Jordebrek 1
Noah Jordebrek
Ms. Conner
English II*
26 May 2022
Capitalism
The definition of capitalism is “an economic and political system in which a country’s trade
and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state”. Decision
making can be heavily influenced on your current wealth status, which has the possibility to go
one of two ways. Capitalism can drive yourself to live a certain way. Your lifestyle and ego can
be greatly dependent on your upbringing, or quality of childhood, depending on if you grew up
with wealth, which is called inherited wealth. A common theme is that characters who inherited
“old money” are more likely to be poorer in key life aspects. In the novel The Great Gatsby
written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, capitalism affects decisions, lifestyles, and materialism which is
portrayed through characters actions.
The wealth accumulated between characters causes reckless decisions, which leads to an
overall loss of all moral values. “In decision making under conditions of risk, people seem to
make risk-averse choices with respect to decisions in the domain of time in contrast to the
risk-seeking behavior often found with respect to decisions involving losses of money” (Leclerc
et. al). Money can lead to poor decision making under any condition; wealthy or not. Tom and
Daisy are key representations of making poor decisions, due to the lack of care they have for
objects that do not “matter” to them. In the novel, Nick says, “They were careless people, Tom
and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or
their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up
Jordebrek 2
the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 148). Nick explains how the Buchanan family commonly
makes corrupted decisions which ultimately falls back on their wealth, and poor judgment.
Decisions a person makes can shape yourself, and your future.
A lifestyle is heavily dependent on their surrounding influences, situations, and how you
handle the opposed situation. “One’s values and attitudes are influenced by child culture milieus,
youth culture milieus and multicultural milieus and we are also influenced by the media and
globalization” (Jensen). The Great Gatsby takes place in a time where industrialization and
globalization is at a rapid increase, thus posing a greater influence upon the characters. As stated
earlier, the Buchanan couple lives a careless life with minimal worry. In the novel, Nick says,
“His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed.
There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked – and there were men
