Promises are made innumerable times per day to convince people that change is on the horizon. Unfortunately, these promises are given too often and too fruitlessly to contain any substance of truth: people cannot change on the basis of greed, but need a stronger force pushing their cause, such as the desire to better their lives. The same is true for the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby in that they all aspire to greatness but none are able to achieve. Whether it is Gatsby, Nick, or Myrtle; the desire to elevate in social class is thwarted by the predetermined families they were born into because their drive for change is based solely on obtaining a material end: not an improved lifestyle.

            Jay Gatsby’s materialism ensured that he would not be able to achieve his life long dream of becoming upper class. Gatsby, a man thought to be the holder of great power and lineage up until the latter part of the book, is found to be the son of, “unsuccessful farm people – his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all” (98). This, although a shock to everybody, gives rationale for his egregious behavior; such as his inability to make small talk and his fixation of material objects. It is not that Gatsby was being impolite when he kept car-rides with Nick silent, he just did not know better. This inherent quality, among others, prevent Gatsby from moving up in class and thereby thwart his goal of becoming an ‘old money’ type of man. Additionally, Gatsby’s desire for expensive material objects is not only for him to impress people with, but stuff he can buy with his hard earned money that he could not have afforded to have as a child such as a hydroplane and an army of butlers. If his strive for improvement were for the betterment of his life, he would have had a much better chance of achieving his goal, but he only has the big house and car to impress Daisy with, not out of lust, but out of greed. Also, the lavish parties are not to entertain people, but because he, “half expected [Daisy] to wander into one…” (79). He does not even want Daisy completely out of love, but to get securely into the upper class and to do this he feels he must convince her that he is already in that social class. It is this shallow behavior that essentially killed Gatsby, forever locking him out of the upper class. Although Gatsby lost his chance of moving up over a long period of time, it is not to say that this same chance cannot be lost in a shorter period of time.