Love vs. Materialism in the Great Gatsby Essay

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Love Vs. Materialism
The Great Gatsby does not offer a definition of love, or a contrast between love and romance. Rather it suggests that what people believe to be love is normally only a dream. America in the 1920s was a country where moral values were slowly crumbling and Americans soon only had one dream and objective to achieve, success. Distorted love is one theme in the novel The Great Gatsby, present among all of the characters relationships; Daisy and Tom, Tom and Myrtle, Daisy and Gatsby, and Wilson and Myrtle, though Myrtle does not return the love. This distortion illustrates that it is not love that leads several characters to death, but lust and the materialistic possessions that really drive the characters to their lonely …show more content…
The Marriage between Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan is also an entire disappointment. With the war separating Daisy and Gatsby, his absence is one of the reasons she decided to wed Tom. Tom and Daisy’s marriage further illustrates this distortion of love as it was based entirely on their shared obsession with material goods; the money, the houses and the lifestyle. Nevertheless, the main reason Daisy married Tom, was because of his materialistic values.. The marriage the two ‘lovebirds’ have is really based on convenience – not love. This is evident in several occasions throughout The Great Gatsby. For example, while Daisy was giving birth to their first daughter, “Tom was God knows where” (Fitzgerald, 1926). Thus, there was a plain lack of emotion on Tom’s part to be entirely unconcerned with his children’s birth and as the birth may have been inconvenient, it did not concern him. This reiterates that their marriage was not founded upon love and deep emotions, rather material possessions. Furthermore, Tom’s secret affair with myrtle only happened three months into the marriage, this shows how loyal Tom really was to his wife. After reuniting with Daisy, Gatsby begins an emotional affair that seem possible to him, and he makes it possible as he is ‘extremely rich’. “Daisy is a materialistic that can be lured by money:” (Faculty, 2009) When Gatsby and Daisy first reconnect, she shows only
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