Chapter 5 - Gatsby's Wealth

Hello!
Though there is no concrete evidence that Gatsby was not born wealthy, it seems we can agree, at least based on Nick's doubt, that Gatsby lies or exaggerates when he says "[he is] the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West" (65) and from them "came into a good deal of money" (65). We wonder, therefore, what was his ultimate motivation to pursue the wealth he presently possesses. I think that he was inspired to become wealthy not by the sparkle of materialism but by the pains of lovesickness, and by a naivete that told him to use his wealth as a crutch on which to snag Daisy. Gatsby's dream of Daisy is his own personal American Dream. I don't really think Fitzgerald necessarily means to "criticize the upper class' version of 'love'," as Adrian said [somewhere on this blog]. By stressing Gatsby's use of wealth, I think he means to criticize the general American, rich and poor, route to love, in all of its forms (romance, family, career, etc.). Fitzgerald does not call Gatsby a heartless or greedy rich man, for he is far from it--instead, the author asserts that Gatsby has simply allowed his desire for love (a representative of the general American desire for love) to mutate into a desire for wealth. Ever since young lieutenant Gatsby fell in love with Daisy, he felt the understandable yet irrational need to be socially superior in order to obtain her: "He wants her to see his house" (79); he assumes that well-kept lawns will please her; he hopes to attract her to his lavish parties so that she can relish in his expensive social life. He does not want to rely on wealth to obtain love, he simply sees no other way. He, like many Americans, has a warped take on life. He is dedicated and good-hearted, but silly, and can "[act] like a little boy" (88) in his infatuation with Daisy and thus, because of that infatuation, blind misuse--or overuse--of money. Gatsby is so obsessed with self-invention and reputation that he does not know who he really is, or how to obtain love without an outer shell of material appeal. Fitzgerald means to say that, while Americans may enter the country with dreams of family and art and romance, those dreams conform to a really rather vulgar need for money in order to obtain anything. American society is so centered around that one universal obsession that no other quality could mean as much, and that is no fault of any individual. Gatsby has only fallen victim to this corrupt American society, succumbed to an impossible, therefore, American Dream, and subordinated his desire for love to his desire to obtain money in order to get Daisy. Fitzgerald, then, believes that money has destroyed pursuits of all that may have once been possible without it. Fitzgerald may have lost faith in Americans, who "have always been obstinate about being peasantry" (88) and no longer find joy in that which costs nothing.