Affairs, Wealth, and Murder in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

His actions show that he is not loyal nor respectful towards Daisy, instead displaying apathy and disinterest. In addition to acting uncompassionate towards Daisy, he is also not taking into consideration Myrtle’s feelings. In fact, he lies to her in order to stop himself from being forced into a committed relationship. This lie that Tom tells Myrtle is not only extremely false, but also shows he is simply using her. “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce” (Fitzgerald 33). Tom lying to Myrtle shows he has no intention of marrying her, instead he only wants to take advantage of her vulnerable state. Myrtle is unhappy and desperate to fulfill her dream of moving up social classes. Instead of acting sympathetically towards her situation, he exploits her weakness. Likewise, Daisy and Gatsby’s affair shows similar exploitation for one’s own personal needs over the emotions of their counterpart. Without Tom’s knowledge, Daisy has an affair with her long lost love, Gatsby. Then they sauntered over to my house and sat on the steps for half an hour… (Fitzgerald 105). During this affair Daisy shows no acknowledgement of Tom’s feelings, the man she married and pledged to be loyal to. At the same time, she is also exploiting Gatsby. Authors say, “...his desire to marry Daisy as an attempt to enter/create

True to Nick's observation, Tom does act to take control back of what he believes is rightfully is, pressing Daisy into admitting she had loved him right in front of Gatsby to reassert his dominance over the two. This endeavor ends in success on Tom's part, Daisy turning to Gatsby and confessing, "I did love him [Tom] once—" (Fitzgerald 142). Daisy back in his grasp for now, he heads back home sometime after Gatsby and Daisy, only to come upon the accident that has left Myrtle dead. At this point, Tom is enraged, believing Gatsby to be the murderer of his mistress. In the heat of the moment, Tom has a word with George Wilson, the husband of Myrtle, claiming Gatsby to be the man who murdered Myrtle, knowing full well that George would more likely than not try to kill Gatsby. Tom admits this to Nick's face later on when the two meet again after the Buchanans left New York, stating, "I told him the truth... He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn’t told him who owned the car. His hand was on a revolver in his pocket every minute he was in the house——What if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to him" (Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald represents various aspects of love and how it can be changed, manipulated, and broken, showing that through all of the themes described in this story, love is the most prominent. We see this multiple times in the book, concerning mainly the 4 main characters; Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan. They all have different perceptions of love, as we can see, from love being merely a dream, to it being a disguise to the reality of how someone feels.

He wanted daisy back so they can live a delightful life together. So when Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom met up Gatsby’s hope was that Daisy and him were going to leaving together as a couple. But when they actually discussed the fact of her leaving him she confessed to Gatsby, “[she] did love tom once--but i loved you too” (Fitzgerald 132). After Tom heard this he knew that Daisy was on his side and not Gatsby’s. Since Gatsby was oblivious to Daisy’s decision, he continued to protect her from any harm that he could prevent. After myrtle's untimely demise, Gatsby decides “ to wait [there] and see if he tries to bother her about that unpleasantness this afternoon” (Fitzgerald 144). Therefore even tho Daisy did not make his dream come true, he still continued to love and care for her. He choose to see the good in Daisy and trusted that she would somehow run away with him and leave

The novel The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald, revolves around the main character, Jay Gatsby, his actions, and his ambitions. The book tells of the twisted, corrupt love triangle that is formed between Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan. This develops when Gatsby is reacquainted with Daisy after not seeing her for five years. As the story develops, unfavorable aspects are demonstrated by Gatsby: his obsession with Daisy, his dishonesty with Nick and Tom, and his manipulation of Nick and Daisy. These traits portray him as a corrupt man, wanting only what is best for himself. Therefore, Gatsby’s actions prohibit him from being the hero of the novel.

First, in the beginning of the book, when Daisy’s cousin Nick Carraway comes over for dinner since he just moved across the lake, Tom goes during the middle of their meal to answer the phone. When puzzled faces across all of the guests appear, Tom had to answer the phone because “work” was calling. Daisy had a very nervous face when Tom left and she excused herself from the table and went over to see exactly what Tom was talking about and that’s when she found out that he was cheating on her with Myrtle Wilson. But

During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so

He is married to Myrtle whom is materialistic and neither acknowledges his effort nor his determination to please others. Instead, Myrtle is unfaithful, attending parties with her lover, Tom and complaining about George, "The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in" (35). Myrtle is unhappy with her marriage and immerses in an affair with a wealthier man. Unlike Gatsby, George is not only unknowing of Myrtles infidelity but also her dissatisfaction with their misfortune. George continues to idealize Myrtle and grows anxious about loosing her. It is not until Chapter Seven when it occurs to George that Myrtle is indeed cheating and he begins to conserve their money in order to evacuate away from Tom. '"What do you want all this money for, all of a sudden?" "I've been here too long. I want to get away. My wife and I want to go West,"' George tells Tom (). Identical to Gatsby's expectations of Daisy, George believes he can escape with Myrtle to live a better life and he acknowledges Tom as a threat. Tom manages to attract both his wife, Daisy and his mistress, Myrtle's attention. This causes both Gatsby and George to feel inferior and desperate about their own lack of opulence and validity. Finally, it is important to not how similar, yet ironic the death of George and Gatsby

