Class distinctions often determine actions. People who believe they are better than others will strive to accumulate wealth, or even simply associate with it, to feel omnipotent. Through the classic novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the film Washington Square, based on the novel by Henry James, and the cover of the October 12, 2009 issue of the New Yorker, the authors show that money leads to perversion. Since some people have delusions of superiority, they are more likely to be corrupted by money as its power attracts them. Only those who are humble and do not desire the power bestowed by money can remain uncorrupted. Tom Buchanan, Dr. Sloper, and the woman in the cartoon all boast of their "superiority" over others. Tom, a wealthy man with “old money” (family wealth), owns a house that indicates his status to all who pass by. Described as a “Georgian colonial mansion overlooking the bay” (11), the house is located in East Egg, the “fashionable” place where “white mansions… glittered along the water” (10). Nick also mentions that Tom is one of the few men of his generation wealthy enough to own "a string of polo ponies" (10). Tom, in addition to being ostentatious, uses force to assert his power over those who are not as rich as him. This is foreshadowed from the beginning of the novel when he asks Nick if he has read Rise of the Colored Empires. The title alone indicates that this is a novel that only a power-hungry and selfish man could read. Even his wife refers to him as a "brute man" (16). However, the reader does not realize his barbarism until the big fight in his apartment. The small New York loft located on 158th Street serves as a meeting place for Tom and... middle of paper... iman goes to functions with the family, dresses in extravagant clothes and interferes with Catherine's life. life. When Catherine is away, Mrs. Penniman tries to make Mr. Townsend into her perfect man, rather than Catherine's. As a result, she bribes him with money by helping him get a high-paying job and allowing him to live the high life while the Slopers are in Europe. When Catherine confronts her, she responds, “I thought of him as my son…my son” (1:29:40). Work cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2013. Print.