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Life Lessons In The Great Gatsby

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Books can teach us about the past, but more importantly books can teach us lessons about life. The Great Gatsby is definitely categorized as one of those books. It teaches life lessons through Nick and Gatsby’s wild summer, as well as teaches readers about the roaring 20s age. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald teaches us that money cannot buy happiness, and that most people live a lie, pretending to be someone they are not, through Nick Carraway’s summer in New York.
An important lesson shown throughout The Great Gatsby is that money cannot buy happiness. The first time at Gatsby’s party towards the end of the night Nick overhears these two women sympathizing with each other, since both of their husbands always want to leave early. “ …show more content…

While Tom and Nick are headed into the city for the day, Nick meets Myrtle for the first time in the Valley of Ashes, and Tom invites Myrtle to the city with them. “... For Mrs. Wilson sat discreetly in another car. Tom deferred that much to the sensibilities of those Eat Eggers who might be on the train” (26). This part of the book exposes that Tom has a hidden love life in New York City that he keeps from Daisy and everyone in East Egg. Everyone thinks that Daisy and Tom are a power couple but Tom is not all that he seems, he leads a second life. Soon after Gatsby and Nick are standing in Gatsby’s lawn admiring his house, when Gatsby explains it took him only three years to earn the money to buy it. However this confuses Nick because Gatsby said he inherited all of his money. “ I think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what business he was in he answered: ‘That’s my affair,’ before he realized that wasn’t an appropriate response. ‘Oh, I’ve been in several things,’ he corrected himself” (90). This quote shows how Gatsby keeps majority of his life secret and puts on mask for all of his guests and Nick. gatsby does not want people to know his real affairs so he pretends to have a different life and hides his past. Through both Tom and Gatsby’s secret affairs F. Scott Fitzgerald unmasks that most people live a lie, pretending to be

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