During the 1920’s, when The Great Gatsby took place, wealth was one of the most dominant influences in their society. This was because everyone had the same dream of acquiring the status of “rich.” Money was an astronomically immense influence on the way people acted, especially the main character’s in The Great Gatsby, but everyone was impacted differently. Money shaped Nick’s desires, Daisy’s …show more content…
Daisy has always had the cream of the crop and she does not settle for less. In chapter four, we get an explanation from Jordan why Daisy is like this, “The largest of the banners and the largest of the lawns belonged to Daisy Fay’s house. She was just eighteen, two years older than me, and by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville” (Fitzgerald 74). This concise explanation of Daisy’s minor year's shows us she has never experienced anything besides wealth and the best, which in turn has affected her decisions. Because of her prosperous upcoming, she was expected to espouse into wealth whether she loved the man or not. This may, in fact, be the reason why she isn’t able to dote Tom like the way she does Gatsby. This was alluded at in the novel when Nick asked why Daisy and Tom haven’t gotten divorced, “‘You see?’ cried Catherine triumphantly. She lowered her voice again. ‘It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic and they don’t believe in divorce.’ Daisy was not a Catholic and I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie” (Fitzgerald 33). This brief excerpt from The Great Gatsby shows that Daisy hasn’t divorced Tom because of her faith that she believes in, but because of the things she believes are the most consequential. These things include wealth and status. Nick realizes this and understands why she lies because she …show more content…
Legally known as James Gatz, he was brought up very impecunious, but Gatsby did not accept this. Even as a kid he knew he was meant to be greater, so he had a plan. Gatsby had a lot of ambition as a young adult, but one of his main sources of motivation was a young, privileged girl, originally designated Daisy Fay. In his younger years, he pursued this girl and even had close relations with her at one time. During this time, Daisy had many advantages over Gatsby but she did not know this because he led her under false misrepresentations. This is shown in a narrative given by Nick, “However glorious might be his future as Jay Gatsby, he was at present a penniless young man without a past... So he made the most of his time. He took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously— eventually he took Daisy one still October night, took her because he had no real right to touch her hand. He might have despised himself, for he had certainly taken her under false pretenses… he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself” (Fitzgerald 149) Gatsby led Daisy on before he left for the war, because he was afraid if he didn’t he wouldn’t be deemed worthy of her by society. For this reason, Gatsby knew after he came back he would have to become prosperous and affluent because he thought they would marry after the war. To