Materialism in the 1920’s In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzerald. Materialism plays a major role for one’s life in this novel. Jay Gastsby a very wealthy man lives a life of materialism just to prove to people that he is wealthy and important. Doing so he tries to impress a sertain lady by the name of Daisy Buchanan. Materialism plays a major role in Gatsby’s life while he is trying to win Daisy back from her husband tom Buchanan. One of the things Gatsby impresses Daisy by his enormous mansion. He bought this big house because when he was dating her five years ago she lived in a big luxuries house. She is also living in a big house now so Gatsby figu