The Great Gatsby Quotes

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby to discuss society, relationships, and money. The book takes place during the roaring 20’s, a time of parties and big business, and follows the lives of Nick, Tom, Daisy, and Jay Gatsby. Many characters demonstrate their true intentions through the way they talk and react with others, but Daisy Buchanon is especially characterized through her own actions. F. Scott Fitzgerald wants the audience to view Daisy as a greedy and self absorbed pretty girl, and he proves it with her actions, rather than description.

Another drastic situation created by Daisy arises. However, she does not have to deal with the consequences of it. Myrtle’s husband sees Gatsby in the car, and makes the assumption that he was the one having an affair with Myrtle, which is why she would run into the street to leave her husband and be with the man in the car. Instead of owning up to her mistake, Daisy allows Gatsby to willingly take the blame for Myrtle’s death. When Nick asks if Daisy was driving the car, he replies “‘Yes, but of course I’ll say I was’” (Fitzgerald 137). This causes George Wilson to kill Gatsby, an innocent man, because of the assumption that he was the one who killed Myrtle and had an affair with her. Through all this, Daisy never confessed to being the person behind the wheel of the car and Tom never confessed to being the man who Myrtle was a mistress to. After this incident, Daisy and Tom packed their bags and moved to the Midwest, avoiding the problems they created yet

While they were at the party Daisy snuck away to go meet up with Gatsby. Gatsby told Daisy his huge plans for Daisy to tell Tom that she never had feelings for him and for her to marry him. Gatsby and Nick are invited to have lunch at the Buchanan’s. Tom could tell that Daisy was edgy about Gatsby being there (Baker). Tom decided to take a journey into town to relieve some of the tension in the room. As they are on their way into town, Tom stops at his Myrtle’s gas station. He talks to her husband and finds out that her husband has suspicions of Myrtle cheating, so he is moving her away.

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1).

Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George, and the lover of Tom Buchanan, is brutally murdered toward the end of the novel. After an uncivilized afternoon in New York, Daisy and Gatsby head swiftly back to East Egg. Gatsby explains to Nick, “It all happened in a minute, but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew” (Fitzgerald 109). Myrtle ran out toward the car looking for Tom but sadly for her it is not him. Many know about Tom’s affair, but not with whom he is having it, especially Daisy. Daisy never slows the car down, and she never realizes who she hits. This shows that Daisy is oblivious to Myrtles existence. Myrtle is sleeping with her husband, she ruins their marriage, and Daisy kills her. The irony exists in this because Daisy actually saves her marriage by killing

“The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years”. This quote is from Ruth Madoff, the ex-wife of Bernie Madoff. Bernie Madoff is notoriously known for being charged with eleven felonies and stealing over $65 billion from investors. In the end, the rest of his days were restricted by spending life in prison. When money became a priority within the lives of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the characters became victims of a vile crime, the theft of identity. All three pieces comparatively display the bankruptcy of identity in which money was desired to acquire a certain dream. This cost of identity, for

Continuing with the examination of the characters we come to Daisy. In chapter 1, the reader will read of how Tom had been having an adulterous relationship with Myrtle. One may actually have some type of sympathy for Daisy. However there is a time in which Gatsby, Nick, and Daisy were all at Gatsby’s house. While in the house Gatsby was giving a tour of the house with Nick and Daisy,

These characters live in the age of the “Hollow Men,” and are portrayed as empty and absent-minded people. In fact, Nick voices his grievances with this at the end of the story; after Nick meets Tom Buchanan a couple months following Gatsby’s death, he takes time to reflect, pondering, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” (179). Shaking Tom’s hand, he states that he feels like he “were talking to a child” (179). Nick feels a personal disdain for the carelessness of the characters in the book. Gatsby, however, acts with real thoughtfulness, as he exhibits his authenticity multiple times in the novel. Reflecting on Gatsby’s life, Nick proclaims that Gatsby’s heart “was in a constant, turbulent riot” (99). He then tells that “the most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted [Gatsby] in his bed at night” (99). These examples help validate that Gatsby, unlike the other characters, was genuine enough to feel passionate and convey emotion. While the readers dislike Tom and Daisy’s emptiness, they favor Gatsby’s compassionate and sincere personality, as they can relate to his

