A lie can go a long way. The question is if it right for an individual to lie for their own benefit? Should a person lie knowing the consequences could wound another? People will go long distances to achieve what they believe is success; lying being one of them. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald dabbles with the idea is it worth lying to achieve success. Throughout The Great Gatsby, each character lies to achieve what they view as their personal wealth: Gatsby lies for love, Tom lies for power, Nick lies for the sake of other people. Each character lies to achieve success, but was it right for Nick, Tom, and Gatsby to lie?
Gatsby lies to obtain the love of his life. All of Gatsby’s mind and attention is directed at Daisy. He truly believes for him to be content he must have Daisy all to himself. The first time Daisy and Gatsby met, Gatsby misrepresented what was truly there. “...he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe he was a person of
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He had been hurt by lies and hurt others through lies. Tom craves the feeling of power and the thrill of control. He goes to great measures to make sure he has control over both his wife and mistress, even if that means lying to whoever asks, even Myrtle’s sister. “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce. Daisy was not a Catholic” (Fitzgerald, 33). To ensure Tom can keep both his wife and mistress he lies about his situation with his wife. Tom’s lies don’t end with his mistress, they continue on to his wife. He lies about phone calls, where he is going, and who he is seeing. Lying seems to be easy for Tom. Tom doesn’t just lie to keep what he has but to make things better for himself. Tom offering a car to Mr. Wilson, Myrtle's husband, wasn’t to help Wilson but for Tom’s own benefit. He knew Myrtle would get to use the car allowing Myrtle to see him more. Tom is one of the biggest liars in The Great