Money is the Root of All Evil 

Character narration skews readers’ opinions on other characters. Nick narrates through his own thoughts and emotions, which may exclude factual information. Nick’s observations about his friends are, however, not wrong. Daisy, although she tries to play the victim, is in her own way a malicious character by feeding into her obsessions of money and status. Daisy values money and status over a real relationship with love. Tom is a corrupt person in all ways, he is self centered, careless, shallow, and never feels remorse for anything.  Finally, Gatsby, the novel’s main focus. Gatsby is corrupted by money, status, and obsession, which leads to his tragic downfall. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” (1 Timothy 6:10 ESV). The theme of this novel surrounds the idea of materialistic greed which leads to the corruption of characters. 

Daisy is one of the many characters that is corrupted in the Great Gatsby. Her obsession for money and status worked against her in many cases throughout the novel. “She wanted her life shaped now, immediately—and the decision must be made by some force—of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality—that was close at hand.” (Fitzgerald, Chapter 8). Daisy’s corruption has been prominent throughout her whole life. As the novel develops, the readers learn that Daisy has always been motivated by status. When Gatsby first meets Daisy he reads her assumptions of his character. Gatsby feeds into her assumptions by presenting himself as the same status as her.  Daisy shows her selfish characteristic grow throughout the novel. “Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now, isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.’ She began to sob helplessly. ‘I did love him once – but I loved you too.'” Daisy never thought about Gatsby’s feelings, she only considered hers. “Isn’t that enough?” (Fitzgerald, Chapter 7). shows Daisy’s lack of emotion and empathy towards Gatsby’s feelings. 

Tom is also a corrupted character. He has no remorse or sympathy for anyone. Daisy and Tom’s characters go hand in hand. They often feed off of each other’s selfishness. He blames Gatsby for Myrtle’s death even though Daisy was the person who was driving the car. When Tom tells Mr. Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that hit his wife, he had no remorse or second thought of how Mr. Wilson would react.  He believes Gatsby got what he deserved “He broke off defiantly. ‘What if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to him. He threw dust into your eyes just like he did in Daisy’s, but he was a tough one. He ran over Myrtle like you’d run over a dog and never even stopped his car.’

“There was nothing I could say, except the one unutterable fact that it wasn’t true.” (Fitzgerald, Chapter 9). Tom is expressing his opinions about Gatsby, this is more to show the readers Tom’s personality in more specific detail. Tom, along with Daisy, often was described as careless. They had status, therefore, their actions didn’t mean as much to them. Nick notices the couples behavior as unacceptable, he expresses their insensitivity towards others then describes them sinking back into their money and status without a worry. 

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (Fitzgerald, Chapter 9). 

Gatsby, like the majority of the characters in The Great Gatsby, is corrupted by his money and obsession with his status. Materialistic items hold more of a value to him rather than the truth. He often changes his character in order to impress Daisy no matter the price of his actions. As the novel progresses, his character develops on a greater scale to evolve into the Buchanan’s despicable behavior.  Unlike the Buchanan’s, Gatsby’s drive didn’t solely revolve around money and status, he was only truly obsessed with the idea of impressing Daisy with the money that he didn’t originally have. ““Her voice is full of money,” [Gatsby] said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it.” (Fitzgerald, Chapter 7). Gatbsy makes an observation about the sound of Daisy’s voice, but he doesn’t describe it like most people would, he mainly focuses on the tone presented within her voice. Money. The novel focuses on many themes throughout the course of the book, but one is very prominent in almost every character. The theme of money, greed, and the love of materialistic objects shine through other themes revolving around morals.  “The Great Gatsby’s central theme tells us that materialism is the main source of moral downfall, distorted reality, and the society’s plutomania.” (The Theme of Materialism in The Great Gatsby) Gatsby changes the person he truly is in order to impress Daisy whom he truly loves. Daisy, being her character, solely looks at his status along with his money. 

Corruption is something that the world deals with on a daily basis, whether it is through bad people or money. Nick is correct in his observations that the characters of The Great Gatsby are corrupted in their own ways and ideas. The most common denominator of corruption throughout this novel is money and greed. “Money is the root of all evil.” The theme of materialism strikes hard in almost every character we encounter.