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Essay paper on the great gatsby
Essay paper on the great gatsby
Essay paper on the great gatsby
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Myrtle having an affair on her husband with Tom shows she dreams of having money and being a part of the upper class social group. Myrtle wants the life that Daisy has with Tom, this is clear when they are at the apartment that Tom keeps. Fitzgerald shows Myrtle as being jealous of Daisy because when Tom gives her a puppy as a gift she talks about Daisy, Tom says sternly never mention my wife again.
She carries her full figured self to attract the eye of her lover. Myrtle is a foolish girl believing that the only reason Tom does not leave Daisy is because she is Catholic, which is far from the truth. “And I couldn’t keep my eyes off him, but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head.” (Fitzgerald 36) Myrtle plays dumb when it comes to Tom having an interest in her when they first met on the train.
Nick describes Myrtle on page 125 that: “I realized that her eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife”(Fitzgerald). She was green with envy and this influence her behaviour. Thus, she can not act rationally. As a consequence, she ran straight to the road and towards Gatsby whom she thought was Tom. The car hit her and she dead for her irrational behaviour.
But in reality, Tom doesn't want to be in a long distance relationship with Myrtle, Instead, he’s treating her like a possession in the palm of his hand. With Myrtle’s tires burned out, It’s time to focus on the last
Yet her thoughts were still affected by money:” I want to get one of those dogs she said earnestly”(Fitzgerald 27) When Myrtle first gets together with Tom she immediately starts to become greedy and wants to buy a dog with Toms money. Leading to Tom being intimidated by her which makes her out to be crazy because her and Tom both lose control of their actions resulting in a brutal ending. Tom to Myrtle represents the life she doesnt have and the wealthy lifestyle Wilson couldn’t give her:”Beat me! He heard her cry..Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!” As soon as Myrtle was told she was going to move away from Tom and his money she thought now that her life was over, causing her to throw herself into traffic and die.
(May 29th 1922) - A shattered corpse of a woman was found at the valley of ashes last Saturday night at 9.30 pm. Eyewitnesses stated that she was hit by a yellow Rolls Royce, and a number of them suspect the vehicle was in the possession Jay Gatsby. This shouldn’t be a new lead that police have gotten a hold of, as rumors of several hit and runs incidents have been reported throughout New York. According to police reports, the victims name was Myrtle Wilson. Her close friend explained that she was the spouse of George Wilson, a garage owner in the industrial wasteland of the valley of ashes.
Reed Zenisek 2/25/23 Ms.Kirby English � The one that started it all� In the book the Great Gatsby, when Daisy was driving Gatsby’s car and struck Myrtle, that's what started it all. Daisy should be held accountable for both the death of Myrtle and Gatsby. In chapter 7 is when Daisy is driving Gatsbys car and ends up hitting Myrtle with the car, in a way this started a mini chain reaction, because Myrtle's husband George Wilson kills Gatsby.
Myrtle surprisingly, does not have a momentous reaction to this violence. Despite the adversity, Myrtle stays with Tom, as in her mind, he is her ticket to a life of wealth and fortune. Logically, Myrtle should have realized that Tom is an abusive, misogynist, who truly does not love her, however because she sees him as a powerful, wealthy man, Myrtle ignores these obvious red flags. In the pursuit of a better life, Myrtle chooses to ignore Tom’s abusive behaviours, and adheres to the violent, patriarchal power dynamic she is faced with. Moreover, throughout Myrtle’s life, she was sexualized, and her sexualization continued even after her death.
She grew to resent her own husband for being poor and unable to provide her with the lavish things Tom gave her. When talking about why she had married her husband when she seems to dislike him so much Myrtle explained, “‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally, ‘I thought he knew something about breeding but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe. ’”(pg. 34). Myrtle assumed that her husband, George Wilson, was a man who would be able to provide for both of them and wanted to live a comfy life.
Although the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the parties and prosperity of the American 1920's, it reveals many major characters meeting tragic ends. The characters who meet these ends - Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson, and George Wilson - possess the same tragic characteristic: they endeavor for something more out of their lives than what they have. This ambition for what they could not have ultimately spelled their doom: Gatsby wanted money and Daisy; Myrtle wanted wealth and luxury, and sought it from Tom Buchanan; Wilson earned what he could only to please Myrtle. The Great Gatsby reveals a tragic nature through the trials and tribulations these characters endure to progress and prosper, only to receive death for their ambition. The exciting and wild time period of the "Roaring Twenties" provides a stark contrast to the deaths in order to further highlight the tragic nature of the novel, and leaves a theme that even those with the most hope and strong ambitions can fail and die miserably, no matter how much money they have.
Carelessness: Failure to give sufficient attention to avoiding harm or errors; negligence. Being careless is a poor quality that, unfortunately, many people possess. Obviously, every single person has committed an act of carelessness. It is natural for a human to do so. Seldom does carelessness result in a good outcome.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, characters have very distinct identities that develop throughout the book and many inferences are needed to understand the characters. One example of this is Daisy Buchanan. Daisy Buchanan cares greatly about wealth and is a very careless person. Throughout the novel, many of her decisions are due to her greed and carelessness, even though those decisions may not be the best decisions for her. Daisy displays her greed throughout the novel; she marries Tom Buchanan because of his wealth.
Conflicting moral judgement is a common theme in both novels, Atonement and The Great Gatsby, as shown by their protagonists. The Great Gatsby is set in New York during the early 1920’s before the Wall Street crash, not long after the first World War. Many of the American soldiers did not get home for a long time after the official end due to them helping to rebuild the rest of the world. Not long home from war himself, Nick moves in next door to Jay Gatsby mansion on West Egg. Nick’s old friend Tom and cousin Daisy live across the body of water on East Egg, where the ‘old money’ lives.
In the novel, Great Gatsby, the two main women presented are Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. There are many similarities and differences between Daisy and Myrtle. For instance both of them are unhappy in their lives and they are love in with a different with person, not with their husband. Their marriage is a jail. They are both in love with Tom in a different way, Daisy is the wife and Myrtle is the mistress.
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.