Corruption In The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, certain characters were used to portray the corruption that was present in society during the 1920s. One of the characters was Tom Buchanan, an egotistical man who uses his wealth to exert power over others. Likewise, his wife Daisy Buchanan also uses her status to save herself from her own careless actions. Because of Tom and Daisy’s high social standing, both characters became blind to the consequences of their actions as a result of their privilege, revealing the carelessness that stems from living such a high life may lead to the harming of the lower class. As stated beforehand, both Tom and Daisy Buchanan use their wealth and social status to avoid the consequences of their actions. For instance, …show more content…
Throughout the book, Fitzgerald repeatedly illustrates the growth and spread of the Valley of Ashes through the eyes of Wilson to depict the effects of a corrupt society among the less fortunate. Stating how it is the place where “ghosts breathe dreams like air” (161), by using a simile to demonstrate the unimportance of dreams in the Valley of Ashes, one can conclude how nothing has changed within the attitude of the Valley of Ashes. This is occuring because of the static characters that are Tom and Daisy-- “they [retreat] back into their money and let other people clean up the mess they had made”(179). Nick reveals that they have done this before, especially after they left with the death of gatsby knowing that they are directly linked to that mess. Hence, the reason why the valley of shes has such a negative attitude and tone, they had lived this mess over and over again, and will until the elite class stop retreating back to their money as a safety net. In the moments before Wilson left he is described as watching “ashheaps…[take] on fantastic [forms]” (page number), hinting at how with the demise of Myrtle, and with every mistake the elite make,the valley of ashes tends to become more dark. And with the connotation around the word “fantastic” one can say that the lower class are the ones hurting the most from the carelessness of the

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