In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author uses the characters actions and thoughts to build his theme. He illustrates the carelessness of the idle rich through Nick's views of Tom and Daisy. Nick initially views Tom and daisy as extravagant and magnificent people, but after the tragic death of Myrtle, he views them as irresponsible and selfish to show the idle rich are careless. Nick initially views Tom and Daisy as extravagant and magnificent people. Before Nick has dinner at Tom and Daisy's mansion, Nick describes Tom. "I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own." (p.7) Nick seems to understand that Tom may appear cruel on the outside, but there is something that causes people to want others to like him. As for Daisy, Nick describes her by her voice as, "the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. Her face was sad and …show more content…
While Daisy was driving home with Gatsby in his car, Daisy stuck and killed Myrtle Wilson because of Daisy's careless and reckless driving. "The 'death car' as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment, then disappeared around the next bend."(p.137) Daisy was not strong enough to take the responsibility for herself as she never feels guilt or confesses that she was the one driving the car that killed Myrtle. Therefore, Tom misleads George Wilson by implying that Myrtle was Gatsby's mistress and that Gatsby was responsible for her death. Thus Tom gets Gatsby killed. Nick says, "I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused."(p.179) Nick knows now that Tom and Daisy are careless and selfish, but he's not happy with the way they are dealing with this