Puzon 1

Gabbie Puzon
Professor Kufs
English 115
2 December 2016
Morally Bankrupt
John was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. One day, on his birthday, his parents
decide to have all his favorite food preparedfried chicken, cheeseburgers, spaghetti, and every
possible dish a little boy would eat. John, in his excitement to gobble up the food, tries to take a
huge bite of his chicken. However, the chicken is far too seasoned for little Johns liking, so he
spits it out and tells his parents that he dislikes the food. His parents are alarmed that he would
spit out his favorite food, so they come to the conclusion that the chef must have botched up the
recipe somehow. Eventually, Johns parents decide that the chef has to be fired; after all, they
cannot risk their precious little boys safety. All the while, John carries on idly, unaware that his
little chicken fiasco just cost someone elses job.
How unfair.
Though the story above is a bit extreme, it perfectly encapsulates how society functions
behind its mask of progressive equality. At its core, society values those on top and treats them
like an endangered species, while those at the bottom are forced to hold the weight without
receiving anything in return. Like little John, most of the ones on top do not realize just how
much of a domino effect their actions are to other people. Both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Adam
McKay in The Great Gatsby and The Big Short, respectively, exemplify how the term idle rich
is not just a mere metaphor. In their works, they show just how the upper class actions, in their

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selfishness, recklessness, and inability to care, cause major repercussions to those under them.
The sad part is that most of the time, they get no karmic retribution whatsoever.
The Great Gatsby gives us George Wilson, a bland, spiritless man working at a garage in
the Valley of Ashes (Fitzgerald 25). On the surface, he is portrayed to be a relatively minor
character whose only purpose is tied to his wife Myrtle, or Gatsbys demise at the end of the
novel, but George arguably represents something more than a mere plot device. He is essentially
the Valley of Ashes personifiedhopeless, industrialized, and covered in dust. However, aside
from being a depressing industrial factory area, the Valley of Ashes symbolizes a class division
of sorts. Those who work there essentially enable the lives of the wealthy because the employees
who toil there boost the construction boom that gives wealth to the residents of West Egg. In that
sense, it could also be said that George Wilson can be compared to the American homeowners in
The Big Short. Though never explicitly shown in the movie, it is universally understood that they
are the backbone of the U.S. housing market through the mortgages they pay (McKay The Big
Short). The Great Gatsby also gives us Tom Buchanan, a hulking, wealthy aristocrat who is also
Daisys husband (7). He fundamentally represents the privileged upper class in society. Arguably,
Tom could also be an embodiment of the darker aspects of the richliving without a care in the
world, being protected by money, and never facing any consequence for their actions. These
aspects of Tom could be compared to that of the financial institutions that serve as the main
antagonists of The Big Short. In an attempt to make more money, investment bankers, mortgage
brokers, and mortgage lenders created the subprime mortgages in order to attract a larger market
that often included people with risky credit records (Jarvis The Crisis of Credit Visualized).
Their careless pursuit for more profit blinded them to the impending crisis that would befall the

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American economy come 2007. Ironically, they would receive little to no consequences for their
actions.
Fitzgerald shows Tom as a person who continually takes advantage of George. In chapter
two, when Tom visits George in his garage at the Valley of Ashes, they have a conversation about
Toms car, but there are undertones that imply Tom is merely stringing George along:
Hello, Wilson, old man, said Tom, slapping him jovially on the shoulder. Hows
business?
I cant complain, answered Wilson unconvincingly. When are you going to sell me
that car?
Next week; Ive got my man working on it now.
Works pretty slow, dont he?
No, he doesnt, said Tom coldly. And if you feel that way about it, maybe Id better
sell it somewhere else after all.
I dont mean that, explained Wilson quickly. I just meant (25).
Evidently, George is heavily invested in doing business with Tom. However, it seems that Tom is
more interested in setting up an affair with Myrtle rather than doing business. The whole car
talk is suggested to be a front for Tom establishing a liaison with Myrtle right under Georges
nose. Another instance of Toms clear unscrupulousness is when he reveals to Nick that he told
George that Gatsby was the owner of the yellow car and insinuated that Gatsby killed Myrtle.
Toms manipulation of George sparked the latter to go on a roaring rampage of revenge to kill
Gatsby. Ultimately, it can be said that Tom is the source of all misfortune in the novel. His
emotionally distant and adulterous attitude towards Daisy spurs her to begin an affair with
Gatsby. Daisy then accidentally kills Myrtle while in Gatsbys car, and Tom takes advantage of

