The Consequences Of Morality In The Great Gatsby

Throughout the Great Gatsby, wealth and status is a key theme. As a result of these themes shallowness and immorality is something that presents itself in characters throughout the novel quite frequently. For a person to be shallow it means that they lack emotional and intellectual depth, an example of this being someone who judges another on their looks or quantity of money they possess. Immorality can cross with this idea of shallowness due to the fact that as a result of the characters shallowness they become immoral or do immoral things, however it is when a person goes against the accepted ideas of what is right within society. Both of these themes are shown throughout the Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald and a way that Fitzgerald shows this immorality and shallowness is through female characters in the Great Gatsby.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes American society in the 1920?s for its tendencies to waste, advertise, form superficial relationships, and obsess over appearances. The work has been praised for both its brutal realism and its keen depiction of the age that The New York Times referred to as the era when, 'gin was the national drink and sex was the national obsession'(Fitzgerald vii).  ' . . . indifference is presented as a moral failure - a failure of society, particularly the society of the American east to recognize the imperatives of truth and honesty and justice? (Gallo 35).

In The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the destruction of morals in society. The characters in this novel, all lose their morals in attempt to find their desired place in the social world. They trade their beliefs for the hope of being acceptance. Myrtle believes she can scorn her true social class in an attempt to be accepted into Ton's, Jay Gatsby who bases his whole life on buying love with wealth, and Daisy, who instead of marrying the man she truly loves, marries someone with wealth. The romance of money lures the characters in The Great Gatsby into surrendering their values, but in the end, "the streets paved with gold led to a dead end" (Vogue, December 1999).

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

To what extent of a person becoming more well- known, popular, rich, and more or less famous is the limit to their values, morals, and true self? Many during the age of 1920 started to be faced with such a question. How does it happen and how do their morals go so quickly out the window when faced with a new and higher social or economic state? In this story Gatsby was a fine young man with dreams and aspirations for his future and who he wanted to become. Him deep down still had these morals inside of him, but with the increase in his wealth, like many others, these morals began to fade to the background. Fitzgerald is able to show us how Gatsby and the people he surrounded himself with lost their morals through when Daisy left Gatsby for Tom, and when Gatsby was killed.

James Gatz, a character in conflict with society due to the shortcomings he suffers throughout his life must, therefore, resort to illusions to cope. Jay Gatsby, was a poor youth from North Dakota who could never accept the fate that he was given in life. He never had enough money to marry the woman he loved and was forced to pay for his college by working as a janitor. As a result of all the defeats and drawbacks that Gatsby suffered through during his youth, he began to despise the life that he lived. Jay Gatsby was a man that “defie[d] oppressive society by trying to conform to it.” (Hemis, 2010). Gatsby desires nothing more than to oppose the life society has offered him by becoming a man that contradicts everything he was during his youth. Wealth, power, respect are what Gatsby pines for and one day he is given the chance to begin again. To escape from the lack of wealth that James Gatz was given in life, he creates the persona of Jay Gatsby. Recalling Gatsby’s transformation, Nick informs “he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to the conception he was faithful to the end” (98). It is important to understand that the colossal illusion that Gatsby creates in his youth never fades and the rest of his decisions in life all stem from the one illusion. The fantasy he conceives causes him to believe that he is beyond society’s laws and is able to bend them to his liking. Gaining a false sense of power from the

Readers like to define which characters are “good” or “evil” in a book in order to shape their opinion towards the character better. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, every character has some corruption of morals and could be defined as either choice. However, there are also characters who can be seen as morally ambiguous. Specifically, Jay Gatsby’s moral ambiguity as a character portrays how living in the past can cause a corruption of morals.

Deception in The Great Gatsby The Roaring Twenties embodied a time of raunchy rebellion fed by wealth, sex, and booze. Social structures were challenged, and traditional morals were broken. The characters in The Great Gatsby are notorious for their secrets, deceptions, and lies. In “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson presents a variety of the different ways people lie; from “small falsehoods” (159) to “living a lie” (167), the characters, Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald fall in ascending order on the spectrum.

The novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is set in the 1920s America, New York - a class society of money -, depicts a society which exists in a state of moral confusion and chaos, through the eyes of the narrator; Nick Carraway. Fitzgerald condemns the character’s tendencies in the novel to become greedy and materialistic in order to be successful, displayed throughout the chaos that arises as a result of the repercussion of these actions. This chaos continues to grow through the unfaithful marriages and illegal practices that exists extensively throughout the novel. Furthermore, Fitzgerald explores the prejudice discrimination between the newly rich and those with “old money”. Through all of this we come to see that during the “roaring 20s” was one of moral disorder and mayhem.

This section of the paper will provide and discuss examples of Nick Carraway’s failure to reserve judgment of others upon meaning them. Through exploring Nick’s judgments of others, his personal bias becomes apparent. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Nick ignores his own philosophy and casts judgment upon characters. It could be argued that Nick knows these characters well enough to cast judgment upon them, but in truth, Nick also casts judgment upon minor characters. The introduction of Mr. McCree and George Wilson are two prime examples of Nick not withholding judgments of a minor character upon meeting them. Upon meeting both the characters Mr. McCree and George Wilson, he describes McCree as a “feminine” man and George as “spiritless man” (30, 25). When Nick is narrating about the nature of Jordan Baker, a woman who Nick builds a small relationship with, she states that “she was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hand, jaunty body” (58). Even if Nick’s depiction of these minor character is accurate, it still provides proof that Nick is not a man who is inclined to withhold all judgment upon a person. Nick does not the reserve judgment of major character either throughout the novel. Up until the end of the novel, Nick has positive judgments of

In The Great Gatsby the author F. Scott Fitzgerald develops the theme people will compromise their morals/values if they feel they can benefit in some way. In chapter two, the narrator Nick follows Tom his cousins husband to go meet Myrtle the women that was known to be the “women from New York” that Tom was cheating on with his wife Daisy. After, Tom introduce Myrtle to Nick, they both ask Nick to stay and have some drinks and party with them. Nick decision to stay and have some drinks its shows the reader how he is willing to get drunk so Tom does not judge him. The narrator Nick says “I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon” (Page 29). It tells the reader that Nick has only been drunk twice in his

Throughout one’s life, one is constantly told to do what is right despite the consequences or results. In reality these morals are practiced less and less as people worry less about the consequences of ignoring these morals. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald saw the disintegration of humanity early in the 20th century. In his novel, “The Great Gatsby”, written in 1925, he exemplifies the moral decay that surrounds society. He uses symbols such as the billboard of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, who serves as a representation of a forgotten God, to showcase the lack of care for things that were once important, such as morality.

In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald punishes the characters whether it would be the consequences of their actions or the effect of their actions from being corrupted by wealth. The author wanted to make sure that none of the main characters went unpunished whether it would be great or small and failing to accomplish their dreams like Gatsby. The question is what had the characters done to receive varying levels of punishment that could affect their lives?

This occasion displays how potentially careless and morally corrupt the citizens of New York in the nineteen twenties can be. It is occasions like these that prominently portray the depth of moral corruption in relation to the significance of the setting in The Great Gatsby.

The Roaring Twenties is considered to be a time of excessive celebration and immense corruption. The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a criticism of American society and its values during this era of history. This criticism is first apparent in the people who go to Gatsby's parties. They get absurdly drunk, do not know who their host is and are rude by excessively gossiping about him. This commentary is also shown in the corruption of the police. Gatsby is able to pay off the police so that the activities going on at his home will go unnoticed and so that he may behave as he wishes. This criticism is finally shown in the corruption of friendship and love, the simple fact being that there is none. People use Gatsby and