Carelessness In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Improved Essays
Carelessness, as innocent and harmful as it may appear, can have the potential of causing a lot of damage. We in American society look to make the most of our time, living large some might say. But, it is this type of “living in the now” mentality that can harbor many negative consequences. This type of ideology can be seen in Scott F. Fitzgerald 's novel, The Great Gatsby, where Daisy Buchanan, born and raised in a wealthy family, wields her own version of negligence. Ironically taking place during the “Jazz Age” in 1920’s America, Daisy Buchanan ever so slowly sets up a great tragedy, for which whom will affect everyone but herself. A tragedy in which will cause the avoidable demise of the innocent and not so innocent. As a result, Daisy …show more content…
One way to see this is through how she treats her very own daughter Pammy. In the beginning of the of the story when discussing with Nick Carraway about the future of her first child, Daisy remarks, “I hope she 'll be a fool- that 's the very best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”(Fitzgerald 17). Through such a statement, it becomes clear that, from experience, Daisy wants her child to live a similar lifestyle, a life of a careless fool whom is free from responsibilities. To say herself to her very own child, the person that she loves the most, that a life devoid of commitment is best, reveals to the reader Daisy’s personal philosophy. Not to forget to mention, Daisy never actually spends any time with her daughter, but instead has her very own nanny around Pammy for the majority of the time. In turn, one is able to see just how careless Daisy is through how she mothers her child, but this can also be expressed through the circumstances of how she married Pammy’s father. Five years before the events of The Great Gatsby take place, Daisy 's mother “had found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say good bye to a soldier who was going overseas”(Fitzgerald 75), that soldier was Jay Gatsby. With that type of mentality of risking oneself to say farewell to someone, one might believe Daisy loves Gatsby enough to wait for him …show more content…
Buchanan 's self centered nature can be further seen through her own materialism. Such a materialism that even includes her very own daughter. When Daisy introduces Pam for the fist time to Gatsby, she presented her in a manner as if a new sports car or an extension to a home, with herself adding, in response to Pam 's question to why she called her down, “That 's because your mother wanted to show you off”(Fitzgerald 117). By comparing a child to a glorified object, not only does Daisy reveal to the reader her unhealthy manner of achieving self-satisfaction, but also her desire for possessions. Not only does she objectify her own kin, but also her love. For a significant portion of Gatsby 's life, all that Gatsby wanted was to marry Daisy, but there was a great barrier between him and his dream. This barrier was wealth, for which was a requirement that Daisy needed to have in order to even consider to marry someone. Thus, Gatsby sought out to vanquish such a barrier “if he could amass enough rubies and peaux de tigres and silk shirts to impress Daisy, to win and keep her...”(Baker 2). Gatsby, overcoming such a feat while Daisy continuing her own vacuous lifestyle, made himself seem like he was good enough for Daisy, which for a moment he does. Gatsby even purchased what seems to be like a castle right “across the bay”(Fitzgerald 92) from Daisy, and everything he ever did was done just to impress Daisy. With all that, one would think that Daisy would establish a great

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    She is often seen as an innocent southern belle, just a beautiful fool. However, many readers view her in a completely opposite way. She has been noted as quite a dishonorable character, almost more of a villain, in the harshest of descriptions. She is motivated purely by her own comfort and security, which come in the way of money and material items.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the pattern of recklessness and carelessness through the American Dream. In the Roaring 20s, the characters felt as though they were invincible, which led to careless lifestyles. The American Dream was to live a lavish, carefree, and fulfilled lifestyle , when in essence, the carelessness would cause a downward spiral in life. Throughout the novel, the characters show recklessness and carelessness with possessions, wealth, and love. Thus, the reality of the American Dream didn 't live up to the perception of it.…

    • 1906 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout history, there has always been a form of social ranking. The highest social class typically consists of those who possess the most amount of money.... Even today, society is driven by the accumulation of wealth. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the character of Daisy Buchannan to portray society’s desire to want a higher social status. Instead of doing what is right for others, Daisy leads people on.…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Great Gatsby Recklessness

