How Does Fitzgerald Use Moral Decay In The Great Gatsby

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes about the moral decay taking place within the lives of the characters through lying, cheating, and eventually murder. The downfall of a majority of the characters,such as Tom and Daisy, is moral decay. Moral decay is the decline of the distinction between what is right or wrong in a person and their actions and in the book, is represented by the Valley of Ashes. All of the characters, excluding Nick, fall into this character flaw and by the end of the book, are not even restitutive for their actions. The moral decay of the characters is displayed through the constant lying, cheating, and murder in their lives. First off, Fitzgerald uses lying to demonstrate the moral decay within the characters. During one of Nick’s first outings with Gatsby, he suspects him of lying when he says, “With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter. The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image…”(Fitzgerald …show more content…
When Myrtle was hit and killed, the narrator says, "The 'death car', as the newspapers called it, didn't stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment and then disappeared around the next bend"(Fitzgerald 144). This quote goes to show that they ting and cheating that was troubling Daisy as she was driving, caused the unintentional murder of Tom's mistress, Myrtle. Tom takes it upon himself to tell George Wilson, Myrtle's husband who is in great distress, the color of the "death car." George finds the car in Gatsbys garage and shoots both Gatsby and himself. Nick explains that, "It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete"(Fitzgerald 170). The suffering was over and killing was done. The loss of life due to moral decay is the strongest outcome of this disheartening character