While both characters are rich, it is implied in the novel that Tom has more money. However, at that time, what most people cared about was how you would get your money. Gatsby is still involved in organized crime secretly- meaning that he is technically working to keep his status.
Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. The character is an enigmatic nouveau riche millionaire who lives in a luxurious mansion on Long Island where he often hosts extravagant parties and who allegedly gained his vast fortune by illicit bootlegging during prohibition in the United States.
According to the Forbes “Fictional 15” of 2010, a list of the richest fictional characters by net worth, Jay Gatsby is ranked #14 on the list with an estimated net worth of $1 billion. However, GoBankingRates' investigation reveals that Jay Gatsby's spending on high-ticket items threatens his future rankings.
Nick describes how the extent of his wealth rather took your breath away . It has been entirely inherited – he doesn't work for a living and presumably never has. The description of him as Tom Buchanan of Chicago suggests his high status and sense of entitlement.
He is the husband of Daisy, the object of Jay Gatsby's desire. He is wealthy, and he likes to flaunt it: His family were enormously wealthy and even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach (p. 6).
Tom's family is rich. Really rich. Not well-to-do like Nick's family, and not nouveau riche like Gatsby, but staggeringly wealthy, with money going way back. (Or as far back as any money in America goes, anyway.)
Though Gatsby has always wanted to be rich, his main motivation in acquiring his fortune was his love for Daisy Buchanan, whom he met as a young military officer in Louisville before leaving to fight in World War I in 1917.
When Cody died, he left Gatsby $25,000, but Cody's mistress prevented him from claiming his inheritance. Gatsby then dedicated himself to becoming a wealthy and successful man.
Gatsby was born "James Gatz," the son of poor farmers, in North Dakota. However, he was deeply ambitious and determined to be successful. He changed his name to "Jay Gatsby" and learned the manners of the rich on the yacht of Dan Cody, a wealthy man who he saved from a destructive storm and ended up being employed by.
We are told that Gatsby came up from essentially nothing, and that the first time he met Daisy Buchanan, he was “a penniless young man.” His fortune, we are told, was the result of a bootlegging business – he “bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago” and sold illegal alcohol over the counter.
Nick Carraway's Background
Nick grew up in the "middle West," (what we call the Midwest), in a wealthy family that was "something of a clan" (1.5). His family made their money from a wholesale hardware business his grandfather's brother began after sending a substitute to fight for him in the Civil War.
After returning home from war, Gatsby purchases a 12-room mansion in West Egg, Long Island (West Egg is thought to be a thinly veiled stand in for Great Neck, LI). Lamm estimates that an estate like Gatsby's would cost $30 million today, even after the collapse of the housing market!
In his novel, money is divided into two types: new money and old money. New money is the fortune that self-made characters like Gatsby have. Old money encompasses the inherited money owned by Daisy and Tom.
Tom tells George that the car belongs to Jay Gatsby who lives in West Egg. George walks to West Egg where he shoots Gatsby in his pool, killing him instantly, before taking his own life. Gatsby is 32 years old. Of all Gatsby's high society friends, only one, Owl-Eyes attends Gatsby's funeral.
Gatsby grew up in an impoverished family in rural North Dakota. However, his path to success was neither clean nor legal; he participated in organized crime, specifically the illegal distribution of alcohol and trading stolen securities.
When Cody died, he left Gatsby $25,000, but Cody's mistress prevented him from claiming his inheritance. Gatsby then dedicated himself to becoming a wealthy and successful man.
Cody's Death
Off the yacht with one of his lovers, Ella Kaye, Cody mysteriously died. In his will, Cody had generously left Gatsby $25,000 (roughly $600,000 by today's standards), but Gatsby never saw a single cent of that inheritance. Somehow, Ella Kaye walked away with all of Cody's fortune.
Who got Gatsby's Money when He Died? The novel does not say who inherits Jay Gatsby's money at the end. By details that F Scott left behind, we can guess that either the inheritance would go back to his parents or other family members, but not to Daisy.
Gatsby reveals details of his and Daisy's long ago courtship. He was enthralled by her wealth, her big house, and the idea of men loving her. To be with Daisy, he pretended to be of the same social standing as her. One night, they slept together, and he felt like they were married.
Answer: In the Great Gatsby, Daisy vowed to wait for Gatsby, but after the war, she was tired of waiting for him. So in 1919 she decided rather to marry Tom Buchanan, a young man from a powerful, upper class family who could give her the rich lifestyle that she always wanted.
Gatsby's tragic flaw is his inability to wake up from his dream of the past and accept reality. His obsession with recapturing his past relationship with Daisy compels him to a life of crime and deceit.
Our introduction to Tom and Daisy immediately describes them as rich, bored, and privileged. Tom's restlessness is likely one motivator for his affairs, while Daisy is weighed down by the knowledge of those affairs.
Jay Gatsby
Gatsby is indisputably the most upwardly mobile character in this entire book. He starts as a poor soldier, and works his way up, making money, and eventually arrives at the top of society. He hosts weekly parties at his mansion. He desperately wants to earn the love of Daisy Buchanan, and very nearly does!
Some people desperately attempt to be something they are not. Myrtle Wilson is one such person. Through her involvement with the wealthy (and married) Tom Buchanan, she is able to play the role of a wealthy woman even though her real life is in no way privileged.