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Examples Of Selfishness In The Great Gatsby

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In Scott Fitzgerald's ”The Great Gatsby” the sense of Nick's disillusionment is a big overarching idea that is displayed in many ways including the selfishness expressed by the characters, the corruption in the city , and the regularized cheating. The characters in the book more than not always express a sense of selfishness and a sort of fakeness and a lack of awareness for others. You’re a rotten driver,” I protested. “Either you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn’t to drive at all.“I am careful.”,“No, you’re not”,“Well, other people are,” she said lightly( Fitzgerald, 59). Jordan’s selfishness is really expressed here as she displays the lack of care for anyone other than herself and believing everyone will behave and do anything just for her best interest. Jordan does quite the opposite of owning up to her behavior …show more content…

When speaking to Nick, Gatsby mentions one of his rather big “connections”, Mr. Wolfsheim. Gatsby explains “He is the man who fixed the world series back in 1919”(Fitzgerald,73). As told by Nick he now knows who Mr Wolfshiem was and what kind of business he was a part of and gave him an idea on the corruption happening. This knowledge can lead to disillusionment in Nick, who up until this point had seen Gatsby as a mysterious and enigmatic figure with a glamorous lifestyle.Taking a white card from his wallet, he waved it before the man’s eyes. “Right you are,” agreed the policeman, tipping his cap. “Know you next time, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse ME!”( Fitzgerald, 68). This white card was obviously given to him by the mob in order to deal with the police to be able to get out of trouble and turn a blind eye to crime. This also was most likely a point where Nick began to realize that Gatsby wasn’t from the background that he had pictured himself to be from as even Harvard men don’t get white cards made to get out of police matters

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