In other words, she takes it for granted. She marries a very rich man and automatically all Tom’s wealthy also become Daisy’s wealth. She makes a
Amber Baskett Mrs. Vincent AP Lang/ Comp (6) 29 October 2013 “The Seemingly “Great” Gatsby” The American Dream is not what it seems. In the 1920’s, the American Dream was nothing but an idea of materialistic wealth and objective pleasures. The desire for the American Dream represented the demise of America, where hard work and good ethics were abandoned for wealth and the good life. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who started out with no money— only a plan for achieving is dream. He is so blinded by his luxurious possessions that he does not see that money cannot buy love or happiness.
O’Banion also drugged his customer’s drinks so that when they would leave the club drunk, he and his friends could rob them. In 1920, O’Banion started a bootlegging operation. He made deals with beer suppliers in Canada and also gin and wiskey distributors. On December 19,1921, Dion was part of Chicago’s first liquor hijacking. His mob was now known as the North Side Gang where they ruled the North Side and the Gold Coast by eliminating all their competition.
Tom used his money in every way he could to impress the people around him. I think the way they got their money reflects in both Tom and Gatsby’s attitudes. Tom is from “old money” meaning he was born into a wealthy family and inherited it. Because of this, Tom is very shallow and has a rude personality. He does not care about other people as long as it does not affect him.
Daisy, the girl whose "voice was full of money," whose "inexhaustible charm"(127) derived from her status, is an ideal. The idealized woman is not real, and that is the very essence of her loveliness—she is perfect, and thus unattainable. Gatsby had "committed himself to the following of a grail"(156). This chase for an intangible dream propelled him to success but also led him to his demise. He set himself up for failure in dedicating his life to achieving an unreachable goal.
The combination of “shinning arrogant” negatively connotes that Tom embraces his persona to the full extent of his capabilities, which is a grave problem since he has inherited “old money” and is one of the richest people known throughout the story. It transcends to his relationship with Gatsby who is indeed poorer than him and how he would downgrade poor people. His mouth being “hard” also substantiates his “vast carelessness” and that the way in which he behaves towards people (in “a supercilious manner”) doesn’t matter to him. Nick’s intrusive narration comes to the forefront of the reader at this point. It leaves us almost, instantly compelled towards having a negative impression of Tom, and to connect, possibly making them conform to his attitudes, as well as others “ at new haven who had hated his guts”.
Although, he is not in love with the Daisy’s personality, he is infatuated by her looks. One could say that he is in love with the illusion of daisy. The idea of her still being the same girl he left behind before going to war is the idea he obsesses over. He does not realize that he can not just pick up where he left off. When he returned to his beloved Daisy, she had broken her promise and married a wealthy man as well as had a child.
He is an example of old money, and because he is so wealthy he decides that he can break all the rules and do whatever he pleases, like cheating on his wife. “‘Why -' she said hesitantly, ‘Tom's got some woman in New York. '” (19). Materialism has gotten to Tom's head and he believes just because he has so much wealth he can buy happiness with anything that he pleases. The last character, Gatsby, shows both materialism and spirituality.
The core ideals of the American dream come from self-reliance and hard work; Gatsby did almost the opposite while trying to reach his goal. He was not born into money, and didn’t earn his money in a noble way. “’A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know’” (Fitzgerald 107). During prohibition, Gatsby and his friends sold alcohol illegally to get rich quick. Tom Buchanan eventually picked up on this scandal, “’I found out what your ‘drug-stores’ were…bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter’” (Fitzgerald 133).
It so happens that Petruchio is looking for a wealthy bride and does not care about her behavior. Near the end of the play, Kate displays her submissive self through her monologue of how a woman should act around her husband. What’s ironic about the speech is that it isn’t docile at all. As she starts the beginning of her speech with, “Fie, fie! Unknit that threatening unkind brow”, it is amazing that she still holds that same authority, preventing the widow and Bianca from interrupting.