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the distraught George by naming the owner of the car. Truly, Tom is the blissfully unaware
instigator of doom in the novel.
Similarly, in The Big Short, the financial institutions are portrayed as the masterminds
that cheated the American homeowners in 2007-2008. Greed was ultimately one of the major
motives behind the financial crisis. Both mortgage originators and home appraisers would go to
extreme lengths, regardless of legality, to maximize loan volumes. Banks were paid an obscene
amount of money to package subprime mortgages and sell them. Rating agencies made a profit
out of deliberately classifying faulty securities as the highest rating, AAA. Regulators paid more
attention to making more money in private sectors (Maxfield 25 Factors That Caused or
Contributed to the Financial Crisis). Jared Vennett narrates at the end of the movie just who is
affected by the aftermath of the crisis: Five trillion dollars in pension money, real estate, 401k,
savings, and bonds had disappeared. Eight million people lost their jobs, six million lost their
homes. And that was just in the USA (McKay The Big Short). Though the actions of both
Tom Buchanan and the financial institutions differ in intensity and scope, their inherent malice
and their lack of empathy for those affected are the common link between the two seemingly
different parties.
Perhaps the most unfortunate irony of The Great Gatsby and The Big Short is the fact that
the villains from each story never face the consequences that should have befallen them; a
scapegoat has to take the hit in their place. In Gatsby, Tom and Daisys shallowness and
selfishness are directly responsible for the deaths of Myrtle, George, and Gatsby. At the end of
the novel, they had the audacity to hide behind their money and move away from East Egg to
proverbially run away from Gatsbys funeral. Nick Carraway, in his disgust at the two,
wonderfully captures their fickle cruelty in chapter nine:

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I couldn't forgive him [Tom] or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him,
entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom
and Daisy they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their
money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other
people clean up the mess they had made. . . (179).
In Tom and Daisys place, the ones who suffered were those under themnamely, George, who
was manipulated, Myrtle, who had a dream to move up in society, and Gatsby, who was unjustly
framed. The Big Short shows that even though some corporate moguls lost their money, and
some big firms like Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, the banking industry escaped the
crash almost completely regulation-free. The blame went to the poor, the immigrants, and even
the teachers. Mark Baum hopelessly comments on the fraudulence of the system when Vinnie
convinces him to sell their swaps: . . .They [the banks] knew the taxpayers would bail them out.
They werent being stupid; they just didnt care (McKay The Big Short). Suffice to say, those
on top never received the karma intended for them because those below them received it in their
place.
At the heart of everything, both these stories retell a truth humanity has known time and
time againlife is unfair. Though society likes to delude itself that it is changing for the better,
reality tells a different story. The settings of Gatsby and The Big Short are fundamentally
different, but they share a similarity in how the scales tip in favor of the upper class; those who
are on top make a huge mess, only to leave those below to clean it up for them. Both the novel
and the movie offer no happy ending or semblance of hope (Scott Review: In 'The Big Short,'
Economic Collapse for Fun and Profit); they are both there to expose the cold, ugly truth
painted in a falsely glamorous green and gold.: Life is unfair if you have no money.

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Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2013. Print.
Maxfield, John. "25 Major Factors That Caused or Contributed to the Financial Crisis." The
Motley Fool. The Motley Fool, 28 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Scott, A.O. "Review: In 'The Big Short,' Economic Collapse for Fun and Profit." The New York
Times. The New York Times Company, 10 Dec. 2015. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
The Big Short. Dir. Adam Mckay. Perf. Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Brad Pitt, Ryan
Gosling. Paramount Pictures, 2015. DVD
The Crisis of Credit Visualized. Dir. Johnathan Jarvis. Perf. John Levoff. The Crisis of Credit
Visualized. Art Center College of Design, 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.