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The 1920 's: the jazz age, the birth of the movie industry, overall a social economic boom. The times were changing, and so the values and feelings followed. A young writer by the name of Scott F. Fitzgerald established his place in the entertainment world by boldly writing on-the-edge novels the people wanted to read. Over time, like most celebrities, his fame diminished. In one of his unsuccessful attempts to revive himself in society, Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby.…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Carelessness is the behavior of a neglection that one many portray in their decision. In the 1920s, people were reckless and did not care what the turnout would be. They would go to a party and have one too much drinks; go behind the wheel and get into a car when they know they were unable to drive is one of many examples of carelessness. The Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is not only based on romance and love, but it foreshadows the lack of responsibility and self control these characters have in the novel. Carelessness is pivotal in the character’s lives because they are blinded from reality; they are only living through their wealth which causes them to do wreckage to their lives.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is revealed as a character corrupted by wealth in a power struggle against her husband, Tom Buchanan, in a marriage which she is perfectly content to be a part of. While the marriage between Daisy and Tom is corrupt as whole, Daisy is by far the greatest contributor of the corruption, even as it remains a secret to the characters until the novel’s end. During the first half of the story, the average reader will begin to hate Tom for his bigotry and arrogance and hope for Daisy to leave Tom, and when Gatsby appears in Daisy’s life again to regain her love, everything seems to set in place for a happy ending between Daisy and Gatsby. However, Daisy goes on to demonstrate throughout later chapters…

    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Daisy Buchanan’s every decision is for the benefit of herself. Keeping Gatsby around for her own convenience and not committing to Gatsby was the cause of his destruction. Fitzgerald displayed Gatsby to be so hopelessly…

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Scott Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s love for Daisy to develop the optimism of his character as he struggles to balance his ideology and his reality. In the novel Gatsby sees Daisy as a representation of his ideology, because of this he views her as perfect and is unable to see her flaws. In his article “The Great Gatsby”, John A. Pidgeon states “ As the novel unfolds, Fitzgerald illustrates the emptiness of Daisy 's character as it turns into the viciousness of monstrous moral indifference. Gatsby 's attraction to Daisy lies in the fact that she is the green light that signals him into the heart of his vision. ”(Pidgeon) I concur with M. Pidgeon, Gatsby’s optimism causes him to have such high expectations of his goals and ideals that when Daisy, the person who symbolizes these ideals fails to meet his expectations he continues to love her despite the reality of her many character and personality flaws.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During a conversation with Nick, it becomes evident that the underlying motive for Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy is the ability to assimilate into the aristocratic class, as he claims that “her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald 120). Gatsby’s tone of admiration ultimately emphasizes his desire to achieve wealth and status that is comparable to that of Daisy Buchanan. In Gatsby’s perspective, Daisy is the ultimate symbol of the wealth and power promoted by the American Dream. Gatsby’s unrealistic and infatuated pursuit of Daisy unveils his immaturity, as he is fascinated with the fictional concept of Daisy, which prevents him from developing dynamically. In an effort to validate his pursuit of Daisy, Gatsby permits an inanimate object to develop a profound significance over his life.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Daisy had the ability to stop and show concern, but because of her status she feared that her reputation could be damaged. This fear ultimately…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Innocence does not mean immortality. As J.K. Rowling said, “Always the innocent are the first victims.... So it has been for ages past, so it is now.” In the Jazz Age novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is a self-made, extravagantly rich young man who lives on the West Egg of Long Island. His love interest is Daisy Buchanan a married old money girl with whom he had a romantic past.…

    • 1530 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Fitzgerald summed this idea up well in The Great Gatsby by saying, “Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry” (57). Even if one didn’t have the means to have the best of everything, it was still expected of them. Myrtle was enraged when she found out her husband didn’t wear his own suit to his wedding. “He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in…and the man came after it one day when he was out…I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried…all afternoon” (Fitzgerald, 24).…

    • 2691 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Daisy, displayed earlier as innocent and worthy of Gatsby’s yearning, is now revealed to be reckless and relatively unaffected by killing someone. This development ties in with the deterioration of Gatsby’s unrealistic image of…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Effects Of Dream In The Great Gatsby

    • 2395 Words
    • 10 Pages
    • 6 Works Cited

    (Fitzgerald 81). Daisy’s need for "‘something in her life’" (Fitzgerald 81) is her own responsibility, for she had allowed herself to be bought by Tom Buchanan and planted like a flower among the secure soil of the rich (Crawford). In her languid life without the energy of love, Daisy searches for someone to give her attention through money and sincere feelings. With Gatsby’s capability to give her this attention, she is trying to replenish the scarcity of this attention in her marriage by looking for the feeling she received from many suitors in her past.…

    • 2395 Words
    • 10 Pages
    • 6 Works Cited
    Brilliant Essays
  • Great Essays

    Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main conflict exists between three distinct social classes: the old-money, the new-money, and the no-money. Tom and Daisy Buchanan descend from old-money and, therefore, felt as if they should inherit certain rights. They believe that their birth gives them power, similar to the idea of divine right. New-money is represented by the character Jay Gatsby. While the source of his money is originally unknown, it is obvious to other characters in the novel that Gatsby lacks certain social abilities that are bred into the characters from old-money.…

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays