Myrtle started acting like a rich person just because of a material object. This is materialistic because Myrtle acts rich just because of a dress. Myrtle shows her materialistic qualities when she says “It’s just a crazy old thing; I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t care what I look like.”(pg31) This leads to Myrtle thinking of George in a materialistic manner in the next example. Because George didn’t have enough money to buy a fancy new suit for his wedding day he borrowed one from someone. When Myrtle finds out about this she gets mad at George.
* Janie has love for Joe but not so much after the year’s progress because of domestic abuse Joe does toward Janie to better himself and his status/reputation. Tea Cake * Tea Cake loves Janie for who she is and not her money. * Tea Cake protects Janie from everything and wants her to be happy with him. * “ She wished she had slipped off that cow-tail and drowned then and there and been done. But to kill her Tea Cake was too much to bear… Tea Cake… had to die for loving her.”(Hurston
This shows that although Daisy loved him she chose her family over him even though she wasn’t very happy with the decision. For many people money is an important aspect of life. Daisy found money and social status very important in order to keep her somewhat ‘happy’ by getting anything she wanted. Tom Buchanan gave Daisy lots of material things in order to do this. For example of page 74, it quotes that Daisy receives ‘a string on pearls’ the day before her wedding to Tom but also on the same say she also get a letter from her former lover Gatsby, gets drunk after reading it and has a moment where she hesitates about marrying Tom but after she sobers up she ‘squeezed it up in a wet ball……And walked out of the room, the pearls around her neck and the incident was over’ as it also quotes on pages 74 and 75.
In fact, they would do any sacrifice for them. In “The Necklace” Monsieur Loisel, en despite of his poor salary, wants to make his wife happy so badly that he offered all the money he saved up for a rifle so she could buy a nice dress instead ; to fulfill her dream to belong to the high society. For what she will put those in a drama for losing the “Diamond Necklace” that she borrowed to her friend. Then her husband will have to put everything things he has such as his honor to rescue his beloved wife. At the same time in “The Gift of the Magi”, Jim loves his wife so much that he will do anything to please her.
Lantin are oblivious to their actions , “ The Rocking Horse Winner” Hester was unaware of Paul gambling. Paul's gambling addiction was triggered by a will to satisfy his mother who reminds him that she is living an unlucky life because they have no money, believing he has luck he thinks he can satisfy his mother while at the same time stop the voices in his house “ I started it for mother. She said she had no luck, because father is unlucky, so I thought if I was lucky, I might stop whispering” ( Lawrence, 83). Paul embraces his luck by betting on horses at the derby and wins big money on his bets and only bets if he is sure about the winning horse “ we're all right when we're sure” ( Lawrence,82). While M. Lantins wife's has a different type of addiction an addiction that seems very strange to M.Lantin, her addiction to imitation jewelery.
She finds the courage to rise up above societies expectation that she stay in this marriage, and walks out: “S’posin’ Ah wuz to run off and leave yuh sometime” (30). When Janie runs off with Jody, she knows that society will not approve, but she does it anyways because she is after that feeling of lust and desire that she experienced under the pear tree. Jody makes Janie feel good, at least at first. He spoils her with the finest treats and he treats her like a true lady. Also, he was perceived as “socially acceptable” by most everyone; he was a prominent businessman and Governor.
Her popularity was often displayed by newspapers and magazines. Daisy, as she “seen everything and done everything” (Fitzgerald 22), she cannot stand the very thought of her throwing away her rich lifestyle and popularity by marrying Gatsby. As a “sophisticated” (Fitzgerald 22) woman, she knew that if she married a poor soldier like Jay Gatsby, he would not be able to support her lifestyle and she would not have the same view that the society has about her: a rich, aristocratic woman. Her actions proved that no matter where she went, “her voice [will always be] full of money.” (Fitzgerald 127). As the Beatles would say, money cannot buy love.
Really unpack the symbolic possibilities. Gatsby didn’t marry Gatsby because he was poor, and Tom was rich, in the simplest of terms. But when you delve deeper the problem for Daisy now is that her marriage with Tom is a failure, and a man she loves, rich beyond his means, has basically knocked on her door asking for her. I think Daisy sobs not only because now Gatsby is a class above her, but she know they can never be together. She comes from one social status the wealthy, sophisticated community of West egg.
She never wanted to be poor, and enjoyed buying frivolous objects. “The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out” (Fitzgerald, 35). It upset her greatly that George Wilson (Myrtle husband) was not able to purchase his own suit.
Beauty is a gender role pushed extremely hard toward women. To be the right size, and shape and have the “perfect hair” is a pressure most men don’t feel. I blame this completely on gender roles. Most men don’t care about the shade of red lipstick a women is wearing, or notice when she flips her hair a different way, yet it’s what makes a women feel beautiful? In the story a gift of the magi, one whole paragraph is dedicated to the main character- Della’s- worry about if her husband will still find her attractive, even though she cut off and sold her hair to buy him a Christmas gift.