'Her voice is full of money,' he said suddenly" (The Great Gatsby, 120).
That's definitely one of my favorite lines of the novel: "her voice is full of money."
Matthew commented on one of my earlier posts to suggest that The Great Gatsby satirizes the attitudes of the wealthy. To some extent, I think that's true. The mentality and behavior of the wealthy characters in the novel are certainly . . . strange. Take the above quote. We know that Gatsby stole Daisy's heart under false pretenses -- he pretended to be someone he wasn't -- but why was Gatsby so attracted to Daisy? I don't think we can attribute their relationship entirely to money, but I can't help but think that if Daisy weren't so rich, Gatsby wouldn't have gone for her.
Gatsby places high value on wealth. "To young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world" (100). And Gatsby isn't alone -- Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Wolfsheim, and many other minor characters center their lives around money. Nick's tone throughout the story is occasionally sarcastic, and in general, he's critical of the rich mentality. "I disapproved of him [Gatsby] from beginning to end" (154). I agree with Matthew; to a certain extent, this novel is satirical, and the author wants to steer us away from the mentality of the wealthy.
Getting mentioned not once, but twice! Score.
ReplyDeleteI think that money does play a huge factor in this book. To me, I believe that Fitzgerald is attempting to demonstrate how money gives people the ability to live carelessly or without much worry. Daisy is a prime example of this especially at the end of the book when she neither sent flowers nor contacted Nick for Gatsby.
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