The characters in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are true examples of how moral vacancy is derived from wealth and higher social standings. This is can be proved by the lack of concern for ones significant other, monetary possessions and the carelessness of people of higher social standings and economic backgrounds.In the novel there are many relationships that take place, four of which take place within the main characters, Jay Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker. Tom and daisy have been married for approximately five years and since they moved East from Chicago Tom has been having an affair with Myrtle Wilson the wife of his supposed friend Geo ...view middle of the document...
With the majority of the character in the novel having exorbitant amounts of money that seems to have no end comes the avid use and desire of material possessions, Daisy even goes to the extent to show her daughter off as a thing that is not near that of s a person. In Tom and Myrtle's affair she treats Tom's money as if it were her own, spending it on what ever she desires at that moment in time. Such can be seen when they are about to enter the penthouse apartment in New York "Mrs. Wilson gathered up her newly acquired dog and her other purchases and went haughtily in." (33) Within the apartment there are previously bought "Town and Tattle" magazine all over and the living room is furnished with "tapestried furniture entirely too large for it so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swing in the gardens of Versailles" (33) The affair between Tom and Myrtle is broken up by her husband George finding the dogs diamond studded collar; which she also bought with Tom's money concealed in a brown paper bag. George Wilson is also the one who murders Gatsby because he thinks that it was Gatsby that hit Myrtle killing her, for it was Tom who told him who killed Myrtle, taking revenge upon Gatsby for having an affair with Daisy. The yellow Rolls Royce in which hit and killed Myrtle was truly driven by Daisy at the time, but the car belonged to Gatsby. During this time cars were just becoming popular and factory cars were normally made in black. Gatsby's specially made, yellow Rolls Royce displays his economic standing and his delight with material possessions. His fondness for monetary possessions is continually show thought the novel. Such as his hydroplane, library filled to the ceiling with books, the pink suit in which he wears regularly, his monstrous and ornate mansion, and the added servants for preparation for his lavish parties. As for the overly prepared parties Gatsby hires a full orchestra and in preparation, he also hires additional gardeners, maids and caterers. Crates upon crates of hundreds of oranges and other various fruits are brought into the kitchen to be made into juice for the events that would take place over the course of the weekend. Even though Gatsby is wealthy and enjoyed material possessions with anyone who surrounded him, those very same people, many of whom attended his lavish parties are unconcerned with anyone else but themselves unless they can provide them with some thing of value to them.At Gatsby's parties "the uninvited guests, intrigued by his ostentatious wealth, marched in and out of his home and contributed to his development of a fake reality that seems to verify acceptance into the elite society that he so desperately [desired to be included in]" (Chabon) Gatsby's funeral procession consists of only three cars. Nick is stunned that out of the hundreds of people who attended his parties only one person, whom is sim...
