Major Paper - Essay on Crazy rich asians and the great gatsby PDF

Preview

Summary

Essay on Crazy rich asians and the great gatsby...

Description

Chow 1

ELA Literary Focus 40S with Global Issues 40S March 4 2019

The Significance of Wealth in The Great Gatsby  and Crazy Rich Asians The lifelong pursuit for wealth is a common ideology shared amongst the population. Wealth symbolizes power and access as it grants an individual a higher social class. However, social class also affects an individual’s morals and behaviour as this is seen in literary works such as Crazy Rich Asians  by Kevin Kwan and The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. In Crazy Rich Asians, wealth is prominent amongst the community in Singapore and compares and contrasts the behaviours between the wealthy grooms family who is amongst the top ten wealthiest families in Asia, and the bride who is a middle class earning economist from New York. In The Great Gatsby wealth is a tool wielded by Gatsby and used in an attempt to reunite with Daisy. In both The Great Gatsby and Crazy Rich Asians  wealth acts as a standard that needs to be met to allow access into exclusive groups, it also acts as an escape hatch to real world problems, and furthermore it symbolizes the key to affluence and fortune, although both novels suggest that wealth is not the key to happiness. Wealth is a standard that needs to be met in The Great Gatsby a s it is a requirement in order for Jay Gatsby to impress Daisy. Five years ago prior to Gatsby’s acquisition of his enormous amount of wealth, he was in a relationship with Daisy. Gatsby was still employed in the military however, causing him to temporarily end the relationship when he went overseas. When Gatsby was deployed to fight overseas, his absence caused Daisy to move on and get married to a wealthy man named Tom Buchanan. Upon return Gatsby tried very hard to gain

Chow 2

Daisy’s attention back and therefore he made a fortune selling alcohol illegally as well as owning a chain of drug stores. Gatsby worked very hard for his wealth and chased the American Dream as opposed to Tom’s wealth which is a “contradictory force to Gatsby’s hard-earned money” (Lindberg 8). With the acquired fortune he threw infamous mansion parties in hopes that one day Daisy would stop by. Gatsby strongly believes that Daisy would only accept him if he was rich because she was born wealthy and was married to a wealthy man. Also from her appearance Gatsby describes her voice as being “full of money” (Fitzgerald 105) and compares Daisy’s persona to a “golden girl” (Fitzgerald 106). When Gatsby invites Daisy over to his mansion he impresses her with a collection of the finest clothing and it is seen that Daisy gets emotional over them when she “bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.” (Fitzgerald 117-118). When Daisy is seen to cry over Gatsby’s display of wealth, this proves that Gatsby managed to reach Daisy’s standards. Gatsby was born in a family of poor farmers and pursued wealth after meeting Daisy as she represented everything that Gatsby needed to acquire to be happy. To obtain wealth “Gatsby does what he has to do to get money, which means that he doesn’t have morals or do virtuous things to succeed. He is a bootlegger and a criminal and makes no mention of moral improvement; his goal appears never to be more than success, material success. Which is proving that Gatsby buys into the ideas of money buys happiness because he yet again thinks that he can buy Daisy’s love” (Snyder 6). This inspired Gatsby’s chase towards the American Dream and wealth. Similarly in Crazy Rich Asians , wealth is seen as a requirement in order for Rachel to be accepted by Nick’s family. Rachel Chu was born and raised by a single mother, who for security reasons left her husband and moved to the United States of America. A love relationship

Chow 3

eventually arises between Rachel and Nick, and Nick invites Rachel to Singapore for his best friend Colin’s wedding. Upon arriving in Singapore, Rachel meets the Young family for the first time and realizes the amount of wealth and power they have. The other rich women in Singapore is seen to chase and follow Nick around constantly seeking his attention. Since they all belong in the same social class as Nick, it is expected that he would marry one of them. However, Rachel does not behave like the women and is not considered within their social class. The Young family knows all the wealthy families across Asia and when Nick’s mother Eleanor did not recognize Rachel’s family name, she was not accepting towards Rachel. The Young family viewed Rachel as unworthy of marrying their “prince” (Kwan 205). Eleanor shows her inclination towards wealth by being concerned and paranoid that Rachel is only dating Nick for his money. She proceeds to hire a private investigator to research Rachel’s background to deem her worthiness. Her findings exposed Rachel and tainted her family. Eleanor makes it her mission to sabotage Rachel and Nick’s relationship by publicly denouncing Rachel. Eleanor berates Rachel by saying “There is a Hokkien phrase 'kaki lang'. It means our own kind of people, and you're not our own kind” (Kwan 373). Rachel is not wealthy nor famous, because of her social class she is unaccepted by Nick’s family and is the victim of their harassment. Rachel symbolizes love and compassion, and values those qualities over wealth. Rachel’s personality is seen to be the opposite of Nick’s family where she is not snobby nor finicky. Each character in Nick’s family is seen to be spoiled and each character has an odious personality trait. Their self interest in wealth and power surpasses their moral standing. For instance, Eleanor is crafty, snobby and does not trust Nick’s choice of girlfriends. She imagines that she can manipulate his decision by sending girls to lure him. In this regard, she does not consider what

