Empathy In The Great Gatsby

Sophia Mechler

Mrs. Fenlon

Honors English III

22 March 2023

Title

While reading literature created during the 1920s, the reader learns about different characters. Some of them are morally good, while others lack a soul and are empty inside. Especially, when completing the novel, The Great Gatsby, readers get a glimpse into the entitlement of the rich during the 1920s. Fitzgerald shows this by providing that most of the characters who live on East Egg inherited their money and never had to work hard for anything. Meanwhile, he shows that the characters who were living on the West Egg were the newly wealthy who appreciated their money because of how hard they worked for it. But, specifically, in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the

Since Tom grew up in a wealthy family, he inherited a lot of his money which made him a very wealthy and privileged man who never had to work for anything in his life. Due to his very lavish lifestyle, Tom continuously mocks lower class status citizens like Myrtles Husband and George Wilson for reasons like when “he borrowed someone’s best suit to get married” and how he is a very unsuccessful businessman operating a run-down garage in the Valley of Ashes (Fitzgerald 35). Not only does Tom show how he is privileged because he has a lot of money, but he is also continuously shows how racially privileged he is by making little remarks. These include tom making racist comments and believing that white people “are the dominant race” (Fitzgerald 13). Tom has prejudiced views towards people that are any different than him due to the fact that he believed that the lesser races, which included African Americans, were outbreeding the white race, which he though was

Daisy is a girl who strongly represented perfection as she was a part of a wealthy family and had a charming personality. A girl who Tom married for the idea of her. On the outside, it seemed that Tom and Daisy Buchanan were a perfect married couple that had a perfect life. But what no one knew was that shortly after they got married Tom started cheating on his wife, Daisy, with various people including Myrtle Wilson. Tom feels the entitlement to cheat on his wife because his higher social position gives him control over woman. After looking at the lavish lifestyle, perfect personality, and higher status of Daisy he decided to remain with her. Daisy not only “made him look good” (Taylor 2) but he loved the idea of a beautiful and socially savvy wife. On the other hand, Myrtle was not part of either of the rich societies, she lived in the Valley of Ashes and was known as an extreme money chaser. Therefore “he openly carries on an affair with the pathetic and vulgar Myrtle Wilson” (Werlock 2). Which Daisy knew about. She continued to stay as his not-so-secret mistress because she has a lower status in society than him, and that he would never marry her because it would make him look bad. Tom and Daisy continuously provide each other with financial and social stability, and in the end of the book, “that is why Daisy chooses him” (Taylor