The Great GatsbyThe world is full of cheapskates, fakes and two-faced people. Many use others for their own benefit. In The Great Gatsby, through the theme of superficiality, Fitzgerald critiques the theme that displaying materialism and superficiality can ruin true love and any chance of achieving true love. Objects cannot define a relationship; it should be the developed feelings that define the relationship between two people. The characteristic of materialism is a barrier to true love between two people. Nick Carraway has just moved into West Egg and his mysterious neighbor is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby's long-held dream is to rekindle his love and relationship with Daisy Buchanan, currently married to Tom Buchanan. He attempts to continue his relationship with Daisy through his unexplained wealth. However, their love could not be true due to their focus on "things" rather than others. Gatsby tries to make Daisy love him through his money and excessive spending on non-essential things. When he and Daisy first renew their relationship, he takes her to his house to show the clothes in his closet: "He took out a pile of shirts and started throwing them, one by one, in front of us, shirts in transparent linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table with a multicolored mess. As we admired him, he brought more, and the soft, rich pile rose higher—striped, scrolled, and checked shirts in coral and apple green, lavender and pale orange, and Indian blue monograms. Suddenly, with a tense sound, Daisy leaned her head into the shirts and began to cry violently. (Fitzgerald 92). » Gatsby throws his shirts everywhere to show that he has a huge amount of money...... middle of paper ...... this motif of love is explored because it shows how people in this world use others for their money In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows that a materialistic mindset corrupts the chances of achieving true love. Gatsby tried to convince Daisy to love him again by showing his money and failed because he did not put his heart and self into their relationship. Myrtle mistakenly married a man she thought was rich and turned out to be poor. She soon tried to escape their marriage, but then had an affair with Tom Buchanan, a well-known wealthy man. Fitzgerald demonstrates that none of these relationships worked out due to the materialistic ways of these characters. Finally, this theme is explored because it proves how true love is not real with false values. True love should be between two people who love each other unconditionally and not based on money-oriented things..