Why Does Wealth Corrupt

In class this past week we have been looking at the similarities between two of F. Scott Fitzgerald's pieces: "The Great Gatsby" and "The Diamond As Big As The Ritz."  In both stories we follow people who are very wealthy and shows signs of their corruption.  In "The Great Gatsby," this is seen in many of the characters including Tom Buchanan.  Tom is a very wealthy man who is married to Daisy, but he cheats on her with Myrtle Wilson and is open about that with all his friends.  Gatsby himself is shown as corrupted when he is pulled over by a cop while speeding and an exchange happens between them that lets Gatsby off the hook.  In the other story, the corruption is even more prevalent.In the story, the Washington family has deceived the government surveys and even still has slaves all so that they can maintain their wealth.  Braddock Washington even accepts that he is corrupted and cruel, responding to the accusations with "Cruelty doesn't exist where self-preservation is involved."  Now we have to wonder why these people became corrupted and how the wealth plays into that.  I think the reason for their corruption is that with their wealth, the people feel they are untouchable and can't get in trouble for their actions.  Gatsby speeds and isn't the slightest bit worried that he will get in trouble even though he was performing an illegal action.  This is seen in the real world as well.  Many children born into wealthy families commit crimes and don't even seem to care because their parents know someone influential in the legal system or could easily just pay the bail and get their child out of prison.  In doing so, they are reinforcing their child's bad behavior by showing them that the negative consequences of their actions are negligible.  So it shows that wealth and power, even in the real world, fosters corruption due to making the person feel like their actions hold no negative weight towards others.

Why Do People Do Crazy Things

In class this past week we finished reading "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  By the end we learn a lot about the mysterious Jay Gatsby and his motivations.  The main part of the story is that Gatsby bought his house and throws so many lavish parties all because he hopes to reconnect with his past love, the now Daisy Buchanan.  Nearing the end, after Gatsby and Daisy have reconnected, Gatsby and Daisy are driving a car when Daisy accidentally runs over a woman who ran into the road.  Later, we learn that even though Gatsby didn't do anything, he is going to take the blame for the murder so Daisy does not get in trouble. Even after the incident, Gatsby waits outside her house to make sure that nothing happens to Daisy, even saying that he will wait outside "All night, if necessary.  Anyhow, till they all go to bed" (Fitzgerald 144)  He does this because he loves Daisy, but the love may not have been fully reciprocated because a little later in the novel, Daisy leaves her house in East Egg with Tom and doesn't return any calls related to Gatsby.  Ironically enough, Gatsby dies at the hand of a man named George Wilson who kills Gatsby because he thinks Gatsby is the one who killed the woman that he loved, the woman who Daisy ran over.  However, the woman that George Wilson loved, Myrtle Wilson, also did not love George.  The commonality between these two events is that the men did crazy things for the women they loved even though they did not love the men back.  The reason for their crazy actions is because of love itself.  At an evolutionary standpoint, love is just a human attraction to promote reproduction, but people are willing to go to extreme lengths to attain, preserve, or avenge their love of another person, even if the other person does not feel the same or it ending up with the situation turning out bad for them.

Why Do We Break From Tradition

Tradition is one thing that is deeply rooted within our society.  In class this past week we talked about the 1920's and specifically the emergence of Modernism.  Modernism is defined as a style or movement in the arts that aims to break with classical and traditional forms, and we were shown examples of this in an increase in the women's rights movement and people buying more luxurious items to show off their wealth like customizable curtains for your car windows.  This is shown in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" where Nick Carraway is living in a small house for 80 dollars a month in West Egg right next door to his neighbor Mr. Gatsby whose mansion rented for "fifteen thousand a season" and had "a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden."  When thinking about this, I wondered why this increase in luxury goods was seen as a break from tradition.  Human beings are evolutionary predisposed to "flex their wealth" as it tends to help them find a mate.  This isn't only shown in humans though.  Many other animals show this trait, like peacocks.  Male peacocks show of their bright feather, and this is why Milkman from "Song of Solomon" was attributed to the peacock for the majority of the book.  By the end of the novel, Milkman had bettered himself and broken away from material possessions, and this fact seems more like breaking away from human tradition.  In the end though, the existence of the wealth portion of Modernism may just be attributed to the fact that many new items were created and some at cheaper prices so more people were able to buy them. So maybe its possible that one tradition broken to create a new one for the middle class to "flex their wealth" instead of only the very wealthy.