In the novel The Great Gatsby, by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, various uses of symbolism and motifs appear throughout the story and provide insight into the deeper ideas of the book. The homes of the title character Jay Gatsby and major character Tom Buchanan are examples of this. The previous owner of Gatsby’s home was a brewery magnate, and the man who owned Tom’s house was an oil baron. The effects of wealth on the current owners of these two houses have characteristics similar to the fluids that the previous owners worked with. The way that Gatsby’s money affects him shares some qualities with alcohol, whereas the effects that Tom’s money has on him have several traits similar to those of oil. How Tom and Gatsby act due to their wealthy status assist in presenting one of the overarching themes of the work; despite how captivating it appears have wealth from a distance, and no matter what method is used to gain it, wealth has harmful effects on both the wealthy themselves and the people that they come in contact with.
Jay Gatsby lives in an enormous, extravagant mansion resembling a castle that a wealthy brewer had constructed ten years prior to the events of the novel. Gatsby’s house is located in the West Egg area of Long Island, where the population is made up of mostly newly wealthy people. Gatsby is living the so-called “American Dream” after spending a period of his life striking it rich by smuggling grain alcohol as a bootlegger. The effects of Gatsby’s riches on himself and people around him are comparable to how alcohol causes self-destructive behavior and bad judgment in people when ingested in large amounts. Gatsby strived to gain his wealth in order to become high-class enough to be with Daisy, Tom’s wife who fell in love with Gatsby several years prior to the start of the story before she got married. Gatsby eventually lost it and became completely obsessed with Daisy, hosting large parties every night in the hopes that she might attend one. Main character Nick Carraway mentions “at high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam” (43). These were extremely lavish parties, and Gatsby only hosted them in order to show off his wealth in order to attract Daisy. Towards the end of the novel, Jordan Baker tells Nick “I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was so careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride” (184). Nick changed as a person through his interactions with Gatsby, and this can be compared to how alcohol can cause someone to become a careless driver. In the end, Gatsby’s money not only caused people around him to become careless, its effects on Gatsby’s mind resulted in his untimely death at the hands of George Wilson due to his involvement in the...
