Paper 1 and Cover Letter
I chose this topic for my paper because I believe it is something that is overlooked in the book. Sure you notice the greed and importance of wealth but doing a deep analysis I believe is necessary. I noticed similarities in the book with the present day and the way society then and now prioritizes wealth. We see how it chipped away at the characters’ morals and I think we need to recognize and talk about it before it does the same to our society.
There were challenges with writing this paper such as breaking down kind of where it all began to go wrong for Daisy, Nick and Gatsby. Each being different and for Nick, nothing really went wrong for him, he just realized a lot from being in the West and East egg. Greed also was a challenge to kind of decode in this book, you would assume it only means for money but in fact there are moments people are greedy and yearn for another person. For example, Gatsby having greed for Daisy and ultimately being his demise.
My motive for this paper and argument is to shed light on the ways money and greed can negatively affect you and your life. If overly prioritized, you could essentially lose everything and the complexity of this I think is a very interesting piece of this book.
I think having the freewrites and peer reviews really helped me throughout this paper. I was able to write important things about the book and it allowed me to think more about the book/ analyze it. Peer reviews were also helpful as well, not just to see my peers’ thoughts of my piece but to read theirs and if I was confused on something I was able to clarify if I did it correctly or to see who else had similar thoughts of the book to me. The annotations in the beginning of the class also helped me to reimagine the book and have a deeper understanding of it. The last time I read the book, I had not understood the more complex meaning behind wealth, and the things greed can make you do.
Throughout the brainstorm, conference draft(which in my opinion helped me the most), and final revision I was able to build on my original view and idea of my argument. I also found more pieces throughout the book that relate to greed even if they aren’t money related. When I first brainstormed, it seemed to just be a part of the book I was intrigued with but the more I wrote the paper, I understood how greed can really eat away at you and now will be taking away good information to apply in my own life.
An interesting conclusion that I have is that if you allow it, greed and status will take over and you seriously could lose all valuable relationships in your life and be led to a very dark place.
I have learned throughout this that writing for a class doesn’t have to be impersonal or something you’re assigned with and not passionate about. I have been able to create a paper I am proud of and I feel gets across the point that greed can destroy you in more ways than one. I have also been able to take home information to use in my life and make sure I don’t make similar mistakes that these characters did.
I think you were very helpful with the whole writing process and I think the conference draft meeting definitely helped with developing my paper and hearing directly from you what I can change and make better about my paper. The least helpful to me or most challenging I’d rather say is finding evidence and cited sources throughout the book to apply just because I feel like I am bad at finding it in the book. I can recall pieces of the book and used many instances to write my paper. I just don’t recall the exact page it was on.
How Has Wealth Affected the West Egg?
The Great Gatsby is at first glance a novel about the interesting life of the high society of Long Island. Full of betrayal, illegal business endeavors, infidelity and deaths. After a closer look, it has a big emphasis on the changes status and money can have on people and relationships. This is the main drive for most of the characters. The greed drives them to disregard depth in relationships. Many characters in this novel allow wealth to have a strong influence on all of their behaviors, influencing them to choose money and status over people, and morals.
Wealth is a big focus throughout this book, it is hard to ignore with the money basically everywhere. Gatsby throws his elaborate parties full of high society people, extravagant decorations and glamour, unlimited food and alcohol, along with basically no etiquette. All for Daisy, which added the emotional undertone of the parties. These parties with high society exhibit the utopia sense of life the mass amounts of wealth give to those with money and status. “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” This connects to the way wealth can basically give you an alternate reality and clearly shows the divide between the working class society and the wealthy. Though through the glamorous parties, and drinks, depth and personal connections gets lost. The intimacy of a gathering essentially goes away, because his home is filled with largely materialistic people looking for a party. His parties are filled with hundreds of people, drinking and doing who knows what. “The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter.” This emphasizes the alcohol fueled environment that is Gatsby’s parties. Though he has the wealth he is ultimately alone, throwing these parties and the void still being there.
Daisy is another character that is seemingly unaware that wealth has had such a detrimental impact on her life and choices or Toms. Being in the wealthy high society that Daisy is in comes with certain expectations and people you are around, everyone is having affairs as we see in tom and myrtle’s relationship as well as daisy and gatsby. Daisy’s upbringing, and societal standards pushed her to look for wealth rather than love. Gatsby was unaware of Daisy’s true nature until chapter 7 in the book. “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me.” is an eye opening moment for Gatsby as he finally sees where Daisys priorities lie. By focusing on money and status, Daisy missed out on having real love. When Daisy ran over Myrtle because Myrtle thought Tom was in the car, Daisy lets Gatsby take the fall and tries her best to get away with it without accountability, which she does. She ran to start over again in a new town with Tom and their money. “But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them.” This quote from the beginning of chapter 9, shows the greed and selfishness of Daisy and Tom. She let Gatsby take the fall and she ran without a trace. This is a strong piece that shows the pull that money and wealth has on her.
