Relationships In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Relationships are an important part of a person's development and growth. Choosing the right person is extremely important to ensure a healthy and safe relationship. The Great Gatsby is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald published in 1925. In the novel, Daisy Buchanan is torn between her husband, Tom, and her former lover, Gatsby. Daisy should choose Tom because he is more successful, stable, and safer than Gatsby. Tom is more successful because he is more educated and experienced than Gatsby. When the main character of the novel, Nick, first introduces Tom he says, “her husband, among various other physical accomplishments, was one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven.”(6). Not only had Tom been a star athlete, but he also went to Yale, one of the most prestigious universities in the United States. Gatsby on the other hand only went to Oxford for 5 months thanks to a program for officers in the war. Throughout the novel, Gatsby claims to be an Oxford man even though he never really earned the right to go there. Along with being more successful, Tom is a more stable choice.

In the novel Nick describes the home of Gatsby, “a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy with a tower on one side, ” (5) and later the Buchanan’s, “a cheerful red-and-white Georgian colonial mansion overlooking the bay” (6). Gatsby’s mansion is much more extravagant as it represents the values of new money, showing off and taking risks. Tom and his home represent old money, being more reserved and careful, not needing to take so many risks. The more risks someone takes, the more likely they are to fail. If Gatsby keeps taking risks he could likely fail and potentially lose a lot of money. Tom is the more stable choice, but he is also the safer