132.

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Works Cited

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

Thesis Comments:

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

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

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:
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Shows evidence of Most quotes are All quotes are

basic proofreading correctly integrated correctly integrated

Follows essay Shows evidence of

Conventions organization careful proofreading

Shows evidence of
proofreading

Comments: