F. Scott Fitzgerald and Myrtle Essay

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How does Fitzgerald express his opinion of class and money in the first half of the novel? Class and money are things people dearly wish to possess. People, especially in the 1920’s, sought after wealth and power to fulfill their “American dreams.” In Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts the insanity that comes with pursuing and maintaining one’s “dreams”. He exposes the rash and unpredictable behaviors that the characters express during their pursuits of happiness. In the first few chapters of the novel, Fitzgerald illustrates the elegance of the Eggs as well as the wasteland of the valley of ashes. In the valley of ashes, Wilson and Myrtle reside as a low-class couple that seem insignificant compared to Tom Buchanan, a resident of the luxurious East Egg. Tom travels to the valley of ashes to introduce Nick to Myrtle, who Tom is having an affair with. When they reach the automobile shop, Tom notices Myrtle, “her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet of gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering” (25). This vivid depiction illustrates Myrtle’s eccentricity and uniqueness of beauty. Fitzgerald shows Myrtle accentuate her beauty towards Tom because Tom represents the way to riches in Myrtle’s eyes. Due to the fact that Tom is of higher class, Myrtle will show of the only beauty she has in order to get at least acceptance of being Tom’s partner in pleasure. Fitzgerald focuses on Myrtle’s desperation to show that Myrtle solely believes that Tom is the only

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