The Great Gatsby

One of the great ironies of life is that when one is young, he can't wait to grow up, but as soon as he is old, he just wants to be young again. The same immature and vain values that one has as a youth can hold true all through an individual's life. The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a love suck Jay Gatsby in pursuit of his beau from youth, Daisy, who is now married to the rich and arrogant Tom Buchanan. Gatsby and Tom are two men who cannot get the happiness life can provide because they are both so obsessed with social standing and wealth. The desires, wishes, and hopes one feels on a daily basis should change as one grows older. Gatsby and Tom, although sharing similar immature and shallow values, live their lives according to what their immaturity is directed toward, which is a focus on the women and possessions that they once desired. This leads to both Tom and Gatsby to focus on a past ideal instead of trying to better their future lives.

Gatsby and Tom both use their money to obtain material possessions that boost their social standing and show off their wealth. Just like the 16 year old kids in school in 2005 showing off their new Nikes, Gatsby throws lavish parties showing off his wealth and naively thinking that this will make people like him and more importantly win him Daisy. Gatsby has this notion that simply being wealthy it will get him everything he wants. Of course, Daisy is a woman who has an extreme affinity for money. Gatsby's realization of this is what drives him to show off his wealth. The values of Tom and Gatsby can be seen clearly in the houses that they own. Gatsby's house, "a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden" (Fitzgerald 9) clearly shows how grandeur and wealth were important to Gatsby. Tom's house on the other hand is the classic stereotype of the rich mansion. It is not as grand or castle-like as Gatsby's, and that is one of the key differences between Gatsby's obsession with wealth and Tom's. Both are clearly obsessed with wealth, but Gatsby has a need to constantly show it off and remind everyone how rich he is, while Tom simply has to live his life how he feels naturally, and his wealth comes out. Gatsby feels it necessary to show off his wealth in order to win back his love, Daisy, but Tom, who has already won Daisy's heart, can live his life like the wealthy man he is.

Although materialism is an immature thing valued by Tom and Gatsby, carelessness is an immature feeling that shows in both of their personalities. Tom's carelessness is best seen in his treatment of his mistress Myrtle. One night when Tom takes Nick to the apartment he keeps for his affair with Myrtle, Tom and Myrtle get into a heated argument about Myrtle's talking about Daisy, Tom's wife. Myrtle says, "'I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-' and making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with is open hand" (Fitzgerald 41). Tom does not have any care for Myrtle, and he does not care what happens to her as long as she remembers that the only reason she is part of his life is to be his mistress. Gatsby also demonstrates the same carelessness towards women with his treatment of Daisy. Gatsby says to Tom, "Daisy's leaving you" (Fitzgerald 140). Gatsby takes control of Daisy and tries to control Daisy's actions even when it is apparent that he has lost her. The difference between Gatsby and Tom's carelessness is that Tom has no care for the well being of the women in his life, while Gatsby's carelessness is found more in his inability to see that he has to move past Daisy and into the next chapter in his life, whatever that may be. Tom deliberately does not care about any women in the story leading to the destruction of the women around him

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things