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The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Decent Essays

The Beginning of Everything “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone...just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1). The first line of The Great Gatsby illustrates a heartfelt sentiment of treating others respectfully and not judging a book by its cover. However, as the chapter continues, the narrator Nick Carraway, suggests this propensity of tolerance is better used as leverage to entice more people to trust you and tell you their secrets. Nick is privy to the secret lives and untold truths of many rich and powerful people of New York because he could be trusted, whether he wanted to be or not. This is a constant theme throughout The Great Gatsby -- the internal struggle of F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrayed through his characters, of being a kind, honest person content to live his own life versus a grotesquely rich and selfish person who only cared about himself and living the illusive American Dream. The characters created by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby strongly reflect influences of people and events in his life, and demonstrate facets of his personality that dictated how he viewed the world, friendship and love.
People often compensate for things they don’t have. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s character Gatsby loved Daisy because she was the epitome of everything he wished he had in his youth. She was rich, exciting and full of life. To win her attention, he throws money into parties, cars

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