In an article Brian Sutton wrote that Daisy and Gatsby’s rendezvous “marks Gatsby’s brief moment of triumph.”(Sutton)He reintroduced the two lovers and helped the two hide their love. While on an excursion, Gatsby pressures Daisy into telling Tom, Daisy’s husband, about their affair. Daisy, with Gatsby’s help, forces herself to say she never loved Tom. It is at this point, Sutton points out, Gatsby realizes Daisy is not completely committed to him because when she is talking to Tom “the trembling signifies Daisy’s discomfort as she realizes that she lacks the emotional clarity and fortitude to leave her husband in favor of Gatsby.”(Sutton) On the way home, Daisy hits Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, while driving Gatsby’s car. Gatsby takes the blame for Daisy, and she lets him. After the accident Daisy and Tom leave, not telling anyone where they are going. Before they leave, Tom

“I realized that her [Myrtle] eyes wide with jealous terror, were not fixed on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife” (125). When finally reaching Astoria, and argument is caused between Jay Gatsby, Daisy’s former love and Tom, which ended in Tom finding out about how Daisy is cheating on Tom with Gatsby. In contrast to Wilson, who when he found out about Myrtle’s affair was physically ill, Tom isn’t shocked when he learns about Daisy’s affair instead he seems to take the news of the affair relatively well. When on the way home Tom learns that Myrtle has been struck by Gatsby’s car and killed. It isn’t until later that we learn that Myrtle thought that Tom was in that car, because earlier she had seen Tom in that car when

She, of course, could not do this because it was simply too much to ask of her.  Tom believed he had won their disagreement, but the day only grew worse.  He may have won Daisy, but he had lost Myrtle forever.  He completely blamed Gatsby, and his feelings of dislike only grew stronger.  That night, he talked with Daisy until early in the morning.  In the end, Myrtle's death may have had such an effect on Tom that he finally turned to his own wife for everything he had searched for outside of the marriage.  He had lost Myrtle, and he had come very close to losing Daisy that same day.  These events may have encouraged him not to take his wife for granted any longer.

The Great Gatsby a, novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, follows a cast of characters abiding in the town of East and West Egg on affluent Long Island in the summer of 1922. Each of the characters, while part of the same story line, have different priorities and agendas, each character working towards achieving what they think would benefit them the most. As The Great Gatsby’s plot thickens the characters constantly show their discontent of the American Dream that they are living, always expressing their greed for more, three particular offenders of this deadly sin are Tom, Daisy and Gatsby himself. The characters motives stem from a mixture of boredom, a need and longing for the american dream, and simple selfish human

    Ex-President Jimmy Carter knows both the power and the limitations of money. He is also aware that the acquisition of money or material wealth is not a worthwhile goal. This was made clear in his speech to the American people when he stated:  "Our great cities and our mighty buildings will avail us not if we lack spiritual strength to subdue mere objects to the higher purposes of humanity" (Harnsberger 14). In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, the author clearly illustrates that Jay Gatsby does not understand the limitations of the power of money. Gatsby believes that money can recreate the past, buy him happiness, and allow him to climb the social ladder in the prominent East

In his song “All Falls Down,” mildly talented musician Kanye West emotionally raps, “We buy our way out of jail, but we can’t buy freedom.” Criticizing how those that are wealthy are able to control the world around them with their money, able to use it to get even “out of jail,” West asserts that such a reliance on wealth is ultimately restricting, as it cannot buy intangible things such as “freedom.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the titular character, Jay Gatsby surrounds himself with wealth and extravagance in order to leave his previous life of dullness and banality and pursue an unrealistic and fragile love with Daisy. Though he is able to assume a new, affluent identity, he is ultimately unsuccessful in love, as his wealth disconnects him from reality, preventing him from realizing the impossibility of his goal. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, maintains a sort of obsession with Gatsby, becoming sucked into his extravagant and wealthy lifestyle. However, by doing so, he begins to see the world in a new yet almost fantastical light, where even he is unable to comprehend the consequences of his actions and mannerisms. Under this, Fitzgerald contends that wealth and materialism are crutches that ultimately serve to skew and misrepresent surrounding reality.

The relationship between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby is filled with excitement and false ideals. Gatsby has