ipl-logo

Morality Depicted In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

1403 Words6 Pages

Over many years, people do things that get a lot of attention out of it. In other circumstances, there aren’t things that get much attention. Like in the 1920’s, things were so “normalized” or ignored. In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald shows how society in the 1920s did not have many morals through behaviors of characters like Tom cheating, Myrtle being murdered by Daisy, and Jay Gatsby through illegal business. Yet, it was all being socially accepted by everyone around because they just wanted to party. To begin, throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, many immoral things have happened and events you can but can’t explain. Every single character does something you didn’t expect. For example, a couple …show more content…

There was nothing I could say, except the one unutterable fact that it wasn’t true” (Fitzgerald chapter 9). Tom was explaining to Nick Carraway that he had gone and talked to George Wilson and he had to tell him whose car it was, and who was driving. This is also when George finds out that Myrtle has a life outside of him. The police did nothing at that moment after knowing the car was yellow because of what George said he had seen. That is why George was asking Tom about who actually owned the car, and he took matters into his own hands. Knowing that her limps were discombobulated, no one seemed phased by it. Fitzgerald stated, “They had torn her shirtwaist, still damp with perspiration, they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap, and there was no need to listen for a heartbeat. The mouth was wide open and ripped at the corners, as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored for so long” (Fitzgerald chapter 7). This shows that no one cared enough to even see if she could somehow be alive, but because of her physical appearance, they didn’t. They just covered her up and let her

Show More
Related
1444 Words | 6 Pages

In The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, all the main characters differ in morality. This famous American novel is about the life of Jay Gatz, the Bunchanans, Jordan Baker, Nick Carraway, and many more. It takes place on the two eggs of Long Island New York in the summer of 1923. There is parties, cheating, and worst of all murders. The five main characters are immoral, so deciding who is the most moral, the reader must pick the best of the bad.

Read More
1002 Words | 5 Pages

Anne O’Hare McCormick has said “The foundations of the world will be shaky until the moral props are restored.” This quote is ironic, considering the theme of The Great Gatsby is a moral wasteland. The Great Gatsby in its entirety is one great big amalgamation of a moral wasteland. The story follows Nick Carraway, living in his tiny cottage next to the elusive Gatsby in West Egg, New York. Throughout the story, there are many different forms of immorality shown in different characters.

Read More
851 Words | 4 Pages

After this George did some of his own investigating which lead him to believe that Myrtle was having an affair with the owner of the yellow car. When Nick confronts Tom about what he told George he says, “”I told him the truth,” he said. “He came to the door while we were getting ready to leave, and when I sent down word that we weren’t in he tried to force his way upstairs. He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn’t told him who owned the car. His hand was on a revolver in his pocket every minute he was in the house…

Read More
598 Words | 3 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby, the character of Jay Gatsby stands out as one of moral ambiguity, captivating readers with his mysterious persona and complex actions. Gatsby's character is defined by his lavish displays of wealth and his unwavering devotion to Daisy Buchanan, the object of his affection. However, beneath his glamorous shell lies a man whose moral compass is often difficult to decipher. Gatsby’s moral ambiguity can be seen in his shady background and business dealings, however, everything he does seems to be in the interest of impressing Daisy, making the reader question if Gatsby is all that bad. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is an extremely mysterious character.

Read More
463 Words | 2 Pages

Some people have different moral standards than others. In some situations, one’s moral standards may be corrupted. In the book the Great Gatsby, a story set in the 1920’s, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald shows that the pursuit of the American Dream may result in moral corruption. Fitzgerald does this through one of the main characters, J. Gatsby. While attempting to achieve the american dream, he undoubtedly does many immoral things that he may have never done otherwise.

Read More
897 Words | 4 Pages

“I would trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday” — Janis Joplin. The Great Gatsby describes the conflicting relationship of romance and longing in an elite area of Long Island, New York, through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a young army veteran and stranger to the East Coast. Nick becomes entangled in fellow veteran Jay Gatsby’s search for forbidden love and realizes in The Great Gatsby that reliving the past ruins one’s future. Gatsby’s failure to leave his past behind him is evident in two ways: his refusal to recognize that his dream life with Daisy is purely wishful thinking and his resistance to conform to societal norms (a mindset developed by his poor upbringing). Romance and dedication are inherently important for one’s well-being, but never in excess.