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

In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway gradually grows annoyance with Daisy and Tom Buchanan and their selfish and luxurious life. Daisy, on the other hand finds Nick to be her “trustworthy genuine cousin”. Tom thinks of Nick as his old friend from college who is always there for him; however fraudulence lies between all of them. Thus, representing how each of the characters perceived their friendship differently. To begin, throughout the book Nick grows to become more and more disgusted with the actions Daisy and Tom fulfill; especially towards people. Nick represents this when he says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them

Gatsby & Daisy reunite at Nick’s house (86-89) “I certainly am awfully glad to see you again.” A pause. Gatsby, His hands still in his pockets His distraught eyes stared down at Daisy.

Nick summarizes Daisy and Tom as reckless people saying, “I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. 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 had made” (Fitzgerald 136). When Daisy hit Myrtle she let others take the blame to keep her reputation intact. Nick may accept what had happened, but he thought how Daisy and Tom handled it was perverse. Daisy and Tom’s negligence ended up taking two lives: Gatsby and Myrtles. Tom and Daisy use their money to shield them from all the problems in the world. Nick again comments on their frivolous behavior saying, “Why they came East I don't know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.”(Fitzgerald 17). This quote shows how Daisy and Tom drift wherever they feel and ruin whoever’s life gets involved with them. They are the equivalent of a golden freight train ready to demolish anything that stands in the way of their fun. Neither of them care what happens or who gets hurt on the way as long as they have their money to protect

From the beginning of the novel, Carraway harbors a righteous character as he exhibits clear discomfort with infidelity: he feels like calling the police after hearing of Tom Buchanan’s affair. But when Buchanan eagerly brings Carraway to meet his mistress Carraway confesses, “Though I was curious to see her, I had no desire to meet her—but I did” (Fitzgerald 24). Although critical of Tom’s infidelity, Carraway’s feelings evolve into indifference and reveal his unstable moral standards. Nick further exhibits indifference when he fails to oppose the apathy of his companions; although upset by their dispassion, he feels no impulse to mitigate their social vices. After Gatsby is only concerned about Daisy after Myrtle's death, Carraway condemns Gatsby’s priorities. But Carraway only lambastes: “I disliked him so much by this time that I didn’t find it necessary to tell him he was wrong” (Fitzgerald 143). His refusal to correct Gatsby illustrates his willingness to allow negligence to continue, reflecting his unreliable moral character. Ultimately, Carraway’s return to the West confirms his chronic apathy. Scarred from death and the impersonality of the East, Carraway states, “‘When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention

Nick Carraway, the speaker of the novel “The Great Gatsby” is a young man from Minnesota, who after graduating from Yale and fought as a soldier in WWI, moves to New York in order to learn more about the bond business. Carraway narrates through a series of events, the story and life of Jay Gatsby, a self-made man, who was once his next door neighbor in New York. The Great Gatsby takes place during the 1920s, which was during the age of dramatic social and political changes. Between 1920 and 1929, the nation’s overall wealth doubled. This large and drastic economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent and a consumer society. During this time, materialism and money was the main thing that remained significant to society. The people during this time revolved

When I first read the novel, The Great Gatsby wrote by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s. I thought it was bittersweet because, the main character Nick Carraway was living a lifestyle that others pay thousands to live. Nick had to pay eighty dollars for his home rather than, three thousand to four thousand a month which the other home owner around him have to pay. Nick’s neighbor Mr. Gatsby has a high end house. Mr. Gatsby has several people who come in and out his house to party on the weekend. While I was reading, I didn’t understand clearly why Nick went to go visit Daisy and Tom Buchan? Did Nick want to visit them because, it’s been a while since he’s seen his college friend? I found it very interesting on page 32, Myrtle Wilson the sister of Catherine