Wealth, Happiness, and Moral Corruption in The Great Gatsby
This essay examines F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby as a critique of the belief that material wealth and emotional happiness are inherently linked. Through close readings of characters drawn from across the social spectrum — the nouveau riche Gatsby, the inherited-wealth Buchanans, and the impoverished Wilsons — the essay argues that Fitzgerald exposes this belief as a dangerous fallacy. Money corrupts without exception, breeding hypocrisy, shallowness, and moral decay. Only Nick Carraway emerges with his values relatively intact, and even he is driven to disillusionment. Fitzgerald ultimately presents the single-minded pursuit of wealth as incompatible with genuine happiness or ethical integrity.
- Introduction: The Timeless Question of Wealth and Happiness: Fitzgerald's novel questions whether wealth produces happiness
- The Corrupting Power of Inherited Wealth: Nick and Tom Buchanan: Contrasting moral responses to inherited privilege
- Daisy Buchanan and the Shallow World of Social Snobbery: Daisy's shallow values and hypocrisy exposed
- The Wilsons and the Misguided Pursuit of Riches: Working-class aspiration corrupted by materialism
- Jay Gatsby: Idealism Undone by the Wealth Fallacy: Gatsby's innocence destroyed by pursuit of wealth
- Conclusion: Fitzgerald's Indictment of the American Dream: Wealth pursuit leads only to decay and disillusionment
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What makes this paper effective
- The essay builds a unified argument by moving systematically through characters from every social class — inherited wealth, new money, and poverty — demonstrating that Fitzgerald's critique spares no one.
- Direct quotations from the novel are integrated smoothly and used as evidence rather than decoration, grounding interpretive claims in the text.
- The paper maintains a clear, consistent thesis throughout: the belief that wealth leads to happiness is a fallacy Fitzgerald exposes through every character arc.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses character-based textual analysis as its primary method — examining how each character's relationship to money reveals a different dimension of the same central theme. This approach allows the writer to build cumulative evidence for the thesis without repeating the same point, instead showing how Fitzgerald layers irony and hypocrisy across the full social spectrum.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a thematic introduction establishing Fitzgerald's central concern, then moves through four character groupings: Tom and Nick (inherited wealth), Daisy (social climbing through marriage), the Wilsons (working-class aspiration), and finally Gatsby (new money and idealism). The conclusion synthesizes these threads to affirm the thesis. This character-driven structure mirrors the novel's own social map.
Introduction: The Timeless Question of Wealth and Happiness
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a work that is timeless in its relevance because it questions whether the endless pursuit of wealth can ever truly result in happiness and peace. In doing so, the novel is as pertinent to society today as it was when it was first written. Even though the novel is set in the 1920s, the characters, emotions, and situations are so true to life that the novel acts as a mirror for its readers — one in which they can reflect on the images they see. Thus, Fitzgerald leads his readers into re-examining the very nature of humanity's search for Eden, which is usually motivated by a desire to seek material and emotional happiness.
The belief that material and emotional happiness are correlated has led humanity to search for an external Eden — yet, as Fitzgerald reveals in The Great Gatsby, this quest is nothing but a fallacy. Fitzgerald demonstrates the fallacious nature of the belief that the possession of wealth and social standing leads to emotional happiness by highlighting the corrupting influence of money on all economic and social classes, sparing none, in achieving the intended purpose of his work.
The Corrupting Power of Inherited Wealth: Nick and Tom Buchanan
Fitzgerald's intent leads to the assembling of a host of characters drawn from virtually all segments of society, which allows for a perfect unity of effect in establishing the fact that human society is governed by a social structure and culture that measures a person's worth largely by his or her material possessions. Such a culture leaves very few individuals able to escape from the tangle of lies and deceit that seem to inevitably accompany the world that money spins. Strangely, this includes people who are born with all the advantages of inherited wealth.
For instance, both Nick Carraway and Tom Buchanan do not lack for money, yet they differ greatly in character. Nick holds steadfast to his values while Tom abuses the power of his position. This is apparent in Nick's "staggered" reaction when he learns that Wolfsheim had fixed the World Series: "…one man could…play with the faith of fifty million people" (Fitzgerald, p. 78). In direct contrast, Tom Buchanan is portrayed as brutal and totally devoid of any morals, confident that the power of his money will protect him from the consequences of his actions.
Daisy Buchanan and the Shallow World of Social Snobbery
Tom Buchanan's worldview is also reflected in Daisy Buchanan, who has arguably gained wealth and social standing through ostensibly legal means. Gatsby's "golden girl" (Fitzgerald, p. 127), in fact, displays her dubious morals even before she acquires the prestige of being Buchanan's wife. After all, she gives up her love for Gatsby for the mere price of a pearl necklace. Both the Buchanans are portrayed as utterly self-absorbed and shallow people: "They were careless people…." (Fitzgerald, p. 187). Yet Daisy has the nerve to judge Gatsby's party as vulgar and offensive.
Indeed, the Buchanans are the caricature of social snobs who constantly look down on the have-nots and even the nouveau riche. All of these facts put together lead Nick to finally tell Gatsby, "They're a rotten crowd…you're worth the whole damn bunch put together" (Fitzgerald, p. 162). Fitzgerald thus highlights effectively the irony behind the fact that it is the Buchanans of the world who are held up to the rest of society as people worthy of respect and standing. Unfortunately, neither Gatsby nor Myrtle realize this, and ultimately both become victims of the world they aspire to in the mistaken belief that gaining entry will lead to respectability and happiness.
Conclusion: Fitzgerald's Indictment of the American Dream
Interestingly, wealth seems to be the underlying drive behind each character's decisions in the work, with the possible exception of Nick. But even in Nick's case, utter disillusionment finally leads to his turning his back on the high life and returning to the quiet of his Midwest home. Thus, Fitzgerald makes it crystal clear that the single-minded pursuit of wealth can only lead to the deterioration of values and, ultimately, to unhappiness.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1995.
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