Happiness Or Thoughtless The 1920’s was the ear of the prohibition, or the great alcohol ban. The prohibition was put in place in a dramatic effort to decrease the crime rate, but all it managed to do was increase crime rate because no one stopped drinking. The novel, The Great Gatsby takes place in Long Island and New York city otherwise known as West and East egg. Both of these places were home to some of the richest people living on the east coast East egg holding the old money crowd while West egg holds the newly rich. The main character in The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, finds himself moving into a small house on West egg, a house owned by the notorious Jay Gatsby. Nick then realizes that just across the bay lives his cousin Daisy …show more content…
Yet, while Nick Carraway is at the party he begin to see how thoughtless the richer guests are with their money. As Nick is leaving the party he comes upon two people arguing around a car, on states, “‘Back Out,’ he suggested after a moment. ‘Put her in reverse.’ ‘But, the wheel’s off!’ he hesitated ‘No harm in trying.’ he said” (Fitzgerald 55). The person who owns this car obviously does not care enough about his very expensive care to realize that trying to drive it with only three wheels will not only damage the car further but, will most likely lead them to needing a new car altogether. When the man states, ‘no harm in trying’ it proves that he is thoughtless with all of the money that he put into the car. Owning this car does not make him happy, it makes him thoughtless with how he spends it. Nick then begins to converse with another wealthy gentlemen when the man reveals, “‘I know very little about driving-next to nothing’” (Fitzgerald 54). This man is rich, so even though he knows, ‘next to nothing’ about driving he is not concerned for the wellbeing of him or the car because if he were to crash and destroy the car, he does not care because he can go out and buy another one. To conclude, when Nick first emerses himself into the wealthy community it is shown that the wealthy have a great deal of money and this leads to their thoughtlessness not happiness. In conclusion, as Nick Carraway experiences the wealthy community and Jay Gatsby it is shown that money cannot buy happiness, only thoughtlessness. This thought is thoroughly expressed when Nick first is introduced to the wealthy community and they do not care about what happens to them or their cars due to the fact that they know if they wreck their care, they can buy a new one with their