Od Money vs. New Money

In The Great Gatsby, money affects different people in different ways. For Gatsby, it means that he will finally have a chance at getting Daisy. But his money turns out to be somewhat of an obstacle in getting Daisy. Gatsby gained wealth to impress Daisy, he had what was considered "new money", and he tried to hide his wealth from people so that Daisy will not find out.

When Gatsby and Daisy first met, Gatsby was in the war and was very poor. He came from a middle-class family from the Midwestern United States. Daisy came from a wealthy family and because of the views of society, these two were not able to pursue their feelings for one another. Gatsby then dedicated his life to becoming wealthy so that one day he could possibly have Daisy to himself. He bought a gigantic house that appeared to be an imitation of the Hotel de Ville in Normandy. When Nick invited Daisy over for tea so that Gatsby would be able to meet her, Gatsby had Nick’s yard mowed, he sent over a fine silver tea set, and tulips to make Nick’s house look more ritzy. Every weekend, he threw huge parties hoping, that by some odd chance, Daisy might show up at a one of the parties. At these parties, he had the best of everything. He had bands that played music of the time, he brought in crates upon crates of fresh vegetables and other foods, and he had a large number of crates of wine and other alcoholic beverages. He also had the finest in automobiles for the time. He had a yellow Rolls-Royce limo that was extremely expensive and rare. All of this was to impress Daisy and evidence existed of this in that he never went out of his house during the parties. He let the people who wondered in party and have a good time while he watched from a room in the house.

Gatsby’s money is what is known as "new money." This is shown by the location of his house which is in West Egg. The "new money" was money that was earned through an occupation or some operation, whether legal or illegal. Gatsby earned his money through illegal actions with the mob. People who had "old money" received their money through their family as it was passed from generation to generation. These people came from East Egg and included in this group was Daisy Buchanan.

Gatsby tried to hide the source of his wealth so that people will not know the real source. He wanted to keep it secret so that Daisy would not find out and stay away from him. He wanted her to get to know him again first, before she found out the real source of his wealth. He told people that his parents were wealthy and that when they died, they left a large some of money to him. He actually gained his wealth through bootlegging alcohol and other mob activities.

Gatsby wanted to use his money so that he could impress Daisy and have things back to the way when they first met. In the end, he didn’t end up getting Daisy because too many things had changed.

Source
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