Magazines, motion pictures, wars. The mentioned are all contributions to changes to society; particularly changes to morality. World War I caused multiple changes in America. The roaring twenties was focused on enjoying life and living up the years of one’s youth. These changes are demonstrated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby. Dishonesty and infidelity are great examples of the change in which occurred post-World War I because each person in America was focused on one’s class and living in the moment; Jordan and Tom exemplify these changes extensively. The word “dishonesty” is written all over F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, metaphorically speaking. Jordan Baker is a perfect example of this. Jordan lies all the time just to lie. She is very good at lying to get what she wants and is “incurably dishonest” as Nick Carraway describes her, “Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men… She was incurably dishonest.” (Fitzgerald Ch. 3)Nick Carraway even admits at one point that she is the most dishonest person he has ever met which is why he decided the relationship was no good for him. Jordan’s compulsive lying …show more content…
This is proven in the beginning of the book by Jordan’s words, “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (Fitzgerald 15) and some pages later Tom insisted on Nick meeting Myrtle, “I want you to meet my girl” (Fitzgerald 24) Infidelity can affect both rich and poor, and young and old relationships. Not all marriages are completely safe from infidelity. Many times one may want what they do not or can not have. During the roaring twenties this may have been a colossal issue most likely because of the war. World War I left many women at home without a man in the house for a long while. This situation leads loneliness and women looking for satisfactions of “needs” to affairs and being cheated on. This is only one example of
They both cheat on each other and yet they come together at the end of the day and show their fondness and love for one another. “Tom’s got some woman in New York.” (Fitzgerald 15). Daisy and Jordan both know Tom is cheating on Daisy with some woman in the city. While Tom thinks he’s ingenious and doesn’t bring up his mistress when Jay and Daisy try to tell Tom that they want to be together.
Her motivation to do this is because she wants people to think she is rich just like Daisy’s motivation. The outcome of her having an affair makes her an unfaithful wife to her husband. Finally, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson are the characters in the novel that put on untruthful identity for them to cover their mistakes, and their motivations show what kind of
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.
The 1920s carried much change in society. Some of these changes were more rights for women, jazz music, and prohibition. The people of the 1920s were disillusioned by society lacking in idealism and vision, sense of personal alienation, and Americans were obsessed with materialism and outmoded moral values (The Roaring Twenties).Cultural changes were strongly influenced by the destruction of World War I ending 1918. America needed to recover and with it youth rebelled against the norms of the older generations.
The theme of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is that the upper class tend to participate in actions that are commonly seen as dishonest, unfaithful, or sketchy. Characters like Nick, Gatsby, Tom and George have twisted views on their own reality due to unfaithfulness and dishonesty. Nick was constantly lied to in the story, for example, Gatsby lied to him about where he got his money. Lies, similar to the one above, gave Nick some twisted views on the reality of his friendship. Gatsby had a twisted view on love due to Daisy marrying Tom right after he left for the war, rather than waiting for him.
In the story The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the majority of the characters are either dishonest, chasing hollow dreams, or plain ignorant. Fitzgerald flaunts the flaws of these characters regularly. Tom Buchanan is a constant example of dishonesty, due to his reoccurring affair with Myrtle Wilson. Although she does not believe it true, Daisy is one of the most ignorant characters.
Fitzgerald uses similies to show Myrtle is jealous of Jordan because she is with Tom visiting Wilson. Nick notices Myrtle looking through a window over the garage, Myrtle is “so engrossed that she had no consciousness of being observed.” (313). Nick then notices Myrtle face, “one emotion after another crept into her face like objects into a slowly developing picture… I realized that her eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife.” (131).
Scott Fitzgerald reinforces the oppression of women through his menial depiction of women. Fitzgerald uses his character, Daisy Buchanan, to represent the selfish and shallow perspectives on upper-class women during his era. He contrasts this image of wealthy society by using Myrtle Wilson, a needy mistress, to manifest the greed existent within the women at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Jordan Baker embodies a highly modernized and independent female during the time, yet she is constantly treated unequal to men. Fitzgerald creates females that are subjected to constant inferiority in his novel, rather than giving them more original characteristics.
An important theme in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is the corruption of morals because of wealth. It doesn’t matter if one comes from old or new money, wealth will corrupt the morality of even the humblest. The first example of wealth corrupting morals is in the indifference to infidelity between the married Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. The next example of wealth corrupting morals is seen in Jordan Baker’s actions to keep her luxurious lifestyle. Third, Jim Gatsby’s pursuit of wealth lead to the corruption of his morals.
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.
The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates a morally ambiguous character that can’t be defined as strictly good or evil. Moral ambiguity is the driving force towards Gatsby’s actions. The character Gatsby demonstrates morally ambiguous qualities that initiate plot throughout the whole novel. Morally ambiguous choices can be viewed towards Gatsby’s character throughout the novel. The first glimpse of Gatsby is introduced in the first chapter while Nick is “exempting him from his reaction” of a “uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever” already placing Gatsby in a position of moral ambiguity (Fitzgerald 2).
The 1920s in America, also known as the Roaring Twenties, was a time of political, social, economic, technological, and cultural developments. These developments created new changes and helped shape the ways of life of the American people. Women played a significant example in social changes. From improvements in the education system, to minor developments such as the changes in attire. Another major development was economic production.
In The Great Gatsby there was a huge absence of intimacy and admiration in the marriages, and no one was trying to secure their union to each other either because they were in the relationship for their spouse’s money, or cheated because they felt lavish and could get away with it. F. Scott Fitzgerald wants the reader to know that pretending that everything is okay just leads to false illusions of a perfect reality in the eyes of one person or another. The fact that everyone knows that Tom has a mistress and that Daisy looks the other way makes her look clueless and foolish. “The fact that he had one [a mistress] was insisted upon wherever he was known.
Carelessness: Failure to give sufficient attention to avoiding harm or errors; negligence. Being careless is a poor quality that, unfortunately, many people possess. Obviously, every single person has committed an act of carelessness. It is natural for a human to do so. Seldom does carelessness result in a good outcome.
Firstly, the concept of deceit is a universal issue presented in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby is a prime exhibitor of this issue, as he lies about many things. For example, he lies to Daisy when she asks him "I thought you inherited your money" (Fitzgerald, CH 5, Para 97). He replies with “I did, old sport, [...]