What do you truly have when you have everything?

F. Scott Fitzgerald in the book, The Great Gatsby(1923), implies that materialism is a destructive characteristic leading to a life lacking a true meaning. Fitzgerald supports his claim by ridiculing the sense of mystery behind Gatsby's affluence–no one knows who he is, what he does, or what he searches for in the beginning of the book, not even Gatsby himself. The authors purpose is to reveal how materialism can result in a meaningless life with insatiable desires so that society may no longer epitomize happiness inside wealth. The author writes in a cautionary tone to society in order to warn against the consequences in becoming overly absorbed in the dream that is wealth.

The statement "you don't know what you've got till its gone" has some truth to it, dealing with family members and other strictly irreplaceable items. However in Gatsby's case, he didn't realize that he didn't have anything until he actually had everything. While he was working to become rich and leaving his family to fulfill his dream of being rich, he lost sight of what he was truly doing. He was leaving those that cared about him, his family, for riches. Also, he didn't come back to Daisy as soon as he could because he was afraid she would reject him due to his economic state, again not realizing that if she truly loved him, it wouldn't matter. Through this and our socratic seminar in class, it can be concluded that materialism not only corrupts a person's morals, but also it corrupts and consumes their own purpose.