Effects Of Lying In The Great Gatsby

At first glance, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby appears to be a tragic love story about Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. But upon closer examination, readers will see that their love wasn’t love at all; rather, it was an obsession on Gatsby’s part. He had built up Daisy as he’d remembered her, negligent of the fact that they had both grown and she had changed. Gatsby hadn’t been in love with Daisy, but the idea of Daisy. However, Gatsby isn’t the only one guilty of romanticism. The book’s seemingly reliable narrator, Nick Carraway, is just as culpable as the title character when it comes to idealizing someone beyond their true nature. In his case, the target of his idealism is none other than Jay Gatsby. Nick’s romanticism of the

The Great Gatsby is considered to be a great American novel full of hope, deceit, wealth, and love. Daisy Buchanan is a beautiful and charming young woman who can steal a man’s attention through a mere glance. Throughout the novel, she is placed on a pedestal, as if her every wish were Gatsby’s command. Her inner beauty and grace are short-lived, however, as Scott Fitzgerald reveals her materialistic character. Her reprehensible activities lead to devastating consequences that affect the lives of every character. I intend to show that Daisy, careless and self-absorbed, was never worthy of Jay Gatsby’s love, for she was the very cause of his death.

Deception is an act intentionally inflicted upon others in order to, satisfy one's wants and needs. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby deceives others for both his personal gain and love. While Jay Gatsby lives day by day deceiving others, he thinks not much of it. Gatsby sees himself has merely just moving on from the past and onto a new life. However, through his acts of deception he is stirring up a fatal situation. Fitzgerald portrays Jay Gatsby as a man who is wealthy and as some may say “living the life”. Jay Gatsby however, is merely a mask put on by James Gatz, the same man, to live the life he has always desired. Once settled in as Jay Gatsby, he starts to find it difficult to maintain an image expected by others. In this novel, James Gatz lives a false life as Jay Gatsby to satisfy his wants and needs, but has his act of deceiving others comes to an crumble Fitzgerald is able to showcase the struggle and cost of deception.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is the story of the idiosyncratic millionaire Jay Gatsby. It is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner from Long Island who later moves to Manhattan. Gatsby’s life is organized around one desire, Daisy, the woman he loved. This desire leads him on an expedition from poverty to wealth, reuniting with his old love, and his eventual death. In his novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to portray the American Dream where people seek out self-gratification and pleasure. He captures the romance of the roaring twenties with the cars, money, illegal alcohol and the wildest parties one could imagine. Much like the character, Jay Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), wasn’t born into the upper class. While Gatsby is from the lower class, Fitzgerald from the middle class, both end up becoming exceptionally rich, fall into the wildest and reckless life, and use their fortunes to win the love and approval of the women they once loved.

“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love,” once said Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a Russian novelist. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, narrator Nick Carraway spends a summer at Long Island where he befriends Jay Gatsby, a mysterious man of new money with an undying love for Daisy Buchanan, Nick’s cousin and the wife of Tom Buchanan. As Nick inadvertently becomes privy to the secrets of the corrupt world of the elite, he also becomes increasingly disillusioned with the moral decadence of high society. Through symbols such as Owl Eyes, Doctor

The average human being lies everyday, at least twice if not more. In result, all these trivial or larger lies impact the life of others. In society, whether it is considered proper and friendly to lie or, if lying is a means to cover a truth which has more consequence, lying is an enormous part of the average person’s life. In correlation with lying is lack of selflessness present in the character of society. Everyone is fastidious about what they do and say to ensure that in the end the result benefits them and only them. Little is it realized that all these acts of selfishness, lies, and deceit destroy and dismantle people as well as society as a whole. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby he emphasises this idea using four main characters:

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is about a writer named Nick Carraway. He leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922 . Nick chases his American Dream and ends up living next door to a mysterious, party-loving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, who is  across the water from his cousin, Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals that the upper class society is corrupt from money. This is best proven through Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom.

The act of deception could be done for many reasons, whether it be for love or personal gain. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby deceives others for both his personal gain and love. While Jay Gatsby lives day by day deceiving others, he thinks not much of it. Fitzgerald portrays Jay Gatsby as a man who is wealthy and as some may say “living the life” however, Jay Gatsby is merely a mask put on by James Gatz, the same man, to live the life he has always wanted. Once known as Jay Gatsby to all, he is living a two sided life and as time goes by he finds it hard to manage. In this novel, Fitzgerald shows the struggles and consequences of deception through Jay Gatsby putting on a mask and living a false life.

Honesty may be the best policy, but lies and deceit are what makes us human. Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, various characters are presented with demoralizing features that further them away from innocence. One can see by examining characters Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby that the underlying theme of lies and deception have a great impact on the story. By examining Tom Buchanan, one can see that he feels so unfulfilled and entitled in his level of society.

“The Great Gatsby” greatly represents the commonly used phrase “Money cannot buy happiness.” “The Great Gatsby” follows the life of Nick Carraway in New York. He’s originally from Minnesota. He lives a rich neighborhood where the people have recently acquired their money and don’t have a huge social status.

There are times that will surface throughout your life that will make you question your own morals and make you choose between what society views as success, or what you truly believe is the way to live a happy life. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway, a main character and the story’s narrator, has his life turned upside-down when he discovers what people on the rich East coast of America value, and how to the wealthy, Money takes priority over everything, and everyone. Even though Nick was able to become somewhat successful after he moved out east, Nick did not achieve his American Dream which consisted of wealth and prosperity while living in the East. In the beginning of the novel, Nick is very lively and loves the idea of becoming a successful bondsman in New York City.

Also, the 1920’s was seen as a time of great economic prosperity, and many people during this time became very wealthy. Just like in “The Great Gatsby”, Gatsby is a wealthy man who resides in a mansion, and is very knowledgeable, while Gatsby’s “friend” Nick Carraway, is just an average man, not rich nor poor.

The United States of America is seen to be the place where every person that goes to the U.S.A has an equal chance of reaching the American Dream whether that is in their social status, financially or happiness, it is also known to be a “clueless society” . The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway who at first could be seen as someone who directs the story but however he is purely just a witness of the events. “The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the “roaring twenties” and a devastating expose of the “Jazz Age”. It could be said that the characters in The Great Gatsby are trying to be real people but they are actually trying to illustrate how the people in the twentieth century lived.

  In The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald presents a specific portrait of American society during the roaring twenties and tells the story of a man who rises from the gutter to great riches. This man, Jay Gatsby, does not realize that his new wealth cannot give him the privileges of class and status. Nick Carraway who is from a prominent mid-western family tells the story. Nick presents himself as a reliable narrator, when actually several events in the novel prove he is an unreliable narrator. Although Nick Carraway may be an unreliable narrator, he is the best narrator for the novel because he creates the correct effect.

This passage located at the falling action of Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, after Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan’s argument (page 128-129) focuses on Gatsby recounting his initial courting of Daisy Buchanan. It contributes to the development of the novel, for it is the first time that Gatsby confronts his past and reveals his desperation to preserve his dream of attaining Daisy, which, the reader senses through Fitzgerald’s ominous tone, is coming to a hopeless end. Through Fitzgerald’s portrayal of Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship and Gatsby’s unconscious illusions, the passage addresses the themes regarding the arrogance of the rich, and the illusionary nature of the American Dream.