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Theme Of Deceit In The Great Gatsby

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“It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”(Noel Coward) F. Scott Fitzgerald's book “The Great Gatsby” shows themes of lies and deceit throughout the book.Many characters lie to the ones they love while also tricking them into believing things that are not necessarily true. With these themes in mind, it would be logical to change the title of this book to “Secrets, Secrets are no fun.” Many quotes throughout the book supports the changing of the title. One of the first instances where a supporting quote of lies and deceit can be seen in the story is, in a scene where Tom and Myrtle are discussing daisy. On page 33 Catherine says, “ It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce.” This elaborate lie is told with ease from Tom so Myrtle believes that it is ok for them to continue with their affair. Even more deceit came into …show more content…

In which Nick says, “ He looked at me sideways-and I knew why Jordan Baker believed he was lying.” Playing more into the fact that Gatsby is obsessed with keeping his true identity hidden by constantly talking and reassuring people that he is who he says he is. Since Gatsby is so insecure about his lie it is obvious to see his nerves and tell that he in fact is lying. Going to show that lies and deceit can only go on for so long before the pressure begins to make the lie crumble and fall apart. To conclude, many quotes throughout “The Great Gatsby” illustrate themes of lies and deceits through dialogue and their actions that they do. While these themes illustrate who these characters are as people but also summarizing overall themes of the book at the same time. Going to show how the new title of “Secrets, Secrets are no Fun” is extremely appropriate and

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The Great Gatsby is an American novel written by Scott Fitzgerald. On the surface, the book revolves around the concept of romance, the love between two individuals. However, the novel incorporates less of a romantic scope and rather focuses on the theme of the American Dream in the 1920s. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920’s as an era of decline in moral values. The strong desire for luxurious pleasure and money ultimately corrupts the American dream which was originally about individualism.

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The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island sprang from his platonic conception of himself ” (98). The implication that Gatsby already had the name picked out shows his dissatisfaction for the simple life that he lived and his desire to become someone else, someone who could pull off the guise of a gentleman who was born of old money. Nick stating that the new name was because of Gatsby’s “platonic conception of himself” indicates that Gatsby believed that he understood his values enough to know that throughout his life, he will try to aim for that goal of becoming a wealthy man who has a sphere of influence, basically, the American dream. These conceptions of Gatsby and his ideals about wealth are tools that the author uses to demonstrate the reasons that

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Tom lied to George as well in order to keep his affair secret. He then ends up saving himself and killing Gatsby by blaming Myrtle 's death on Gatsby in the quote, ”He ran over Myrtle like you 'd run over a dog and never even stopped his car" (178). He explains this here, “There was nothing I could say, except the one unutterable fact that it wasn 't true” (178). Over time, the consequences begin to take effect on George and his mental health goes downhill due to the shadieness of the upper class. He goes as far as locking his wife up in a closet, “‘I 've got my wife locked in up there,’”

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