Materialism In The Great Gatsby

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If we take a non-fiction book that was written in 1922, we might ask ourselves whether the book is relevant in this day and age. One such book was written by the author F. Scott Fitzgerald and it goes by; “The Great Gatsby”. The contents of the novel actually hold pretty valuable and relatable materials regarding materialism in today’s society. It also touches on the idea that people are not what they seem to be even if they say they are. This in and of itself is highly relevant because human behavior stays fairly comprehensible throughout history. Even though “The Great Gatsby” was written nearly a century ago, many of the themes it has can still be seen in today’s society. During the time the book was written, the economy was in a condition…show more content…
People were, and still are attracted to a higher class of living and everyone wants to be rich. Gatsby‘s character was defined through his extravagant house, clothing, parties and cars. When we look back at our current society, this particular aspect having to do with materialism has not changed much since the writing of “The Great Gatsby”. We are still obsessed with the newest and most expensive cars, tech, clothes, and music. Examples of these are as follows; Charger Hellcats, iPhone 7s, Nike apparel, and whatever pop music people are obsessed with. When people are so obsessive over materials, they can become untrue to themselves. We see cases similar like Daisy’s where a person will marry another person for the fact that they have a lot of money, and not because they love the person honestly. During the course of the book, Nick is introduced to many of Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom’s friends. He ends up learning a lot about their friends secret lives, but never really forms a relationship with anyone of them. The only person Nick maintains an honest relationship with is…show more content…
In fact, relationships between people on social media are much more shallow than they would be if you were to socialize with those people in real life. Just like how Nick surveyed the secret relationships among his friends, someone on a social media can learn about a person by surveying status reports casually. However, they would never truly know the person on a deeper level. To the average person who doesn’t know Gatsby’s true identity, he is an exceedingly wealthy and famous man, who ‘s come from a history of money and has lived the high life since the beginning. In reality, he was born as a poor farmer’s child and if the public ever found out how he attained all of his success and wealth, they would have a completely different perception of him. The biggest reason why Gatsby tries to create a fake persona is for the purpose of winning over Daisy. A perfect example of how people create fake personas of themselves is when people “Catfish”. What “Catfishing” is, is usually when a person creates a fake a fake dating profile to attract other people. This is a modern example of what Gatsby was trying to do to Daisy. He attempted to create a false persona in an attempt to attract her because he thought his poor and unsuccessful background would turn her
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