“We live in a material world.” This quintessential Madonna quote from the song "Material Girl" identifies man's relationship with money. The world is not run by people, but by material goods and money. Since the inception of monetary means, the amount of money one possessed has dictated their status and marriage opportunities. Likewise, marriages can also center around money and are often arranged to be profitable. This was especially true in the Roaring '20s and in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. It is a story about social standing, wealth, and love in that time period that centers on Jay Gatsby and his affection for Daisy Buchanan, wife of the controlling womanizer Tom Buchanan. Their story is told from the point of view of the narrator and Gatsby's neighbor, Nick Carraway. In the novel Gatsby is a symbol of the opulence of the era and has no problem flaunting his enormous fortune. The people in the novel are defined by their wealth and consequently the true love between the characters manifests as the love of money. Gatsby was not born into a life of luxury. Originally James Gatz, an ambitious young man from Minnesota, was never happy with his position in the world. He refused to accept that his poor, peasant parents were his real parents (98), and his longing for a better life became a longing for money. When young Gatz met wealthy, elderly Dan Cody, he got a taste of the good life and was hooked from then on. He even changed his name to Jay Gatsby to create a new character that exuded wealth. His whole life was then based on money. Everything he did from then on was based on his lack of money and the status that came with it. When World War I broke out, Gatsby was drafted… middle of paper… everyone else around them. Money, and the love of it, is a fortress that allows them to weather the storm. This love may have no emotions, but it erases all sins and holds them together. In the novel The Great Gatsby Daisy is Madonna's "Material Girl". For her, "the guy with the cold hard cash is always Mr. Right." Daisy needs a rich man to win her over. She and many other characters fall in love with someone because of his money and fall out of love for the same reason. Anyone with "cold cash" wins Daisy's love, even temporarily, until a man comes along who has more or the right kind. The line between real, emotional love and love of money becomes so distorted that they become the same thing. As emotions fade, love becomes as cold and lifeless as money itself. Works Cited Madonna. "Material girl." Like a virgin. Sire/Warner Bros, 1984.