Greed
Excessive greed urges humans to focus on trivial elements of life that only offer ephemeral contentment, distracting them from pursuing meaningful aspects that will help them discover the significance of life. In 1900s, both Americans and foreigners moved to America in a staunch belief of American Dream, a romantic idea that so many opportunities are available in America that a penniless person can raise himself to the top with resolve and volition. People preoccupied their minds with material wealth, myopically judging that money will provide them with happiness. The bleak reality was clearly different from the quixotic expectations of American Dream, as citizens were not hesitant to resort to ethically questionable business practices such as horizontal and vertical integration and to engage in illegal businesses such as bootlegging as long as doing so yields ample financial revenues.
In his novel The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald implicitly criticizes Americans’ monomania with financial wealth by depicting the deterioration of the life of Great Gatsby as his desire to get in love with Daisy Buchanan, despite the apparent impossibility of its realization, escalates. Nick says at the end of chapter 9 that “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning —So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (189), suggesting that humans constantly pursue their dreams with an unsubstantiated optimism even though the dreams “recedes” before us “year by year.” By demonstrating with Gatsby’s life that the vision of dreams grow further and further from reality as one’s obsession increases, Fitzgerald imparts a grave warning to Americans that overestimating the importance of money renders their perspectives on the world extremely narrow and consequently precludes them from realizing that material properties itself cannot offer the meaning of life.
In his novel The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald implicitly criticizes Americans’ monomania with financial wealth by depicting the deterioration of the life of Great Gatsby as his desire to get in love with Daisy Buchanan, despite the apparent impossibility of its realization, escalates. Nick says at the end of chapter 9 that “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning —So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (189), suggesting that humans constantly pursue their dreams with an unsubstantiated optimism even though the dreams “recedes” before us “year by year.” By demonstrating with Gatsby’s life that the vision of dreams grow further and further from reality as one’s obsession increases, Fitzgerald imparts a grave warning to Americans that overestimating the importance of money renders their perspectives on the world extremely narrow and consequently precludes them from realizing that material properties itself cannot offer the meaning of life.
"We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet." -Stephen Hawking