10 - Old and New Money

The modernist movement is a defining feature of the Great Gatsby, as throughout the novel we see many references to old money being compared to new money and its effects in the plot of the novel such as the aristocratic old guard rooted in the East Egg compared to the new and attractive West Egg. This idea of old and new money being in which how the rich acquired such money: by inheriting parental wealth or by becoming rich by your own means. This is shown in the setting of the story, the East Egg being home to Tom and Daisy people who inherited their wealth from birth, while Gatsby lives on the West Egg, as while he supposedly inherited a lot of money from his parents and ancestors, he had to reclaim his money in buying the mansion after the war. 

It is suggested in the story that new money is not achieved by inheritance, but accumulation of money, often in sketchy manners. Mr. Wolfsheim became wealthy by “fixing the World Series” while Gatsby said that he “was in the drug business” such a recurring pattern could mean that new wealth was only acquired such in sketchy manners and exploitation, and not by any honest doing. 

If such nuances are embedded in the novel? Then why is Gatsby wanting to meet the pre-modern Daisy? I don’t exactly know, but it could be of Gatsby’s loneliness which is causing him to devote so much to her, as his practices might have left him with a lot of money, but with nothing to spend it on. 

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