Essay about Corruption in The Great Gatsby

In many instances, Gatsby showed signs of selflessness. But, if the reader were to dig deeper into the roots of the story, they will be able to see that under the kind acts and good deeds, Gatsby’s intentions were always selfish. After the car scene, Tom, Jordan, Daisy and Nick returned to Daisy and Tom’s house. As Gatsby waits outside of the home, Nick, unknowingly, asks Gatsby whether or not Daisy was driving. Gatsby replies saying, “Yes, but of course I’ll say I was” (Fitzgerald 143). When Gatsby took Daisy’s place in the murder of Myrtle, although seeming kind-hearted, his only reason for this was to earn Daisy’s love and to impress her. Gatsby has somewhat put up an image of himself to be the pure and almighty man that deserves Daisy more. Meyer Wolfshiem, Gatsby’s business partner, mentions to Nick of Gatsby’s chivalrous actions towards women saying, “Yeah, Gatsby’s very careful about women. He would never so much look at a friend’s wife” (Fitzgerald 72). Although Meyer Wolfshiem’s comment on Gatsby about him being a gentleman, and how he would never look at another man’s wife, Gatsby proceeds to exceed all expectations and have an affair with Tom’s wife, Daisy Buchanan. Yes, some might say his only reason for doing so was out of true love and destiny but, in either case, it was morally wrong. In every action that Gatsby commits for Daisy, his selfishness secretly hides beneath it, shading itself from light so no one will approach the real man that lurks behind the curtains of self pride.

Why do we often look up to the higher class? Why do we crave the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy and famous? Murder, cheating, gambling and wild parties are just some examples of what went on in The Great Gatsby. First of all, the rich were also criminals and may have gotten their endless money in illegal matters. Secondly, most all of the rich characters shown throughout the book were unfaithful to his or her spouse. Thirdly, the wealthy were lavishly wasteful and did not seem to care about others. Finally, a character that expresses immorality the most is Tom Buchanan. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, his intentions were for people to learn to know that being rich or the hunger for money can lead to the immoral actions including some

New York City, overwhelmed with success, money and image in the 1920s was drowning in corruption. F Scott Fitzgerald composed a riveting novel, The Great Gatsby, which follows the journey of several characters dealing with love, greed, confusion and lust during the 1920s. Fitzgerald illustrates the corruption of the American dream by allowing us to follow the downfall of Jay Gatsby, revealing the reality of the American dream.

As a society, America has created certain ideas and stereotypes of each class including the citizens within them. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses around the superficial communities of West and East Egg, and their misconceptions of one another. The citizens of East Egg, such as Daisy and Tom Buchanan, frown upon the up-and-coming men of West Egg. This includes Gatsby, who dreams of the riches they take for granted. Gatsby, who obtains his money through dishonest means appears villainous, unsuccessfully attempting to join the wealthy and elite society of East egg. However, there may be more to Gatsby's story. As Nick, the narrator, says he is “worth the whole damn bunch put together”(154). Through his descriptions and comparison of Tom’s house and Gatsby’s house, Fitzgerald reveals the true nature of the two men. While Gatsby appears to be morally corrupt, in the end he actually has pure intentions, instead it is Tom who emits negativity and is ungrateful for his life.

Morals and virtues are the basic principles of living a happy life. But those alone can not satisfy the human desire of wanting something bigger and better. The evilness within Daisy creates a cycle of problems that she can’t escape. Daisy’s greed and corruption leads her to take shortcuts and break the principles of a human being by cheating on her husband, neglecting her daughter, and betraying Gatsby.

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby spent years trying to achieve his dream, but he made a bad decision and lost his chance. Gatsby met Daisy a couple years before (Fitzgerald 74). He would hide his social class from her because he was afraid she wouldn’t like him. He never forgot her, even when he went to fight in the war. He has been formulating a plan to get Daisy back. He comes back and got a house across the lake from Daisy, hoping to be with her some day. He did a lot of bad business to get all of his wealth, but the money wasn’t enough. He wanted to be with Daisy. He eventually gets to meet up with Daisy because of Nick’s help, and Gatsby gets closer to being able to live a life with Daisy. One day, everyone (Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick, and Jordan) is in town, renting a hotel room to deal with the heat. Tom figures out that Daisy and Gatsby have something going on. Tom gets mad and everyone starts to head home. On the way back, Gatsby lets Daisy drive his car, which was his bad decision (Fitzgerald 143). Daisy hits Myrtle,

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 wants closure about what happened between them. Daisy confronts Gatsby about an affair she had with Tom, and he doesn’t even care at this point because what they had was ‘real’. She claims to love them both but she decides she wants to go back with Gatsby and not her husband. On her way back, she accidently kills a woman on the side of the road speeds off with Gatsby’s car. Gatsby gets blamed for the death and the husband of the woman shoots him. No one attends Gatsby’s funeral but Nick. This goes to show Gatsby really had no body in his life, and his own true love whom he did everything for, didn’t love him equally. Throughout the whole book, Fitzgerald points out that Gatsby was living his American dream, but because his dream was Daisy, he was living his dream out of fantasy not reality.

