Morally Ambiguous Characters In The Great Gatsby

The addition of morally ambiguous characters is a heavily used device writers use in almost every novel. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald just so happens to be a great example. Through the development of a morally ambiguous character development modernist author Fitzgerald displays his pessimistic view of the American dream. Throughout the novel the author spaces the mind of the reader by unraveling a character as it unfolds. At the beginning of The Great Gatsby the character Gatsby seems to be mystical, the storyline builds up an almost tension to see what Gatsby is like with all of the characters gossip. The first time he talks Nick - the narrator - states “ It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may …show more content…
Gatsby even states he wants to “repeat the past” (110). This displays how Gatsby is stuck in the past, bus he is emotionally immature. This shows a lot about what Fitzgerald is trying to say about the time period. Bring the period of modernization, many people were stuck to what they were used you stuck in the past per se. Fitzgerald may be taking the position that people of that time were lost and stuck in what happened instead of what is going to happen. “...sense of disillusionment with American society and culture” (A History And Overview Of American Modernism 13). This connects really well with Fitzgerald's points made in The Great Gatsby. As Nick uncovers more truth about Gatsby he becomes very distraught because his initial opinion was nothing like what he thinks of Gatsby at the end of the novel. Nick was disillusioned by all the people in East and West Egg during the novel. Through the use of character development of ambiguous characters Fitzgerald was able to utilize his opinion of the American dream during the modernist time period