Money: Crime and Great Gatsby

Jonathan Marshall Ms. Herring English 11 – Great Gatsby Essay 3/27/13 Period 5 Dark Side of Money There's only one thing that truly rules our world that we live in today. It's what pretty much everybody strives for, and it's the only reason why people want to be successful. Some believe it brings happiness and joy. This â€Å"thing† is a necessity for life; it's money. Money is what makes the world go around. It is the one thing that each and every person on Earth wishes they had more of. However, what most of these people don't realize is that money is also the root to all evil.The book â€Å"The Great Gatsby† portrays this theme in a lot of different ways. This negative idea towards money consists of jealousy, unequal power, and murder; all caused by money. In the same ways and more, money is the root to all evil in our own society as well. Many crimes occur with some sort of direct relation to money. Although everybody strives for more money, not everybody spe nds it wisely or legally. Unfortunately, the book â€Å"The Great Gatsby† and these real life examples are true depictions of reality and everyday lfie.Robberies are often committed in our own communities because of individuals seeking money. There are many examples of this including the â€Å"Luger Bandit† in Los Angeles whos has robbed many banks recently. The latest case was on March 10, 2013. He simply walks into a Wells Fargo bank with a gun, makes the costumers lay on the floor, and forces the employees at gunpoint to put money in his bag. Soon, this man will be arrested and thrown into prison. This kind of action will affect many of his family and friends.These robberies can easily turn worse by the pulling of a trigger. Any unfortunate person that was at the wrong place at the wrong time could die. This would mean that that innocent individual died just because of a man's criminal pursuit for money. Another type of criminal activity caused by the pursuit for mo ney in our community is when someone steals from another. An example of this is when two women were robbed at gunpoint in their home in Indiana. Those two women are now scarred for life and will never be able to forget this horrific event.Once again, lives are damaged dramatically by criminals looking for money. It's evident that the power of money often drives people to commit evil crimes. This power of money is demonstrated in â€Å"The Great Gatsby†. Gatsby draws alot of attention to himself because of his wealth. Alot of people look up to him, and want to have the amount of wealth he has. In order to get this money, Gatsby got involved with the mob and organized crime. So Gatsby risked his life by making criminal decisions so he can become wealthy.Money influenced Gatsby to make these decisions with his life, which clearly shows that money is truly the root to all evil. There are multiple cases when people with wealth tend to be more selfish and stuck up. Tom and Daisy in â€Å"The Great Gatsby† can be examples to this idea. Nick explains to us towards the end of the book that Tom and Dasiy are careless, and that they leave messes behind and count on others to fix it for them. If they didn't have the amount of money that they have, they wouldn't be able to do this. Tom and Daisy would appreciate things more, instead of being selfish.The money is obviously the cause to their attitude towards others. A real life example of this is when a wealthy individual has a hired maid to clean up after them. The maid's job is to clean up any mess that this person or their family makes. This type of case shows that wealthy people tend to be more lazy and have less responsibilities because they have other people to do it for them. Without all that money, they wouldn't be able to do that. They'd have to clean up and have the same amount of responsibilities as the average person.These examples from â€Å"The Great Gatsby† and real life definitely repres ent society in general, because crimes are committed everywhere all the time in search for money. According to statistics, 20 banks are robbed every day and 45 houses are broken into every hour in the United States. With the percent of poverty and unemployed people in need for money increasing, I don't see these rates dropping anytime soon. If anything it could get worse. Our society is simply doomed, we have no hope. On the other side of the story, the people with money spoil themselves by spending it the wrong ways.Alot of wealthy people choose to go to bars, stripclubs, and prostitution houses. It may be legal, but they're still unwise decisions. Also, the amount of drug abuse continues to increase. In fact, the rate of illegal drug use rose last year to the highest level in nearly a decade. How do people recieve these drugs? They pay for it with money. Without all that money, they wouldn't be able to afford those illegal drugs. It is clear that we can't really do anything to avo id these problems in our society.It'll continue to happen no matter what. Money is very powerful, it rules our world. It tends to control people and take over their minds. This shows in stats of crimes and what those people, lucky enough to have money, do with the money. Impatient people who aren't satisfied with the amount of money that they already have attempt to take the easy way out by robbing banks, houses, cars etc. The wealthy individuals make unwise decisions and become lazy because of the money. There's no doubt, money is the root to all evil.