Theme Of Morality In The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald depicts 1920’s America as an age of decline in traditional social and moral values; primarily evidenced by the cynicism, greed and the relentless yet empty pursuit of prosperity and pleasure that various characters in The Great Gatsby exhibit. He presents a society in which uninhibited consumerism, materialism and an all-pervading desire for wealth have perverted the previously righteous qualities of the American Dream, corrupting it in the process.

Morally ambiguous characters appear in many works of literature. The exemplary ambiguous character in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” is Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a morally ambiguous character because of the actions he takes in order to achieve his own goals, Daisy. Furthermore, through Gatsby’s moral ambiguity, Fitzgerald reveals that setting a facade is ultimately bad.

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

In the Great Gatsby however partying, easy money and the absence of God corrupts this dream. During the 1920s God was believed to not be present. People believed God just sat back and watched things unravel. When a man named Wilson said “God sees everything” (160) someone replied with “That’s an advertisement”(160). A symbol for God in Fitzgerald’s books is a billboard ad for eye glasses. This billboard had large yellow glasses, blue eyes but no nose or face, named TJ Eckleburg. TJ Eckleburg was always present and watching everything that happened but that’s all he did, he never took action, much like God. Gatsby conserves many of his connections in order to maintain his luxury lifestyle. When speaking to Nick, Gatsby mentions one of his rather big “gonnections”, Mr. Wolfsheim. Gatsby explains “He the man who fixed the world series back in 1919”(73). Fitzgerald allows us to see Gatsby’s corrupt achievement through a false sense of pride. This lets the reader understand completely that Gatsby as well as the American dream are corrupt. When Gatsby reveals a shadier side of how he came into his wealth with Wolfsheim, Fitzgerald foreshadows a theme of corruption late in the story. Therefore Gatsby’s craving for love and money finally disassembles his life

True love is seen through a relationship of two people. Love exists when two people give all their trust, loyalty, and support to one another. Now imagine finding out all of the love and loyalty was false? Betraying a loved one can make someone capable of things they didn’t even know they were capable of. Betrayal is the breaking of a trust that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals. In The Great Gatsby, characters pursue in the action of having an affair and the result of betraying their loved ones. In the book, The Great Gatsby, the concept of true love is portrayed in a way that negatively affects the characters.

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.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the God is one who does not interfere with what people are doing on Earth. He does care about them, even if they have done wrong, doesn’t try to change them, or their morals. He is described as a “watcher” (Fitzgerald 167). He watches people cause their own destruction but does not do anything about it. The role of God and Religion in Gatsby is evident in the lack of religion among the upper/business class, it’s effect on mortality, and the symbolism of God.

From the pessimistic introduction, it foreshadows a later downfall. Starting from the first encounter, Nick has an indescribable feeling derived from the cogent stare. For example, as Nick and Tom slowly “walked back a hundred yards along the road under Doctor Eckleburg 's persistent stare” (Fitzgerald 24), Nick feels uneasy about the inanimate billboard even though no one is staring at them. The location of the eyes, on the road half way between West Egg and New York, symbolizes the different paths of life. When one arrives at the turning point, they have their power to choose their path, but God will watch you as you make those decisions. Nick, for instance, faces the decision of whether to inform Daisy about Tom’s not so secretive affair or dissimulate the unfaithful relationship after the visit to Tom and Myrtle 's secret apartment.

There are many themes in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby in which many people can relate to today. Fitzgerald demonstrates a lot of themes that have to humanity and its many flaws. One of the major themes in Fitzgerald’s book is the theme of selfishness and its negative effects on the characters and the people around them. According to the Oxford Dictionary, selfishness is “lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure.” In more simple terms, it is when a person puts his or her own needs in before others. There are many characters in this book that depict this characteristic through the story.

The lack of religion is evident in The Great Gatsby, befitting to the Fitzgerald’s 1920s American context. The principle characters disregard towards alcohol and the prohibition in general, suggests their apathy towards religion however, subtle elements are detected through the character, George Wilson. The billboard revealing the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg in the Valley of Ashes are represented as the eyes of God. However, as opposed to a religious figure,

Afterwards, Wilson states, “God knows… everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!” Wilson then looks up at the enormous eyes of Dr T. J. Eckleburg, painted on a billboard in the ‘Valley of Ashes’, an example of the technique of symbolism. These eyes represent the vision of God- all seeing and continually judging the corrupt lifestyle of Americans. Equivalently, the broken-down town and underprivileged community within the ‘valley of ashes’, are symbolic of the manner in which upper-class society has morally broken down. Through this technique, Fitzgerald has created a representation of his own distinct values against the social decline of morals within his own context and is persuading responders of all eras to accept this view.

The Webster dictionary defines morality as a moral discourse, statement or lesson. In the novel, “The Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald many of the characters could not be classified as truly moral people who exhibit goodness or correctness in their character and behavior. Tom, Daisy, and George all come to mind as the characters that have done the most moral damage throughout the novel. In the end, these individuals show characteristics of a moral decay in society because the cause corruption and lies, which is why they are morally responsible for the destruction of humanity.

After a time of prosperity, the roaring 1920’s became a decade of social decay and declining moral values. The forces this erosion of ethics can be explained by a variety of theories. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald paints a convincing portrait of waning social virtue in his novel, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald portrays the nefarious effects of materialism created by the wealth-driven culture of the time. This was an era where societal values made wealth and material possessions a defining element of one’s character. The implications of the wealthy mindset and its effects on humanity are at the source of the conflict in The Great Gatsby, offering a glimpse into the despair of the 20’s. During a time

World War I brought new views on religion to the United States, it ended just before the 1920s so these views were carried over. Some turned to god, while others turned away. Morals were changing in that people spent their time and money on completely different things now. Religion had been the basis of many people’s lives before this, making this way of thinking and acting brand new. In The Great Gatsby, Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes symbolize god and how traditional religion and morality are sinking away from everyday life.