Great Gatsby

Upon The Minds of Men

As we read "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scot Fitzgerald we can undoubtedly noticed the criticisms he has made towards wealth and the American dream. He has made us wonder and speculate whether or not the pursuit of wealth is entirely a noble aspect of life and that we should consider our values before we submerses our self in the waters of greed. As strange as it may seem, Fitzgerald criticizes elements of his own life to expose money's destructive influence on the individual as well as the corruption it causes upon the minds of men.

To begin, we must consider how money has corrupted the individuals in "The Great Gatsby". Toms is said to have been a handsome and athletic football player in his college years, and has now become and old bulky man with thinning hair and at times displays a sinister personality. "Tom Buchannan's wealth has rendered him cruel, arrogant, and immoral; he is driven entirely by power." (Lathbury 62) This exposes to us that Tom is a cruel and immoral individual because of wealth, and that beyond a doubt he has been persuaded and corrupted by the greed of money. On the other hand Gatsby is not as much of a boy scout that we are entitled to believe. Gatsby newly founded wealth, which has no foundation of any legitimate business, is portrayed throughout the book as a mystery. "Although this Gatsby is as obsessed with the girl of his dreams as nick believes, he also appears to be someone who is more intent upon his own objectives and more manipulative then Nick comprehends. This Gatsby is at once more sinister and more believably unbelievable, a true product of the Prohibition's criminal conditions." ( Pauly) . This shows us that Gatsby's involvement with bootlegging as well as other illegal business causes him to be engulfed with greed and power which distracting him from his main goal of winning daisy back. This all shows us that wealth can change and corrupt individuals and put them in a disillusionment no matter where they came from or why they wish to obtain it. In the end Fitzgerald says that obtaining wealth is a part of life that can change and most of the time destroy the moral dignities of man and give him a selfish and corrupted view of the world as if wealth was a disease upon the minds of men.

On the contrary, Most of the writing in "The Great Gatsby" is related to the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald from his growth to wealth and power to the love for his wife Zelda. The relationship Fitzgerald had with Zelda almost mimics the relationship Gatsby had with Daisy. "Like Gatsby, Fizgerald was an army officer when he first met his great love. Like Daisy, Zelda was beautiful and socially prominent but not rich. More crucially, she was a local belle whose reputation reached into neighboring states. Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald valued his inamorata because other did too. And then he lost her; she broke their engagement. After he won her back and married her; she almost slipped away again during the writing of the The Great Gatsby, when she was attracted to the aviator Edouard Jozan." (Lathbury