The Great Gatsby and its "Mean Money"
Personally this idea of money making people mean makes a lot of sense if you look at all the facts provided. Then, relating such a topic back to The Great Gatsby just proves Paul Piff's point even further. In this TED Talk, Paul Piff describes the effects of money on the human mind. Paul uses many examples of his experiments that range from simple board games to actual experiments out in the real world.
In The Great Gatsby, this can be most seen in Tom Buchannon. Tom is very arrogant and full of himself. He doesn't seem to care much for the likes of others, and seemingly has zero tolerance for that of anyone else's needs. Tom sees himself as the very top man in the world and doesn't see a problem with that. In Paul Piff's experiments, it is found that a provided advantage in societal wealth can result in rude behavior and a flaunting attitude towards anyone not in the same boat as you. Piff also experimented and proposed that the wealthier one is, the lower their feelings of empathy and compassion are. Tom Buchannon represents this perfectly, and to make it even more obvious, Tom here is old money. Also meaning that all of his cash was inherited. Therefore he did NOT work for any of his wealth or any of his belongings. Everything Tom wants in life is just handed to him, making him the arrogant jerk he is. Tom does not know how to struggle and work hard to get what he wants, so he just assumes that others will just bow down to him and his desires. These people like Tom Buchannon are in the top 1% of their society's economical wealth. However there is an unbalanced proportion of the economy's wealth considering that the top 1% has approximately 44% of the whole wealth of the society. Paul Piff observed that the more wealthy beings are less likely to help others or provide kind actions towards others, simply due to their arrogance. Paul Piff also came to conclude that the wealthier beings are more likely to cheat to get what they desire most. Primarily due to the fact that they are not accustomed to having to work for what they want. Jay Gatsby is a perfect example of this statement. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby was accustomed to a poor lifestyle as a child and achieved his wealth as an older man, therefore being new money. Most new money folk are less arrogant than that of old money folk simply due to the fact that they actually had to work to get their wealth and understand what it is like to struggle. HOWEVER... Majority of our "new money" folks aren't as humble as they are presumed to be. Jay Gatsby is one of our new money people that cheated to get what he wanted. He made profits off of an illegal product and made an unhealthy lifestyle out of it. This being the perfect example of Paul Piff's findings. All in all, Paul Piff's research stands to be correct in that of today's society, and that of The Great Gatsby's society. From simple board games, to real life interactions, the findings of Paul Piff can be seen everywhere in real life, and almost any novel. The Great Gatsby is one of the most perfect literary examples we have to prove this point to be correct. |
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