In roaring twenties : society's new obsession was money

After the great depression : focus on wealth and success

Money was a huge motivator in the relationships of the characters and the different outcomes

Highly materialistic :

• Daisy and Tom Buchanan

  • Daisy marries and stays with Tom only because of the lifestyle he can provide her
  • All their movements are supported by money
  • They moved to fashionable East Egg
  • Daisy left Gatsby because of his lack of money
  • Daisy starts an affair later with Gatsby after a very detailed display of his wealth (shirts from Europe for example)

• Myrtle

  • Has an affair with Tom Buchanan due to the privileged world it grants her access to
  • She desperately wants to seek for a better life
  • She is class-oriented which shows the emptiness of her heart
  • Wants to pass as rich, to be part of the higher class
  • Her death is sadly poetic : she spent her entire life acquiring material possessions and is then killed by her own desires

• Gatsby

  • His notoriety comes from enormous wealth
  • He was poor but through Dan Cody he became wealthy
  • He wanted to become rich just to charm Daisy who left Gatsby to marry Tom Buchanan
  • He lusts after Daisy as if she is a prize to be won
  • Hardly anyone shows up at his funeral : people were only attracted to his wealth and parties, not to the man himself
  • Crime partnership with Wolfshiem

The novel reveals how materialism is not actually a path to happiness

Money = materialism = misery, there cannot be a positive resolution when based on money