Theme Of Selfishness In The Great Gatsby

Gatsby makes it his life's mission to become rich, thinking this will be sure to win Daisy over. Daisy is married though, and his life's ambition of having Daisy fails. Gatsby surrenders his morals by breaking the law to earn the riches he thinks will buy her love but it is done for nothing, Daisy was not won over with his new wealth.

Ambitions are an integral aspect of human culture. They motivate us in a ceaseless pursuit of constant success. However, humans are truly not contempt with their successes, and perpetually dream for more success in a never-ending spiral of greed. Jay Gatsby’s character throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, is an ideal epitome of human greed, or as we can refer to it, the American dream. Fitzgerald is able to foster a culture within the novel where dreams seem unreachable, despite the amount of hunger, or greed, one may possess in aim of fulfilling their desires. A sense of elitism is also present within the novel as Fitzgerald ably crafts astounding discrepancies within the social structure of the era fondly

When facing a conflict, one mostly tries to find a solution that will benefit him rather than accommodate everyone. It’s much more satisfactory to have everything go one’s way than having to compromise with another. This selfish mentality is something that repeatedly takes place in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, where many characters act out of their own self-interest. However, throughout The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, the individuals often commit acts of true altruism. Instead of always being on the lookout for themselves, they often make sacrifices for others. The Great Gatsby’s selfish, egocentric acts contrast with the altruistic, selfless acts in The Grapes of Wrath through demonstrations of self

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.

Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, is also someone who is blinded by his greed. “Her voice was full of money”, Gatsby says about Daisy, his love interest. In saying this, he means that she is full of wealth, status, and notoriety, all things that Gatsby craves. Gatsby is an ambitious man who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. He is a man who believes that money and possessions alone will allow him to get what he truly wants: the love of his life, Daisy. However, Gatsby is so blinded by his greed that he joins the mob to grow his fortunes and commits acts as unspeakable as murder. Daisy's discovery of this convinces her to stay with Tom, as Gatsby is likely to be arrested and therefore lose his wealth. Had Gatsby gone about his business in a moral way, he would have most likely won Daisy back. However, his ambition and desperate need for Daisy blind him and convince him that any immoral act is excusable and necessary to achieve his goals. Gatsby is a man with good intentions, but in the end, he allows his greed to get the best of

I think Gatsby is a very great person because of the fact that he did a lot of things for other people, for example he did Nick's grass and decorated his house to make it look nice, even though ultimately it was for him to see Daisy and he wanted it to be nice it was still a nice gesture. No one asked him to throw all those amazing parties and make everyone happy. All though all the things he did were selfish and for his own good he was still a great person.

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby spent years trying to achieve his dream, but he made a bad decision and lost his chance. Gatsby met Daisy a couple years before (Fitzgerald 74). He would hide his social class from her because he was afraid she wouldn’t like him. He never forgot her, even when he went to fight in the war. He has been formulating a plan to get Daisy back. He comes back and got a house across the lake from Daisy, hoping to be with her some day. He did a lot of bad business to get all of his wealth, but the money wasn’t enough. He wanted to be with Daisy. He eventually gets to meet up with Daisy because of Nick’s help, and Gatsby gets closer to being able to live a life with Daisy. One day, everyone (Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick, and Jordan) is in town, renting a hotel room to deal with the heat. Tom figures out that Daisy and Gatsby have something going on. Tom gets mad and everyone starts to head home. On the way back, Gatsby lets Daisy drive his car, which was his bad decision (Fitzgerald 143). Daisy hits Myrtle,

Have you ever noticed how people almost always talk about what they do not have instead of what they do? Well in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this is a major part of the book. Fitzgerald’s characters are used to show that people are greedy and always will be. Specifically, Fitzgerald uses Jay Gatsby to show that society is greedy because he always focuses on what he does not have instead of what he does have. First, Fitzgerald shows how Gatsby does everything to impress Daisy, by how Gatsby becomes rich to win her over and how he does everything for Daisy. Secondly, Fitzgerald shows how Gatsby throws extravagant parties to impress Daisy. Finally, he shows how Gatsby is not happy being rich or poor. This is important because

Throughout the novel, the reader is constantly wondering who exactly Gatsby is and the mystery as to how he made his riches. It is later learned that he gained his money dishonestly. Gatsby did this with the purpose of gaining the woman he loved since she wanted to live a wealthy life. Daisy’s greed drove Gatsby into having the ambition of becoming rich. Daisy had even chosen Tom Buchanan to marry to live a wealthy life regardless of how poorly treated she was by him. She picked him over Gatsby since Gatsby was not rich at the time they met. She even exaggerates her greed by killing Myrtle and uses Tom to blame Gatsby to keep her life of wealth. Nick says “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 136-145). Gatsby admits to the murder she committed and in the end is killed by Winston,the husband of Myrtle. Their strive for money, specifically Daisy, lead to the death of Gatsby, a man that simply wanted to be with his love by any means necessary, yet fails in the

lose his riches at any time, and if Daisy were with him she would end

Originally, the American dream for the first settlers was for their children, and they would sacrifice everything for freedom of religion, and thought. Although, the American dream in the 1920’s is to live in happiness through financial and social success. For many, this selfish dream is achieved through illegal activity such as bootlegging, and gambling. This dream is mirrored in many novels such as The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s demise to highlight both the fragility of, and un-attainableness of the American dream in the 1920’s.

     Gatsby lives a selfless life in order to attain his dream. His loyalty to his dream is Gatsby’s most noble characteristic. Although it seems to be too idealistic, Gatsby “[throws] himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that [drifts] his way.” (101) His entire existence revolves around his dream; recapturing Daisy’s heart, taking her away from Tom and living happily ever after in his mansion he built with her approval in mind.

The decay of the American Dream is a result of the 1920 era of exceptional prosperity and excess material. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby portrays the American Dream of originally being about discovery of one’s self and obtaining happiness. Fitzgerald then proves the 1920s is filled with cynicism, selfishness and meaningless pursuit of money and pleasure in association to the American Dream. In result, the disintegration of the American Dream is fostered from the desire for wealth and money, the decay of social and moral values, and the attempt to recreate the past.

Gatsby came from nothing and being a poor person which had a part in his motivation. All of his shallow behavior and materialism was in his struggle to reinvent himself and win the heart of Daisy Buchanan. To Gatsby Daisy represents money and eminence and he fell in love with her without knowing what complications she would cause him. After many years from their first interaction Daisy grew tired of waiting for Gatsby to reunite with her and she ended up marrying a man from old money, Tom Buchanan. Gatsby was a good man even though he lied numerous times about his past and attempted in stealing another man’s wife. Gatsby just craved the challenge that he got with other men for Daisy’s love and we learns this on Page 141 in his conversation with her:

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a story that has many different themes. Fitzgerald shows the themes that he uses through his character’s desires and actions. This novel has themes in it that we deal with in our everyday life. It has themes that deal with our personal lives and themes that deal with what’s right and what’s wrong. There are also themes that have to do with materialistic items that we deal desire on a daily basis. Fitzgerald focuses on the themes of corrupted love, immorality, and the American Dream in order to tell a story that is entertaining to his readers.