Humans: The World's Most Social Animal Essay

Throughout the novel Fitzgerald shows that Daisy is self-centered and careless at heart; she is a dreamer who fails to face reality. Continuing an affair with Gatsby with no real intentions of leaving her husband eventually leads to the death of Gatsby. In return she shows little to no concerns over the death of her “love” Gatsby and returns into the arms of her corrupt husband. Tom, who is also unfaithful in their relationship has a mistress of his own who is killed in a car accident while Daisy was driving. Tom as well shows no remorse in her death and moves on like nothing ever happened. Daisy and Tom are the prime example of corruption in both material success and with what wealth can bring; “They instinctively seek out each other because each recognizes the other’s strength in the corrupt

Gatsby and Daisy had met years prior, but ended up going their separate ways. However, Gatsby remained in love with Daisy and longed for her affection. The two reconcile, and Daisy starts seeing Gatsby outside of her marriage with Tom. In this, Daisy is leading Gatsby on by making him believe he will attain his ultimate dream: a life with her. However, Daisy knows deep down she will not leave Tom for Gatsby. This is proven when a confrontation about the affair sparks between Tom and Gatsby, and Daisy attempts to defend Gatsby and stick up to Tom, but ultimately fails and retreats back to her husband. “Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone” (Fitzgerald 135). Daisy’s carelessness shines through in leading Gatsby to believe she would abandon Tom for him, but fails to follow through. She recklessly broke the heart of the man who had been in love with her for many

So, Tom is able to continue his relationship with Daisy, even though he had no interest in her at the beginning, by moving her away from Gatsby. Therefore, it can be seen that due to his wealth, Tom is able to be careless and dangerous with his actions since he does little to stop the affair between Daisy and Gatsby, abuses Myrtle and cheats on Daisy. However, while Tom uses his money to continue his careless and dangerous action, Daisy uses her money to stay irresponsible with her actions.

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.

Tom attends the party in many ways to try and ruin Gatsby he is critical about everything like also the decorations the people that are there, the way Gatsby behaves. Anything he can criticize of he does so also he attempts to make a rumor that Gatsby is a bootlegger. And decides after the party that he will really get into Gatsby’s past and try to harm him. And this starts to take a path of destruction. It starts becoming clear that Daisy’s love for Gatsby is false just like the love for Tom and there sadly Gatsby’s love that he thought to find when he asks Daisy to abandon Tom and be at his side. So Tom wants to ruin Gatsby and Gatsby wants Daisy which is a pretty big difference and he is not looking for any paypack like Tom is.

So with that being said, he turns to making his money by illegal ways like bootlegging. Daisy is to blame for most of Gatsby’s problems because of the way she feels about money, she has affected other characters due to this issue. Gatsby has to be the most affected by Daisy and her decisions, like not waiting for him when he went to war. Daisy has Gatsby head over heels, no matter what she does, he cannot stop obsessing over her and will support her in everything she decides to do. Even to the end of the book where she kills Myrtle, Tom’s mistress with Gatsby’s car. Despite the fact that he knows that she killed a person, he still wants to take the blame for her. A little before she killed Myrtle, Tom finds out about the affair she was having with Gatsby. Tom confronts them about it and Gatsby comes clean to him and tells him what he thinks is true. Which is that Daisy loves him not Tom and she wants to leave him, yet daisy is speechless because at some point she did love Tom and is not so sure she wants to leave him. Gatsby ends up dead because of Daisy bright idea of killing someone and her husband Tom blames it on Gatsby knowing that Wilson was going to kill him. This shows the type of person Daisy is, so she has made many decisions in her past that eventually came to hunt many others in the present till the end of the book her

In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald wrote, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made…” (179) The relationship between Tom and Daisy was quite unstable. They were "careless people" because they were insensitive and thoughtless to others. If something goes wrong, they walk away, leaving the mess behind for others, like Nick, to deal with. Tom and Daisy always acted in a radical demeanor without ever thinking through the consequences of their actions. Early in the novel, Tom’s abuse of his relationship with Myrtle causes her to believe that they would have been married if it were not for Daisy. Daisy’s inattention led to the death of

When Daisy tells hims she cannot claim she does not love her husband Tom, it deflates Gatsby. He can't believe it. But Daisy is also deceitful because she does still love Gatsby but won't confess it either. Tom sees something going on, but in an attempt to prove that Gatsby does not threaten him, he lets Gatsby and Daisy drive together from the city back to their homes in West Egg. This drives turns tragic as well when Gatsby's car hits and kills Myrtle, Tom's lover and Mr. Wilson girlfriend. There is more deception when Gatsby tells everyone it was himself driving the car when in fact it really was Daisy. Tom tells Mr. Wilson about the accident and Mr. Wilson goes mad, killing Gatsby and then himself.

Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Nick and Jordan have gone out to the city for the day. Gatsby and Daisy are all over each other, when Gatsby finally reveals to Tom that him and Daisy have loved each other for five years. Tom responds to Gatsby stating, “And what’s more I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time.’ ‘You’re revolting,’ said Daisy” (131). This shows that Tom thinks he can do whatever he would like, and Daisy will still love him after he goes on cheating sprees. Daisy proves him wrong. Tom says he loves Daisy, yet he continues to cheat on her because he knows from past experiences that she will just continue to stay with him, until now, he wants Daisy back because he realizes that she now loves another man. Tom thought that he could do as he pleased, and not stay faithful to Daisy and she would take that, but Daisy ended up finding another man, and loving him, and becomes further disgusted with Tom, something Tom never thought would happen. As Tom, Nick and Jordan are driving back home they realize that there has been a crash. Tom sees that Myrtle is dead and he overhears that she has been hit by what he believes is Gatsby’s car. Nick reveals Tom’s reaction as they drive home:“In a little while I heard a low husky sob, and saw that the tears were

Both Daisy and Tom are incapable of guilt and believe if they have a lot of money then they can get away from any situation. Tom's behavior clearly reveals his lack of guilt when he fails to react to the death of his mistress. He regarded her as an object which really meant nothing to him. He showed her off and used her just like everyone else in his life. Tom's carelessness and money powered mind makes himthink he can cheat on Daisy because he does not believe he has to answer to anyone for his behavior. " 'That fellow had it coming to him. He threw dust in your eyes just like he did in Daisy's but he was a tough one. He ran over Myrtle like you'd run over a dog and never stopped his car," (187). Tom had every intention in convincing everyone that Gatsby was the one who killed Mrytle with his car. He didn't care what happened to Gatsby just as long as the blame wasn't on Daisy. Then he makes up the idea of Gatsby telling lies to Nick and Daisy. Tom doesn't care who he hurts as long as the outcome of it is beneficial for him. Tom and Daisy seek justification in only their values when it suits them. Tom and Daisy are products of the

In continuation, another theme within F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wonderful book is betrayal. One of the main acts of betrayal in the book is Tom Buchanan’s betrayal of Daisy. He does this by having an affair with George Wilson's wife, Myrtle. This act then destroys everything that Daisy and himself had built together. Tom’s disloyal and deceit filled ways had caused him to believe that he was doing no wrong. He even states “I love Daisy too. Once in awhile I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time"(Fitzgerald 131). This was not a one time thing, he had done this horrible act multiple times and just expected that since he loved Daisy that he would always be welcomed by her. Another significant betrayal in the novel is Gatsby’s betrayal to himself. Gatsby had always tried to become a better man when he was growing up, and he had many hopes and dreams that would help in in achieving this goal. His father even states “[Gatsby's] got something about improving his mind. He was always great for that”(Fitzgerald 173). Gatsby was capable of great things, but he wasted his time chasing after the girl he loved the most. Every decision he made involved Daisy is some way. He had became a bootlegger for her, and in the end lost his life because of her. Gatsby had cheated and betrayed himself all for this girl's affection. He never became the

Gatsby wanted more and more of Daisy and he will not rest until she tells Tom that she never loved him. Gatsby goes as far as to plan a dinner party so that Daisy can tell Tom in front of everyone and this dinner party ends up being his down bringing. At the party even Daisy goes as far as to say ““Oh, you want too much!"-"I love you now – isn't that enough? I can't help what's past."-"I did love him once – but I loved you too."” (Fitzgerald 261). Gatsby’s greed and obsession with wanting more and more sees to it that Gatsby will never fully achieve his dream. Fitzgerald also uses his character Tom, the husband of Daisy, to show that the American Dream cannot be achieved. Tom seems to have everything, a big house, a beautiful wife, lots of money from a successful sports career, and the freedom to spend it as he pleases. However, he too wants more, “[Tom] nodded sagely. “And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time."” (Fitzgerald 251). Tom knows that what he is doing is wrong but he makes excuses for his affair and acts as if what he did was justified. Even though he has a beautiful wife he still wants more and this drives him to having an affair with Myrtle. Fitzgerald uses these characters to show the false reality that is the

To add with Tom, Daisy is the most immoral person in the novel. In the beginning of this novel, she is portrayed as a sweet and innocent girl from Louisville. Throughout the story, she develops into the character that is needed in order to convey the meaning of moral decline. Daisy is immoral because she runs over and kills Myrtle, and she is careless about her crime. The “Death Car”, as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered around the next bend” (139). She is losing her values because she is using Gatsby to get back at Tom for cheating on her. At the end of the novel, she goes as far as leaving town with Tom; she doesn’t even attend Gatsby’s funeral nor leave any flowers. Daisy is just a complete immoral character all-around.

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,

Daisy grew up spoiled due to the vast wealth she obtained from being ‘old money’, which caused her to become selfish and self-centred. Daisy had become selfish to the point that she has an expensive and materialistic desire or want. When Gatsby shows Daisy his mansion, she gazed in awe as “she admired […] the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils […] and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate.”(Fitzgerald,97) Daisy, all along, does not have feelings for Gatsby, but more for his money and expensive possessions, as she revealed her true self during Tom and Gatsby’s argument. Daisy is selfish even if money was not involved, as she does not feel grateful for Gatsby taking the blame for her killing Myrtle Wilson. For instance, when Nick tells Gatsby about Mrytle dying, Gatsby replies “’Yes,’ he said after the moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was.’” (Fitzgerald, 154) When Daisy cried in Gatsby’s mansion, she was crying about her actions in killing Myrtle, meanwhile she does not care about Gatsby’s act of chivalry. Furthermore, Daisy takes advantage of Gatsby by taking Tom along to Gatsby’s party, when Daisy was personally invited to essentially go alone. When Gatsby saw Tom appearing to his party, Gastby with a light temper has a conversation with Tom. He says “I know your wife’, continued Gatsby, almost aggressively.”