Write me a thesis statement

Question

Can you write me a professional thesis statement

The prompt: How do wealth and power affect the characters in The Great Gatsby

Answer 1

Mariah,

A thesis statement is a bit more than a tutor can give you! However, we can always help you get to thinking about these types of questions. :)

Assuming you read the Great Gatsby, I am sure you already understand how wealth and power affected all the characters.

Take Gatsby himself as the prime example. In a way, the wealth and power he accumulated made him entirely delusional! He kept thinking that he was going to win Daisy over with his newly acquired wealth and power. She was already married! The book is set in the 1920s! And her husband is wealthy as well! Does Gatsby think that a woman who cares about money and power is going to reduce her standing in society by going through a divorce? Even if we reduce Daisy to a stereotypical gold digger who ONLY cares about wealth and power, it still does not make sense for Gatsby to think that she will leave her husband for him- because her own husband has plenty of wealth and power himself. Moreover, her own husband comes from old money- unlike Gatsby who is lavishing in new money. Old money has a power that new money cannot buy because people respect old money.

It's too simple and not worth our time to discuss here how Tom is a bit of a bully and how his wealth and power contributed to that.

But what about how wealth and power affected Daisy? I don't like to reduce Daisy to a stereotypical gold digger. Is is possible that Daisy truly loved Gatsby, but wealth and power pulled them apart (through little fault of her own)? Daisy grew up wealthy- all her friends and family were naturally wealthy. If she had married poor, it would separate her from everybody she's ever known. Obviously she could not have known that Gatsby would eventually become wealthy. Considering this, the affects of wealth and power on society seemingly pulled Daisy away from her true love. I have a lot of sympathy towards her. It is not her fault that society is set up so that the rich and the poor can never mingle as easily and as often as people of the same class.

It seems therefore that wealth and power hurt all the characters in this book in differing ways.

Hopefully reading my little brainstorm here helps get you started on pondering this question yourself and writing up your own perfectly brilliant thesis statement! :)