Books are more than just stories, they have a message to send, whether directly or indirectly. Books can also tell us about the author's life, beliefs, inner ambitions and fears; Furthermore, they often project the writer's vision onto their environment, reflecting the society in which they live. Writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernesto Guevara were able not only to portray the society in which they are immersed, but also to convey it in exquisite social criticism. Such literary works of art do not criticize directly, nor towards specific people or events. They, however, present insight into the author's concern with social issues of injustice, wrong values, and loss of direction. The pursuit of money and the corruption of those who seek wealth are the main topics of criticism in books such as “The Great Gatsby” and “Motorcycle Diaries”. These books present different views of the effects of using money and the social condition of “wanting more than you need.” This condition has the power to transform a simple and unimportant object into something important that may even seem vital to us. In our society, and those presented in Fitzgerald's and Guevara's books, money means more than a piece of paper or metal and is supposed to make it easier to exchange things. People don't control money, money controls us. Cash and capitalism work by exploiting our vanity to sell us different products. It works by telling us that what we have is not and may never be enough. These ideas impose the need to establish a perpetuation of our sense of superiority. In the books “The Great Gatsby” and “Motorcycle Diaries” the reader is able to realize the repercussions in...... middle of paper......repercussions are what these two authors, Guevara and Fitzgerald describe in their novels, both complementary to the same idea of ​​the two heads of a coin. On the one hand, Guevara writes in “Motorcycle Diaries” about the lifestyle of the poor and the injustices that money had caused in our society as a consequence of the lifestyle of those who lived in the period portrayed in “The Great Gatsby”. On the other hand, Fitzgerald, shows the problems that people pursuing wealth had to overcome as decrees of morality and value. Fitzgerald's characters were happy only on the surface but unhappy inside, but Ernesto and Alberto, during the journey, and despite the things they saw, were happy. Guevara and Granada were able to understand and teach that brotherhood, altruism and, above all, simplicity of life can bring more happiness than a comfortable life.