Wealth Leads To Moral Decay

Wealth Leads to Moral Decay of Characters from The Great Gatsby.

In the 1920's The United States went through many changes as well did people, "Jay Gatsby, a farmer's son turned racketeer, whose ill-gotten wealth is acquired solely to gain acceptance into the sophisticated, moneyed world of the woman he loves, Daisy Fay Buchanan" (Poupard 146). That quote showing how Jay Gatsby gained his wealth.

This novel has many different types of people in it. There is Jay Gatsby, who tires to buy himself happiness. There is also Tom Buchanan who wants to buy happiness. In comparison to those characters, there are modern people, like Bill Gates and Michael Jordan. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, wealth leads to moral decay depicting the main characters Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, comparing then to Bill Gates and Michael Jordan.

In the novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby tries to buy himself happiness. He tries to make himself look extremely rich. Doing so, he has servants, and a huge house. In addition, he wears oddly colored suits. Gatsby also buys expensive to impress Daisy. He buys fine expensive clothes from England. "The significance of Eckleburg I not in his presence as an isolated symbol...Klipspringer" (Bennett 184). Gatsby has a vast amount of books in his library, and when Nick and Jordan go in they meet Owl Eyes. Here is what one writer has to say about him "I particularly enjoyed the man who takes the oculist's advertisement for the eyes of God" (Wilson 147). "It must be for such occasions as this. He began softly, his words having the effect...Good." (Bennett 184) He also tries to bribe her away from Tom. "One time he killed a man...glass" (Fitzgerald 65). Many people think that Gatsby is a German spy, who will do anything to get what he wants done. "I'm going to call up Daisy tomorrow...tea." (Fitzgerald 87). Gatsby thinks he can also win her over by buying many white flowers and sending them to Nick's house because he knows that Daisy is going to be there. Gatsby is also a highly educated man, "He's an Oggsford man" (Fitzgerald 76), even though he only went there for six months.

In the novel The Great Gatsby, Tom tries to buy himself happiness. Tom tries to buy Myrtle away from George. To do this Tom buys an apartment with Myrtle in which they throw parties. "Here's your money. Go buy ten more dogs with it" (Fitzgerald 31). Tom also bought Myrtle a puppy because they can't have a child together. In addition Tom buys here fancy clothes. This can show that Tom will do anything to get what he wants. This is shown threw actions that Tom does through out the novel, one of those actions is telling George that it was Gatsby's car that ran over Myrtle. Tom cheats on his wife, even when she knows he is. "Making a short left movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand" (Fitzgerald 41). That is showing that Tom is abusive to both Daisy and Myrtle. "Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite of eachother at the kitchen table..." (Fitzgerald 152). Toward the end after Daisy kills Myrtle using Gatsby's car, they plot together on how to blame Gatsby for it.

Bill Gates is very wealthy, and he is wealthy because he used his brain to create a program that most of us use today. Windows was a creation that made him one of the richest men in America.