Chow 4

Nick might like and what would contribute to his happiness. Furthermore their family’s spoiled personality trait also renders them to be ungrateful. This is seen when Eddie, Nick’s cousin, is always ungrateful for not owning a nice house or having his own private plane. He is discontent with what he owns and wishes he could have the wealth that the rich people possess. Eddie feels that he is “extremely deprived compared to most of his friends” (Kwan 10) because “He didn't have his own house on the peak” (Kwan 10). Rachel on the other hand is content with her life and she is satisfied with her social status. As a university professor she already has enough money to support her expenses as well as support her mother. Rachel is not seen to fall in love with Nick for the money as Eleanor suggested. She was not aware of Nick’s fortune prior to their trip to Singapore and she generally fell in love with Nick because of his personality. Rachel’s personality differs from the other girls in Singapore because she does not care about social class. Nick is also different from the other guys in Singapore as in Singapore “Every man cheats. This is Asia. Every guy has mistresses, girlfriends, flings on the side. It's a normal thing. A status thing” (Kwan 125). Throughout the novel Rachel makes up for her lack of wealth with her personality instead and utilizes this to show Eleanor that wealth isn’t the most important aspect. Wealth does not only introduce a new social class, it also acts as an escape hatch to real world problems. In The Great Gatsby , wealth symbolizes power and protection. Tom and Daisy are seen to be the main characters that epitomize this theme. Daisy was the sole cause of Myrtle’s death when she accidentally ran her over due to her upset mood from an intense quarrel between Tom and Gatsby in the previous scene. Tom contributed to the cause of Gatsby’s and George’s death when he claims that “damned coward… didn’t even stop his car” (Fitzgerald 141). George was manipulated by Tom and sought out revenge towards Gatsby by shooting him

Chow 5

and then proceeding to shoot himself. At the end of all this it is ironic to point out that the innocent victims were all dead, however those who contributed to their deaths remained alive. Tom and Daisy did not suffer any consequences, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy they smashed up things and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together” (Fitzgerald 136). They do not need to worry about consequences, their social status allowed them to let the officers and others to “clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 145). Tom and Daisy abused their social status and allowed innocent people to fight over their mistakes. They used their power to protect themselves and thus did not suffer any consequences. Wealth represented an escape hatch in The Great Gatsby  by granting protection and power, however in Crazy Rich Asians it represents a solution to solve emotional dilemmas. Despite the Young family’s tremendous amount of wealth, many characters in their family have emotional needs they use money to resolve. For example, Astrid Yeung, Nick’s cousin is a model with a beauty that is well known across Asia. Her significant other, Michael is having relationship affairs with other women causing Astrid to be in emotional distress when she found out. Instead of finding solutions to her marital problems she convinces herself that it is normal for her husband to cheat on her as it is a “status thing” (Kwan 125). Astrid’s emotions however, are not be suppressed. Dhe uses money as an escape hatch to suppress these emotions and escape from her real world problems. Astrid is seen to buy a “three hundred and fifty thousand dollar diamond ring” (Kwan 15) and a “eighty-four thousand dollar pair of earrings that made her look like Pocahontas” (Kwan 15). It is shown that Astrid “didn't much care for” (Kwan 15) the items that she purchased and only wore these pieces of jewelry a few times before disregarding them,