Read More
529 Words | 3 Pages

The Roaring Twenties, known as the decade of the 1920s in the Western World, consists of dramatic changes in social values. The cultural differences between the 1920s and the Victorian era changes people's behavior, where they become more free-will, youthful and carefree, despite of being more conservative before. People are more open-minded and found satisfaction through the “open pursuit of sex, money, and booze” (Berman 53) as they suggest their wealth and status in the society. New York City had become one of the cities where materialistic wealth has become the key of happiness and the standard to judge people's success, further leading Americans to pursue each other in a negative, acquisitive way. Through the different scenes and characters of the famous novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores how the society twisted the original idea of

Read More
686 Words | 3 Pages

Michael Fecht Mrs. Myers Academic English II 5/21/18 Immorality in the Great Gatsby Money dictates how people act and how they go about their day. It is very crucial; everything costs money. In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, everyone has money. The wealth that these characters have is a must for them. they show their wealth by flaunting the expensive attire they have or throw these parties in their expensive homes.

Read More
1221 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the course of American history, the notoriously famous novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has been believed to be a prominent novel encompassing the concept of morality. As the events of the novel transpire, many immoral actions that take place among the main characters. These immoral actions are identified and clearly classified by the foundational ideologies of the time period. However, it is important to recognize and identify the significant “nonjudgmental lens” through which Nick witnesses the immoral actions. Due to the fact that Nick attempts to inform the audience unbiased, it formulates a viewpoint that does not condemn nor call to action the immoral actions upon the characters of the novel, such as Gatsby and

Read More
1250 Words | 5 Pages

The novel Great Gatsby is a story that has literally been written off of dishonesty and misconception. Without the repetitive theme of lying and deception the book would simply not even exist. It is evident to see that in many aspects and characters of the book lying and deception plays an important role. This theme is truly weapon in self defense which builds

Read More
552 Words | 3 Pages

“What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story…” The eighth paragraph of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk,The Danger of a Single Story demonstrates how seeing the lives of characters in the novel through only Nick’s eyes affect the feelings of the reader. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is written from a first-person point of view, which generates a single impression of the lives of those in the novel. Fitzgerald fabricated Nick with a moral code, which creates a biased story – Nick believes he is non-judgemental but continues to judge others on what is morally ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Therefore, the reader is left only with a guess at who ,in the story, truly is what Nick says they are.

Read More
374 Words | 2 Pages

Peoples’ morality and culture is defined as differing from continent to continent, country to country, or even as small as state to state. At times, the ethics differ even between city and city, but for the two Eggs, the difference lies between mere neighbors. On one morning as Nick steps outside his house, Gatsby appears in his Rolls-Royce which Nick describes as “a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns” (64). Just observing Gatsby’s vehicle implies Fitzgerald’s view of the East Egg’s new-money residents as everyday and lacking in social graces. The Rolls-Royce itself is a stereotypical rich-man’s car, in the 1920s selling at 400 thousand dollars in today’s

Read More
1353 Words | 6 Pages

The students' cessation of doing Membean bothered Ms. Costello to the point where she decided to give her students an extra credit assignment. Tom Buchanan looked as if he was suffering from a malady when we began to realize his wife and his mistress were slowly slipping away from him. Abigail Williams and her lies appeared indomitable to John Proctor, which led him to accept death at the end of the story. Gatsby recognized Dan Cody was a pathological drinker, and after seeing the consequences of this level of drinking, vowed to stay sober. At times, Chris McCandless' Transcendental beliefs seemed to go into remission, like when he got a job at McDonalds.

Read More
1659 Words | 7 Pages

Characters throughout The Great Gatsby present themselves with mysterious and questionable morals. Affairs, dishonest morals, criminal professions, weak boundaries and hypocritical views are all examples of immorality portrayed in The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, lies and mischief fill the lives of many and significantly damage numerous relationships. First, Jay Gatsby's whole life is consumed into a massive lie. His personality traits set him apart from others and the attention he accumulates motivates him to falsely portray his life.

Read More
227 Words | 1 Pages

Through the moral ranking activity, I learned a lot about my own values, morals and character traits. For instance, I learned that I highly value equality, which prompted me to instantly depict Tom as the least moral character because he is racist, abusive and oppressive in order to make himself superior to others. I also learned that I value obedience and respecting the law, which led me to disagree with other classmate’s beliefs that Gatsby and George are the most moral because they have both broken the law by commiting murder, participating in organized crime and illegally selling grained alcohol. Furthermore, through many classmate’s statements that Nick is the most moral, I discovered that I am unable to share this opinion because I firmly

Read More

More about Morality Depicted In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Open Document