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Behavior Depicted In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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In the 1920’s, the wealthy and poor lost sight of their morals. In the book, The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, used the characters of his novel to portray this immoral behavior of the “haves” and “have nots” during the 1920’s. This inappropriate behavior caused the characters to be involved in questionable situations. This included affairs, lack of manners and confusing their financial status as power. These occurred in relationships between the upper class men and other upper class men in the West and East Egg of New York and the upper class men with the lower class men in the Valley of Ashes. In the 1920’s, because of the superior personalities of the “haves”, they participated in disturbing events, which were overlooked …show more content…

Many of the characters in the book, The Great Gatsby, were involved in this heinous act of disrespecting their spouses, such as Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. One afternoon on a train ride to New York City, Tom said to Nick, “ ‘We’re getting off’, he insisted. ‘I want you to meet my girl.”(24). When wanting to introduce his mistress to Nick, Tom requested his desire in a nonchalant manner. He treated the situation as if it was normal and appropriate to cheat on your sprouse. Many affairs weren’t common in the Valley of Ashes, however, Myrtle Wilson, the wife of a proprietor of a car garage, was sexually involved with Tom Buchanan. When she met him she was overwhelmed with joy by his confident personality and wealth. Many, including Catherine, Myrtle’s sister described both, Tom and Myrtle’s marriages in a negative way. Catherine explained to Nick, “She looked at Myrtle and then at Tom. ‘What I say is, why go on living with them if they can’t stand them?” (33). Tom and Myrtle act sincere towards their spouses, but openly disrespect them by making their affair known to others. By disregarding the immoral part of having an affair, Tom and Myrtle lack common social ethics because of Tom’s selfish needs and Myrtle’s amazement and need for …show more content…

They assumed their money came with a certain disgustedly confident personality, and they could use it to do unspeakable things. Gatsby was known for his wealth in New York because of his luxurious life and parties; He was aware of this. One day he was driving with Nick Carraway and they got pulled over by the police. As the police approached the car, Gatsby pulled out a certain white card and gave it to the cop. The cop reacted and responded, “ Know you, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse me!” ‘What was that?’I inquired. ‘The picture of Oxford?’ ‘I was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year.” (68). Gatsby used the leverage he had on the police commissioner and his powerful appearance to manipulate the police into forgetting about the ticket. Gatsby assumed his known name would help him in life , but this assumption didn’t help with retrieving Daisy. In the beginning of their relationship, Gatsby meant Daisy as a middle class military man, but Daisy’s future intentions were to marry a wealthy man, which she did. After Gatsby became wealthy, he used his money to lure Daisy to him and captive her with his wealth. Gatsby threw tons of extravagant parties and Nick and Jordan noticed. They said to each other, “He wants her to see his house,’ she explained. ‘And your house is right next door.’... ‘I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night,’

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The Moral Decay of the Materialistic Although F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby debuted in 1925– before the Great Depression– it serves as a prophetic exemplification of the the material excess of the 1920s that drowned out signs of the coming Great Depression. The book’s plot follows the bootlegger Jay Gatsby as he pursues his old love Daisy Buchanan through flaunting his new extravagant lifestyle, mainly by throwing ostentatious parties. Yet, in the end, Daisy chooses her unfaithful husband Tom over Gatsby. Through Fitzgerald’s use of wealthy, materialistic characters, he comments on the effect of the material excess of the roaring twenties: moral corruption.

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In the early stages of the 20th Century, much of the United States began to see the country’s culture and history start to take form and adapt to the rest of the world. A large part of this transformation rooted from themes of dishonesty, immorality, and infidelity that came from the upper class. Known for hosting lavish parties, illegal activity and frequent affairs, many began to see how skewed this morality had come to be. While this had become the norm of the upper class at the time, it is attributed to having shaped part of the nation’s culture and formed what the time period is known for today. In the book, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates how the morals of the upper class are skewed and the overall effect of this immorality to the country through Tom Buchanan’s hypocrisy and affairs as well as through

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The actions Tom takes near the end of the story show how hypocritical Tom really is. For some reason, Tom is irritated that Gatsby and Daisy seem to have feelings for each other, but his affair with Myrtle is completely fine with him. To Tom, there is nothing wrong with him cheating on Daisy, but Daisy wanting to be with Gatsby is a horrid thing, even

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Gatsby owns a big house where he does party for anyone. The narrator in the book describes it fancily as: 'The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard--it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with

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The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and narrated by a man named Nick Carraway. This novel was written with the intent of showing the readers how morally corrupt the 1920s were. Throughout the novel, characters abandon their moral values for a materialistic lifestyle. The novel depicts a great picture of the roles men and women played in the 1920s. Even with the changing roles of men and women, they continued to rely heavily on whom they were married to and what social class they belonged to.

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Just like Daisy, Myrtle chooses money over love. She cheats on her husband George with Tom. Myrtle was a woman from the lower class who desired to be a part of the higher class. Tom spoiled Myrtle and gave her the lifestyle she always wanted. She belittles her husband and talk bad about him because he is not at the top of the social ladder where Tom is.

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Characters throughout The Great Gatsby present themselves with mysterious and questionable morals. Affairs, dishonest morals, criminal professions, weak boundaries and hypocritical views are all examples of immorality portrayed in The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, lies and mischief fill the lives of many and significantly damage numerous relationships. First, Jay Gatsby's whole life is consumed into a massive lie. His personality traits set him apart from others and the attention he accumulates motivates him to falsely portray his life.

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Nick would watch as, “On weekends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight…” (3.41) Gatsby became famous around New York because he threw elaborate parties every weekend at his mansion. Dozens of people attended Gatsby’s parties even when they weren’t invited, causing an influx of guests making him a popular host. ONce every two weeks, “...buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams...gins and liquors...a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos…”(3.41-42) Gatsby’s parties are unbelievably luxurious in preparation for Daisy’s appearance.

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Gatsby is not the only one with twisted views as a result of unfaithfulness. Myrtle, George’s wife, is cheating on George with Tom in the book made clear here, “Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He 's so dumb he doesn 't know he 's alive" (26). George suspects the cheating, but never truly discovers what is going on before she dies.

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Tom’s altercation with Myrtle accentuates his hypocrisy and lack of self-control; while he doesn’t feel guilty for cheating on Daisy with Myrtle, he feels that he has the right to maintain his authority over Myrtle. In this same scene, Myrtle, who is also drunk, draws attention to the negative aspects of her personality.

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In the 1920’s, social classes were divided with a large gap. The poor wanted nothing to do with the rich, and the rich wanted even less to do with the poor. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he uses the class structure in the 1920’s to redefine poverty. While the rich people in the novel are material rich, they are still “poor” socially and psychologically. Poverty is shown in a differently in this book than other books being written in this time era, and in doing this, it shows the rich what they are, and how they treat others from a different perspective.

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