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Loss Of Morals And Values In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald builds upon the loss of values and morals after World War One. The book's narrator, Nick Carraway, follows Jay Gatsby as he tries to reignite his love with Daisy Buchanan after finally making enough money over 5 years to win her from her current husband Tom Buchanan. Jay Gatsby’s attempts at Daisy bring him close to his dreams but he lost his chance, and soon after he dies. The characters in The Great Gatsby show the loss of morals and values in the 1920’s, this can be seen with Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy.
World War One was devastating, the loss of life shocked many people. The war created an era of people who were lost and and defeated and slowly their morals and values started to decay. The people of this …show more content…

Tom comes from “old” money, the respectable type of money, as Gatsby comes from “new” money so he is seen as tacky and not equal. The Roaring Twenties was very much about showing what you owned and owning the best money can buy. Mr. Buchanan is controlling of everything he possibly can, when Nick Carraway visits the Buchanan household Tom is quick to show him what he owns,”’ “I’ve got a nice place here,” he said, his eyes flashing about restlessly. Turning me around by one arm, he moved a broad flat hand along the front vista, including in its sweep a sunken Italian garden, a half acre of deep, pungent roses, and a snub-nosed motor-boat that bumped the tide offshore” (Fitzgerald 7). Tom shows the corruption of the rich through how he interacts with others. Tom has the idea that because he has money and is of a high social class he is worth more. In the book every interaction Tom has with the car garage owner, George Wilson, he talks down to him as if he were a servant. Tom also shows the loss of moral in this time period when the reader finds out about his affair with another woman named Myrtle. Tom thinks he can always retreat into his money if something goes awry, such as after Gatsby is killed he interacts with Nick and talks about how Gatsby had deserved to die(Fitzgerald

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