Chow 6

as she only bought them to satisfy her emotional distress. Wealth is seen to act as an escape hatch for Astrid in that she utilises her fortune to buy her way out of grief. In The Great Gatsby wealth symbolises the key to igniting a relationship between Tom and Daisy as well as Gatsby and Daisy, however it was not the key to their happiness. Tom and Daisy’s relationship is built on the foundation that Tom is filthy rich and Daisy is attracted to that lifestyle. Daisy does not seem to fall in love with Tom and is not truly happy because deep down Tom is seen to be a arrogant, racist and overbearing person. Also Tom does not cherish his relationship with Daisy, although he claims to be in love with her, but from time to time he will “go off on a spree and make a fool of myself,” (Fitzgerald 251-252) suggesting he had affairs. Their relationship grants Daisy a lot of money and a wealthy lifestyle but “ Daisy’s character highlights the idea that money does not necessarily equal happiness” (Lindberg 10). Daisy also insinuates that her lifestyle has become dull and repetitive as she cries out “What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon, and the day after that, and the next thirty years" (Fitzgerald 157)? Daisy has come to terms that there is more to life than money and without excitement, passion or love in life it becomes boring. Another example suggesting that wealth is not the key to happiness is the time period prior to Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship. When Gatsby acquired wealth and had his mansion built in West Egg across from Tom and Daisy’s household in East Egg. Gatsby used to throw very large parties in hopes that one day Daisy would come. Gatsby’s parties were legendary as they went from “ nine in the morning and long past midnight” (Fitzgerald 72). However, as Gatsby had the most inticing lifestyle filled with partying and fame, he was not happy as he desired love and wanted to share his lifestyle with Daisy. Eventually Gatsby did win over Daisy, but the end of the novel suggests that he did not die happy and his death was in fact

Chow 7

sad and lonely. In the end “Gatsby failed to achieve his American Dream” (Snyder 15). It did not matter how much money he had or how much materialistic items he gained, in the end he never got Daisy back and he takes the fall for the death of Myrtle. Gatsby’s death is ironic as he was known as a man who was always cheerful and threw parties that would attract crowds of people. But in the end, his funeral was completely empty and no one knew Gatsby, they only remembered him based on the parties he threw. Even with all the money in the world, happiness cannot be bought and wealth is not the key to happiness. Identically in Crazy Rich Asians , Kevin Kwan also suggests that wealth is not the key to happiness through Nick and Rachel’s relationship. The majority of Nick’s family despises Rachel and bullies her because she is not vastly wealthy. The Young family has deemed Nick the heir to their fortunes which means that he was going to inherit most of the family’s money. However, Nick’s grandmother and mother gave him an ultimatum forcing him to either give up Rachel or the money. Nick would rather decide to give up all his wealth than to lose Rachel. Nick is warned and told that “every treasure comes with a price,” (Kwan 75) and whatever his decision was would cost him greatly. Nick still chooses Rachel as there is no price on their relationship and near the end of the novel Nick realised that “true happiness came not from wealth, but healthy relationships” (Kwan 539). Wealth is defined as the abundance of money however wealth symbolises many ideas. In The Great Gatsby wealth was a prerequisite that Gatsby needed to obtain to attract Daisy, it also served as a symbol of protection, and finally was the key factor that revealed that wealth did not grant happiness but filled life with boredom. In Crazy Rich Asians  wealth was a tool used by the Young family to discriminate against Rachel, it was also used as a cure for emotional distress,

Chow 8

and lastly inspired Nick to have an epiphany to realize how meaningless wealth was, and happiness was not achievable without love. In both The Great Gatsby  and Crazy Rich Asians, wealth was able to grant the characters social class, protection, power, relief, and everything they could have wanted, except for happiness.

Chow 9

Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The G  reat Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.

Kwan, Kevin. Crazy Rich Asians. Anchor Books, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018.

Falth, Sebastian. “Social Class and Status in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.” Social Class and Status in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, 23 Nov. 2013, www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:667768/FULLTEXT01.pdf.

Lindberg, Lovisa. “The American Dream as a Means of Social Criticism in The Great Gatsby .” The American Dream as a Means of Social Criticism in The Great Gatsby , 2014, gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/38269/1/gupea_2077_38269_1.pdf.

Snyder, Liamarie. “Buying into Money Equals Happiness Fails for the Characters in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.” Buying into Money Equals Happiness Fails for the Characters in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, 2012, fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=english_seniorseminar.

Wulick, Anna. “Money and Materialism in The Great Gatsby.” Money and Materialism in The Great Gatsby, 14 Feb. 2018, blog.prepscholar.com/the-great-gatsby-theme-materialism-money.

Wong, Sau-ling Cynthia. Reading Asian American Literature: from Necessity to Extravagance. Princeton University Press, 1993....