Nick’s evolution throughout the novel is something I find interesting. When he first arrives in West Egg, he has not really a clue of the environment he was about to walk into. Whether it is new money or old, greed still crept in. “This is the first time I’ve been to one of these things. I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited – they went there.” Pointing out through Nick’s eyes, the chaotic and almost shallow nature of the parties and the people there. His first impression is his fascination and intrigue with the world he just entered. He became captivated with Gatsby and his carefree lifestyle/ guests. The closer he comes with Daisy and Tom, he begins to recognize the entitled attitudes they carry. As well as the obvious desperation Gatsby has for Daisy and the way it has driven his need to wealth. Really from here, it gets more obvious to him the moral decay gree and wealth has had on these characters. Once Myrtle died, he grew appalled by Tom and Daisys moral disregard and behavior. The lack of guests at Gatsby’s funeral is the final tell for Nick of how shallow and impersonal depth of wealth or greed fueled relationships. He shows this thought in this quote from chapter 9: “I see now that this has been a foolish dream. I had mistaken the environment for something it was not. The beauty of the world I had seen was nothing but an illusion.” This comes after he and Gatsbys spoke about the green light and the future he had hoped for, which was now realized a “foolish dream.” as he states above. I believe this perfectly exhibits his mind changing on the West Egg after his time there witnessing the heartbreaks, drama, greed and lies. Nick has had clarity and realization with how corrupt the east and west eggs are with their greed, and obsession with status. He leaves back to the Midwest reassured that the lifestyle is not for him.
Gatsby and Daisy had a chance to blossom on many occasions. If it weren’t for the greed and consumption of wealth(mainly by Daisy), some would say they had a chance. First meeting after Gatsby had reinvented himself and was at war in Louisville, Daisy was drawn to Gatsby’s charm. Soon after meeting, Gatsby had greed but not in the way you’d assume. He knew he wasn’t worthy of Daisy and her love, yet his greed for her led them to have relations prematurely. If they began on different terms and more pure relations, perhaps they could’ve really thrived together. Before the corrupt world of new and old wealth crept in. Sadly due to her social class and the way she was brought up, there were high expectations for her to marry wealthy and influential. Not just wealthy, but old wealth which clearly at the time, Gatsby was not. Before they could run off into the sunset and get married, we know Gatsby was sent to war and during their time away, Daisy married into the old wealth that was expected of her. Greed led her to the wealth and influence she was accustomed to. That leads Gatsby, by love or greed for Daisy, to become wealthy and try to get her back.Though not through normal and honest means for the most part. Wealth has a huge piece in their love story, mainly in breaking them up. There are many parts to the wealth and though Gatsby became wealthy, he did not have the old money and influence to live on the east egg, where daisy stayed. “I did love him once… but I loved you too.” This in my opinion perfectly describes Daisy. She loved Gatsby but during their time away, she grew to love the life of luxury and security she has with Tom despite their relationship being very broken and fake. Tom’s wealth and status are too important for Daisy and she’d rather have that lifestyle than the man she “loves”. Many could say that if when they met, Gatsby had the old money wealth Daisy was accustomed to, they would have had a bright future and blossoming relationship.
The importance of recognizing the way wealth can change a person is insurmountable. With too much focus on wealth and greed, your life could come down, as Gatsbys did that one fateful day basically because of his greed for Daisy. Especially in the current generation, I think the amount of greed that was around throughout the 20s has resurfaced. This is why I direct my paper more towards the younger generation, as I think it’s beneficial to be aware of greed and how it affects peoples lives if you allow it to get the best of you. By directing this at the younger generation, they can learn earlier the risks of greed.
Wealth has influenced these characters and their decisions in many ways. The love of it for some was too great that it held her back from being with her “love”. While some by being around it realized just how much they dont want or need that in life, so they can move back home after not finding what they thought they wanted. It drastically can change an individual and for some change you into a completely different person.
Work cited
“The Great Gatsby.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/topic/The-Great-Gatsby. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.
“The Great Gatsbybyf. Scott Fitzgerald.” The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Great Gatsby, www.gutenberg.org/files/64317/64317-h/64317-h.htm. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.
I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them.
In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.
“I keep it always full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things. Celebrated people.” He does this because I believe he was a lonely man who only wanted daisy but couldn’t have her.
Myrtle Wilson’s face seemed purposeless and inexplicable until I realized that her eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife. Myrtle, who is the woman who Tom was having an affair with, accidentally thought that Jordan was Tom’s wife so she was staring at her with jealousy
It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes. Yeah it begs the question of, “Does Gatsby really even love Daisy as a partner, or does he love how much of a prize she is?”