The Wolf Of Wall Street Analysis

Even though The Great Gatsby and The Wolf of Wall Street took place approximately sixty-five years apart, both books display similar themes such as greed, wealth, love, adultery, and corruption. Jay Gatsby and Jordan Belfort used illegal methods to build their fortunes; ones desire was greed, and the others was love. The Great Gatsby and the Wolf of Wall Street both utilize setting, conflict, and symbolism to prove that wealth and class don’t mean anything without love. One of the literary elements the books had in common was setting. The story of The Great Gatsby took place mostly in West Egg and East Egg on Long Island, New York. He not only made his money in New York “drugstores” selling illegal alcohol, he also bought stores in the windy …show more content…
The setting changes to Long Island where he finds a new job working at a small brokerage firm. This is where he founded Stratton Oakmont. After his company started to take off he relocated back to Wall Street where he lived a lavish lifestyle consisting of prostitutes, drugs, and alcohol. The settings both take place in various parts of New York; Manhattan, Long Island, and Wall Street. Another literary element used is conflict. Two main types of conflict used are internal and external. Gatsby’s main internal conflict arises when he thinks about his past. Before he went away to the war, he was too poor to be married to Daisy, his love. He has an unhealthy obsession towards her because unlike Daisy who has moved on with her life, the poor Gatsby has not. Gatsby involved himself in the illegal act of selling bootlegged alcohol, built his huge estate right across the lake from her, and throws huge extravagant parties in the hopes that one night he will face her and win her love. Gatsby is enchanted with the idea of being with his so called love that he refuses to realize that she is already long lost. Daisy has two significant conflicts. The first …show more content…
The Great Gatsby had a few important symbols which were strategically integrated into the books meaning. The colors portrayed numerous times throughout the book to describe Gatsby and Daisy are yellow and white. In terms of money most people would thing of gold, instead of yellow, or “fake gold”. This describes Gatsby perfectly. He isn’t in it for the money he is in it for love. Numerous items in the book were yellow including his car. In all it can be agreed that he failed to enter New York’s high society. White is another color portrayed in abundance throughout the book. Daisy wears white, her car is white, it is described in detail that the rooms in her house are white, and she uses the word white in many phrases. In many literary pieces white is a symbol of femininity, innocence, and purity but Daisy is far from that. When Gatsby passes away, she runs away, selfish and carelessly. Another symbol in the Great Gatsby is the green light. It represent the "unattainable dream," the "dream [that] must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it". The single green light was perched on the end of Daisy’s dock, and Gatsby would stand still and stare at it blinking through the fog during the night. The Wolf of Wall Street had one major symbol that I could point out. This was his car crashing towards the end of the book. The car crash easily symbolized his own destruction, his