How Does Myrtle Change In The Great Gatsby

When Myrtle, Tom, and Nick are in a car driving, Myrtle notices someone with dogs and immediately wants to buy one, despite Tom having no attention towards it (27). This shows her materialism, as she seems to not care about Tom at all, she just cares about the money he has so she can buy things. Shortly after, Myrtle Is shown to be constantly buying things on the way to their apartment (28). This further shows her materialism and carelessness towards Tom. Since she is the lower class, she leans on people like Tom so she can buy expensive things and seem higher class, showing that she is

Everyone has fantasized about being rich and all the luxury that comes with it. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing of “The Great Gatsby” suggests how money ruins the lives of many. It ruins those who possess it and those who don’t. Fitzgerald explains through Myrtle Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan that money and materialism causes us to lose sight of our values and what is truly important. Myrtle Wilson is very desperate to leave the Valley of Ashes.

Her and her husband both live in a tiny apartment above their automobile shop. It is obvious that Myrtle wants to be rich, and wants to be able to be like Nick, Daisy, and Tom. Myrtle tries to achieve this dream through her affair with Tom. He has money, so if she is with him she feels as though she is rich. It can be seen that George Wilson is trying to improve his life, and make both himself and his wife happy, by trying to make his business more successful and make more money.

These show that even though she can't afford these finer items, she's willing to put her marriage in jeopardy just to try and live as she can. Thus, her dream of living a life of luxury is just impossible since she wasn’t given the same opportunities as others and sacrificed more than she gained. Myrtle was a bad person; she lied to her husband to live like a higher-class person, used other people's money to afford these items, and ruined her husband's life. Her greed led to the deaths of her husband and Jay

Throughout the literary work of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald spreads the message that to obtain the “American Dream,” you must be willing to sacrifice social status, economic achievement, and the pursuit of happiness. As the story progresses, Fitzgerald illustrates Myrtle and Daisy climbing the social ladder through relationships. When Nick and Jay voyage through the Valley of Ashes to pick up Myrtle, Nick exclaims, “With the influence of the dress, her personality had also changed” (Fitzgerald 34). Swiftly, Mrytle surrounds herself with the wealthy she switched her personality to match their social status. Likewise to Myrtle, Daisy also formed a relationship with Tom to improve her social status.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby begins with a quote from the narrator Nick Carraway's father, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one... just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.” (Fitzgerald 7), which serves as a thematic prelude to the narrative's exploration of social class and human relationships. Central to the story are Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby; a dissatisfied housewife, an abusive husband and a hopeless romantic. Despite being raised radically differently, the three share an obsession with wealth and status and a belief that amassing it is the key to life satisfaction. Fitzgerald cleverly uses his novel to criticize this belief, instead asserting that ultimately,

In the novel, Fitzgerald depicts the character Myrtle as someone who is pursuing a luxurious and wealthy life to the point that Myrtle is willing to give up her morality in trade for it. Being born into a family of the lower class and having a strong desire for money, Myrtle did not choose to earn the money through hard work but rather by having an affair with a married man- Tom, as a married woman. The detailed descriptions of the contrary between Myrtle as “Mrs. Wilson” who wears a “spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine” and “contain[s] no facet or gleam of beauty” (Fitzgerald 29), and “Myrtle” who dresses in an “elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon” establish a sense of dream and reality which thoroughly reveal her inner greed for wealth and to become a member of the upper class. Her sick desire for money that has completely taken

In her response, she briefly explains how she believed that Wilson would improve her life. Instead, Myrtle feels restrained in her marriage with Wilson and feels her only option is to have a secret affair with Tom. By entering into a relationship with Tom and trying to improve her social status, Myrtle is attempting to take control of her life and find some happiness. Clearly, this quote from Myrtle explains how women in the 1920s didn't look for true love, it was only about wealth. Another example is when Myrtle sees Gatsby's car driving past her house.

Myrtle is very stubborn especially when it comes to the guys in her life. The first occurrence of this during a fight with Tom Buchanan, her lover. He tells her that he does not want her to say the name of his wife, Daisy, and in response ignores him by repeating “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!

Myrtle is an imposter to herself as she pretends to have servants to seem wealthy in front of Nick Carraway when he visits: “‘I told that boy about the ice.’ Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders” (26). This shows how Myrtle tries to fit in with the wealthy by acting like other upper-class people. In this case, Myrtle talks about a nonexistent servant boy she allegedly orders to get more ice. She puts on a facade to look one way that is not her.

Before meeting the man who would show her what living with a lot of money was like, Myrtle was just a simple woman. Her life might’ve been very monotonous, but at least she was living a good enough life. Some might argue that money did bring her a lot of happiness and didn’t destroy her happiness, but that is wrong because her infatuation with living in riches is what causes her to die, destroying any happiness she could have ever experienced in the future. The narrator states in chapter seven that Myrtle while speaking to George Wilson exclaims, “‘Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!’ " A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting before he could move from his door the business was over.”(pg. 137).

She doesn’t one-hundred percent fit in anywhere. She is married to a low class man yet is a mistress to a rich man with a high class reputation that was once a well-known and notorious football player. She switches between classes just like she switches her outfits. 16. Myrtle behaves in such a superior manner towards her husband and in the city apartment because she wants to fell that holds a high class role.

Wealthy people during the 1920s were very careless and shallow. As the richer, they became the more they fade away from their morals. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, he writes about Gatsby’s destiny and how people during that society “helped” him. The only help that he got was people’s shallowness. Gatsby’s destiny was to have Daisy fall in love with him again by using his wealth.

The Great Gatsby is filled with symbols and signs of connection within key events and characters throughout the story and for the characters Gatsby and Myrtle their similarities are present . These symbols can leave readers feeling confused and excited. The characters in The Great Gatsby have mysterious presences and unknown pasts, which causes trouble for their future. One connection in the Great Gatsby is that Gatsby and Myrtle are similar in many different ways which could mean that F. Scott Fitzgerald is exposing these characters to readers to show how choices can affect you.

These people! You have to keep after them all the time" (Fitzgerald 35). Myrtle believes that acting like a snob makes her sound wealthy or fancy. Acting the way she does isn’t fooling anyone. She will still be poor and married to George in the end.