Portalla 1

William Portalla

Mr. Pace

Juniors Lit And Comp

21 Wednesday, December 2022

The Paradoxical Nature of Wealth

The great gatsby, is a man, friend, and victim of the already-set future. It is a novel set in

the 1920s when the industrial age was booming, and alcohol ran wild. Wealth, the bridge that

linked all people, and society are broken up into two sides: new and old money. In The Great

Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald there is a paradoxical nature between the wealth someone has and

the success and person they are from it.

Even though Gatsby had enormous wealth, he could not cover up the lies and the person

he really was. When Gatbsy was showing off his house to Daisy and Nick for the first time

alone, Gatbsy slipped up and explained: ‘' It took me just three years to earn the money that

bought it.’ ‘I thought you inherited your money.’ ‘I did, old sport,’ he said automatically, ‘but I

lost most of it in the big panic – the panic of the war.’I think he hardly knew what he was saying,

for when I asked him what business he was in he answered, ‘That's my affair,’ before he realized

that it wasn't the appropriate reply. ‘Oh, I've been in several things,’ he corrected himself. ‘I was

in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I'm not in either one now."’

(Fitzgerald 90). Even though he had the money to do whatever he desires it couldn’t completely

cover up his story. As long as Gatsby kept his perfect figure there were still cracks in his defense

and he tried his best but his lies weren't perfect. He was susceptible to the truth getting out,

especially to people like Nick which he came clean to near the end of his journey. A similar idea
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is demonstrated when a writer for the union college course stated “Jay Gatsby however did not

earn his money in an honest way. He earned it by bootlegging alcohol, which as we all know was

illegal because of the prohibition of alcohol during the time of this book, and he also earned a lot

of his money from fake stocks”(Taylor). Gatsby had a very controversial job so he kept his

profession a secret. He understood his job and used his wealth and fame to cover it up with the

help of his parties. The book establishes and builds upon the idea that he understands the

immoral profession he has. While the article states the severity of his job in the time he lived in,

the prohibition and ban on alcohol make him seem like a man of zero moral values. Gatsby’s

money has helped him be whoever he wanted yet through the cruelness of the world he was

never able to really be the man he claimed he was. The paradoxical truth in Gatsby’s profession

is that all the people who go so far as to buy his alcohol and use it will still believe what he does

is wrong because of the circumstances of the time period.

Even though Gatsby had all the wealth he needed, his goals were not achieved. Nick

Buchanan, a man who knew Gatsby better than most, stated “I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when

he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this

blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did

not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city,

where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night”(Fitzgerald 180). Despite his

immense wealth, Gatsby is a lonely and isolated figure who is unable to find true happiness or

fulfillment. He is consumed by his love for Daisy Buchanan, but even this passion is ultimately

unfulfilling, as he is unable to win her heart or achieve the happiness he desires. Poet and editor

of the Sonder Script, Michelle Lauren, presents an observation on how Daisy uses materialism as
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a guide for her relationships: “Materialism is deemed a symbol of success, as many individuals

from the novel define themselves by the number of possessions at their disposal” (Lauren). Daisy

is very materialistic and believed tom could give her more than Gatsby could. She only cared for

what Tom has given her and where he's taken her. Gatsby was not able to achieve his goal

because the woman he loved was more in love with possession than him. Gatsby could not

achieve his dream because he was not rich enough. He could not provide the freedom and

lifestyle that Tom could for Daisy. Daisy is very materialistic and knew she'd rather be with Tom

than with Gatsby. Gatsby tried his best, but all of his actions were for one purpose, and he in the

end did not achieve his goal of running away and marrying Daisy. Nick explained at the end of

the novel, Daisy and Tom move from area to area and destroy everything around them, while

Daisy selfishly moves on to the next thing, benefiting from those around them until there's

nothing left. Gatsby was left dead, trapped in his own paradoxical love for Daisy, willing to risk

and use his life so that the woman he loves the most will have the ability to keep moving

forward. Gatsby was never going to be able to achieve his goal because it was already decided by

fate.

New wealth equated to success, but people were judged based on how they achieved their

fortune. During an argument between Gatsby and Tom right after Daisy left the room, Tom

exclaimed ‘"I found out what your 'drug-stores' were.’ He turned to us and spoke rapidly. ‘He

and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain

alcohol over the counter. That's one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time

I saw him, and I wasn't far wrong”’ (Fitzgerald 141). Even though Gatsby tried his best to live a

good life and provide for those around he was still judged for how he made his money. Tom is
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clearly using a tone in which he is trying to accuse Gatsby of being lesser. Gatsby has the money

but can't run from the path he chose to earn it, and the consequences that follow. This idea is

further produced when the writer Claire stocks from Philip Allen Updates claimed “while the

wealthy classes will take advantage of his hospitality, those like Tom who have 'proper' breeding

and inherited money will not tolerate his more serious efforts to enter their exclusive class”

(claire). Gatsby’s money shielded him from the people's rumors because his money gave him

power and a voice that overruled others, but even with that, he is still a man who has an illegal

profession. There have been rumors of who he really is since he earned his fortune. He was

embarrassed for people to find out so he kept it a secret, especially Daisy. If Daisy knew how he

had gained his fortune he wouldn't know how she would react. Each source deeply favors the

idea that Tom and others do not tolerate the profession of Jay Gatsby, even if he gives so much to

the community through parties and alcohol which they desire. He will never be able to use his

money to hide his occupation completely and so he is forced to try his best to succeed but in the

end, his wealth cannot save him. The paradoxical world that Gatbsy had to live in was due to the

people around him and the way he was treated. Gatsby had wealth, fame, and power yet he was

never truly able to succeed and so he was judged for what he chose to make money, judged by

the very people who used him.

In the end, Gatsby's wealth didn't define his success or achievements, it couldn't cover up

his lies and deception, and surely he was judged for his source of wealth, but that didn't stop him.

He fought till he was recycled back into the earth, Gatbsy was a true gentleman and didn't

deserve what he got. The world is a cruel trap created by those who are stuck in it, ceaselessly

chasing goals till those they friend betray them, and “so we beat on, boats against the current,
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borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 180).

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Works Cited

Lauren, M. (2018, August 4). Morality's debt: Analyzing idealized wealth in 'The great gatsby'.

Medium. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from

https://michellelaurenw.medium.com/moralitys-debt-analyzing-idealized-wealth-in-the-gr

eat-gatsby-14e3340c5f31#:~:text=The%20Great%20 Gatsby%20

explores%20how,of%20 possessions%20at%20the%20 disposal

Stocks, Claire. "'All men are [not] created equal': F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: Claire

Stocks illustrates how the narrator's bias towards this novel's hero is central to the critique

of belief in the 'American Dream'." The English Review, vol. 17, no. 3, Feb. 2007, pp. 9+.

Gale Literature Resource Center,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A158832066/LitRC?u=mlin_n_newhigh&sid=bookmark-LitRC

&xid=78370d35. Accessed 13 Dec. 2022.

Taylorj2, A. (2016, February 25). The Great Gatsby. A Novel View of US History. Retrieved

December 14, 2022, from https://muse.union.edu/hst226-wi16/the-great-gatsby-3/

West, C., & Fitzgerald, F. S. (2013). The Great Gatsby. Oxford University Press.