While Gatsby’s dream of attaining and starting over with Daisy remains pure, his means of achieving his dream are, unfortunately, corrupt. There are plenty subtle hints about Gatsby’s immoral practices yet unadulterated heart throughout the novel. For example, in the beginning of the novel a woman at one of Gatsby’s parties chatting with her friend states, “You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I’ll bet he killed a man” (44). This statement doesn’t bluntly say he is corrupt but gives honest insight into his public image and inserts the thought that Gatsby could have possibly been involved in illegal actions during his pathway to wealth.

Gatsby’s claim to love Daisy is nothing more than wanting to complete his collection of the grand prize being a trophy wife. It became apparent to Nick that Gatsby wanted to repeat the past in order to win the award of a perfect woman. While reminiscing, Nick realizes Gatsby’s desire was that, “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house- just as if it were five years ago” (Fitzgerald 109). Gatsby’s relentless need to ‘get the girl’ blinds his ability to comprehend Daisy’s feelings of the situation. His want to shatter the Buchanan’s marriage

In the time period of the 1920s everyone was on a journey to achieve wealth and success, although partaking in this journey often left to a corruption of judgment. Love, lust, and wealth are all factors in the distortion of someone’s judgement. As seen in the book The Great Gatsby, a book set in the 1920s time period, we see many examples of corruption due to these specific causes. We, the reader, encounter many experiences of lust in the affairs between Tom and Mrytle and Daisy and Gatsby, which further lead to the corruption of their marriages. It is also seen that Gatsby’s love for Daisy leads him into corruption, forcing himself to be over the top in luxuries in order to win her back. Overall his efforts fail, but this initial desire to

Money is essential for survival; it can bring happiness, despair, or corruption. It rules our daily lives, is preferred in large amounts, and separates us into different social classes. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a perfect example of this since the class structure within the novel, portrays how money or the need for it can cause corruption in all the different social classes. This is shown through the three distinct classes: old money represented by the Buchanan’s and their self-centered, racist nature, new money represented by Gatsby and his mysterious, illegal ways, and a class that can be called no money represented by the Wilson’s and their attempts at

All through the book, Gatsby's mind is stuck on getting Daisy back. He thinks that in one magical moment, Daisy will leave Tom and return to his bed for a fairy tale ending. After he comes back from the war his thoughts are on his love's betrayal, her marriage. He sees his actions as a method of love, but his thoughts are ill hearted towards others. He has been involved in illegal financial methods and is trying to break up a marriage for his own gain in life. After their fling officially begins, Gatsby has Daisy lying to Tom and he is convincing her that she never loved her husband. Gatsby thinks that by getting Daisy to realize her marital mistakes, she will simply leave Tom and marry him.  He is corrupting a relationship and an individual further than their present state of dishonesty. He thinks that his plans are going accordingly until a heated discussion breaks out and he is on the losing end. He has ended up emotionally unbalancing Daisy to the point where she accidentally kills someone. Gatsby then takes the blame like it was nothing with the thought that it is his duty. Gatsby's train of thought was a bit off the tracks and did crash and burn, but who could blame a man in love,

The life of F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of both bliss and misfortune, conveying the American Dream. Born on September 24, 1896, Fitzgerald was known as nothing more than a young boy, part of a Catholic upper middle class family. Throughout his life, Fitzgerald experienced much tragedy. Fitzgerald became an alcoholic due to the fame and fortune he received, and his wife, Zelda, who suffered many physical and mental breakdowns. Fitzgerald craved the money and all the power he attained over took him. He suffered a heart attack and died at age 44. In the tragic and intuitive novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the theme of corruption within the American Dream through the attraction and desire for wealth.

Money is generally presented as a symbol for stability and happiness, however The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald contradicts this idea. Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby is known for his unimaginable formation of wealth and has the innate capability to achieve his dreams, however he does not realize that his dreams are above him due to the heavy corruption present in the 1920’s. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents money as an antagonist since wealth is the primary stimulant in the characters’ motivations, relationships, and happiness.