Intention Of Minor Characters In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Claire Simpson
Mrs. Tollett
American Literature
20 April 2023
The Exceptional Intention of Minor Characters in The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an American classic novel with an abundance of emblematic characters and moments. All of Fitzgerald’s characters are purposeful and represent a part of what life was like for people who lived in the 1920’s. Even the minor characters are intricate and allow the book to have a more profound meaning. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald intentionally creates complex minor characters that are integral to the symbolism and themes of the novel.
A particularly symbolic character in The Great Gatsby is Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle is married to George Wilson but is having an affair with Tom Buchannan.

This contrast is purposeful and displays the difference in the perception between the women of different classes in the 1920’s. There is a deliberate variance in the description of Myrtle and Daisy that characterizes not only themselves but the distinction in their communities. Tom is bored and unsatisfied with his life and uses Myrtle and the atmosphere of the Valley of Ashes as a source of amusement. An opportunity “[in] a world where [Tom] would otherwise not be able to enter” is provided by Myrtle, and he takes it readily (Kersh “The Great Gatsby: George. . .”). Tom is craving variation and Myrtle has all of the “qualities that would be completely foreign to his wife” (Kersh “The Great Gatsby: George. . .”). More importantly are the similarities between the two women. They are both unhappy in their respective marriages, and “Fitzgerald pointedly characterize[s] [Myrtle and Daisy] by their profound ennui” (Bick). The connection that this quote creates supports the theme that wealth will never satisfy all desires. Daisy is a wealthy woman who lives a privileged life. Yet her lack of satisfaction runs rampant

While he represents many things, “his primary function in the novel is to kill Gatsby” (Kersh “The Great Gatsby: Major. . .). Gatsby spends his whole life focusing on one goal and he never accomplishes it. After the destruction of his one and only purpose, there is no way Gatsby could go on. George’s assassination of Gatsby confirms that Gatsby could not have lived a happy, fulfilling life after his singular aspiration is destroyed when Daisy confesses that she did and still does love Tom. All in all, George is a man who works tirelessly to get by but in the end his “dreams have long been depleted” and “is already beat down by life” (Lehan 96,93). George is representative of living with no purpose and having nothing to achieve and “when [he] fires the fatal shots. . . he kills. . . a cultural embodiment of his very self” (Lehan 96). George and Gatsby can be seen as “ideological brothers” (Lehan 96). George is what Gatsby would have become if he had lived long enough to come to the realization that his only desire is just slightly out of his reach. George serves an additional purpose and that is to be a worthy representation of the theme that wealth does not satisfy. He is the standard working class man who believes that wealth is one of the stepping stones to happiness. He wants to be in the upper class so badly that he “sacrifices his spirit, his belief, and finally himself” because he has no hope that