Materialism in the Great Gatsby Essay example

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“Money Changes Everything” by Cyndi Lauper illustrates the way people center their desires on material things such as money. The speaker in the song leaves the poor man, solely because he does not have money, for the affluent one: “I’m leaving you tonight…There was one thing we weren’t really thinking of and that’s money” (Lauper 1, 6-7). Like Cyndi Lauper, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the way people often center their desires on material things such as money in The Great Gatsby. Daisy falls in love with Gatsby, who is a poor man at the time, and when Gatsby leaves for the war, Daisy marries Tom Buchanan, who is a rich man, because he is “old money,” meaning he will always have the money and status to support Daisy. When Gatsby returns …show more content…
Overall, Gatsby’s purpose for giving Daisy a tour of his house is to prove to Daisy that she can love him now because he has the money to support her. This teaches Fitzgerald’s audience about the dangers of materialism so that they are aware of the consequences that can result from materialistic desires.
Fitzgerald warns his audience of the dangers of materialism by portraying the negative effects materialism has on both Daisy and Gatsby. Today’s society faces a similar issue in that many people yearn to become wealthy and well-known through their material possessions, but many of those people who become rich put their money to waste and wreck their lives. Rangers baseball star Josh Hamilton is a prime example of throwing away money and ruining his life because of it. When Josh was drafted into the major league and cashed his first big check, he blew his money on crack. Once league officials discovered his habit, Josh was thrown out of the league, lost all his money, and ruined his life. Gatsby parallels Josh by focusing on spending money to obtain material possessions to gain happiness, and not focusing on what he truly cares about the most, which is Daisy. In a similar way, Both Gatsby and the man in “Money Changes Everything” lose the love of their life because both women choose to leave them
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