What is the Significance of Cars in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'?

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What is the Significance of Cars in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’?

‘The Great Gatsby’ is a book which very much revolves around money and the status of people within society who are aspiring to be seen as wealthy, important and well known in some way, whether for popularity, money, or in Gatsby’s case, mysteriousness. In the 20’s cars were becoming available for the wealthier classes, especially in America, and had numerous uses, and misuses, to people across the Nation. I can tell that cars were a very popular accessory when they are talked about. For example, it is said in the book when daisy says “Did they miss me?” and Nick replies, “The whole town was desolate, All the cars had the left rear wheel painted black as a mourning wreath.” This quote implies that cars played a great importance in people’s lives at the time.

   In a time when many people chose not to work for a living because of inherited or general wealth gained in some way rather than manual labour it was important for people to be able to show their status and good taste in as many ways as possible. Reasons for this could be for fun, for gaining popularity of another way for a rich, unemployed person to pass some time. Cars were a good and easy way for wealthy people to show off as cars were very new and exciting at the time.

   It is shown throughout ‘The Great Gatsby’ that the cars the characters drive tell a lot about their disposition and nature, and also about the taste or wealth they’d like to be seen to have. In the book, most of the characters were ‘noveau riche’, so as to say they had newfound money, so had extravagant and eccentric ways to spend their money. In the 20’s, people started growing, comparatively, very rich from this newfound money and wanted to spend it on crass materialistic objects, they wanted their car to reflect a personal image of prosperity.

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  Gatsby’s car is rich cream, whereas the impression I get form the book is that the uniform colour in wealthy New York in the 20’s is black. The reason I give for this difference in taste from the rest of his nation for Gatsby is to stand out and be recognised as the “epitome of wealth”, as his car is described. His reason for buying the car is rather obviously to convey his material success and prosperity, which he finds only natural. This part of his personality contrasts because he hides from guests partying in his own house or ...

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