Money

Money. The assets, property, and resources owned by someone or something; wealth.

Does money make the world go round? Does it provide happiness? Is it necessary? Is it wanted? In The Great Gatsby, values such as power, greed, social hierarchy are displayed as influential elements within society. Each of these values are stimulated by the want for money. Jay, not only needed, but wanted enough money to mold himself into one of the wealthy. The power of money and the greed for more led Jay to the impression that money has the possibility to do anything.  On his path to power, the new, reformed Gatsby realizes that money is a bleak thing in comparison to time. When he tries to win back Daisy, he feels awkwardness and difficulty coping with the changes in Daisy’s life. Shocked by the fact she has moved on with Tom and given birth to a child, Gatsby feel uncomfortable and vulnerable. Although he has not come to the terms of Daisy’s betrayal or dead love, any reader may foreshadow the fact that Gatsby will be faced with the truth. On a similar trail, Daisy is a character that brought her social status higher by marrying advantageously; “as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society” (17). Despite knowing of her husband’s heinous actions, she chooses to turn a blind eye since she has nowhere to go. Although she is in a ‘relationship,’ she is swayed by the new money Gatsby possesses. Now intrigued by the wealth of Gatsby, she spends time with Gatsby. Blinded by money, Daisy is a character that is the definition of instability and greed.