Examples Of Lies In The Great Gatsby

Society is engrossed with lies. We have all been exposed to their manipulative capabilities- whether we are the ones forging the spider-webs of deception and deceit- or we fall victim to the sticky clutches of another. These webs are all spun around us and support the structure and balance of our society. The extent of these entanglements is so broad that cities, economies, and social hierarchies would crumble without them. A society without lies does not and cannot exist- not even in fiction. F. Scott Fitzgerald's renown novel, The Great Gatsby, is an example of just this. In the novel, a young man named Nick Carraway leaves his life in the Mid-West for the buzzing world of New York. Once there, he finds himself immersed in a distinct group of

The character claims in the narration, “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (Fitzgerald 59), but that could not be further from the truth. Perhaps he was an honest man before New York, but he certainly wasn't honest once he was there. He was a constant spinner of webs while he blatantly ignored the plain facts. This specific type of liar is one that tells lies that are, “a false action done with the intent to deceive” (Ericsson 162). Throughout the novel, Carraway is a guilty doing just this in a number of ways, such as failing to tell his cousin Daisy Buchanan about the affair that Tom, her husband, was currently having after spending a day in the city with him and his mistress. He also does this when he sets down the foundation for another affair between her and Jay Gatsby by going along with an elaborate scheme put together by Gatsby himself. The wrong doings of their actions and even his own are apparent, but he turns a blind eye to it all and allows to proceed. His romantic interest in the novel, Jordan Baker, doesn't turn a blind eye to it all, but she certainly weaves a web of her