Theme Of Responsibility In The Great Gatsby

Responsibility and the characters in “The Great Gatsby” The character qualities and their responsibility in the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald has become a popular topic in the literature. In this novel, the author has shown the love of many character and how their relationship are affect people around them. It is about how the wealthy people live their life, and how they treat other people. Along with their complicated relationship, the author also shown the reader how the wealthy people, such as Tom and Gatsby will act toward their responsibilities with their emotion and ethics. While Tom appear to be the character who is lack of responsibility, Gatsby, in other hand, is the character who has responsibility to himself …show more content…
According to Nick, “he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shinning arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward” (Fitzgerald 7). This description of Tom also shown that he very into his power, and want to be the person in-charge in every situation. His character role in this novel is Daisy’s husband, and they also have a three years old daughter together. Although he is a married man, but he still has a mistress. He is lack of responsibility when he cheats on his wife to be with another woman. He often hangs out with his mistress and leave Daisy at home. As we went through the novel, we could notice that Tom’s marriage is very similar to a fact of American’s family in the article “The Making of a Divorce Cultural” by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead. In this article, Whitehead has mention that “the increasing divorce rate is due, in part, to a shift in the way marriage is viewed, Whitehead says Americans have moved from an ethic of obligation to the family to an ethic of personal self-fulfillment” (The Making of a Divorce Cultural). Instead of taking their part and maintain the family according to an ethic of obligation, a lot of family members in America choose to take time to fulfill their …show more content…
Because Myrtle is Tom’s mistress so, they will not be together where any of Tom’s friend can see them, even there is rumor about “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (Fitzgerald, 15). Even they if they are ride the same train, they will not be in the same car because there is still a chance that Tom’s friends will catch him being with Myrtle. He tricks her that he in love with her, even he is not. He paying her by buys her gift and give her mild affection, so she will stay as his mistress, and he could control her. In a scene that Tom and Nick went to New York to meet up with Myrtle and her friend. There is a conflict between Tom and Myrtle when she is talk about his wife, Daisy. In that conflict, Tom shown his violence toward Myrtle by hitting her and breaking her nose because she won’t stop mention about Daisy. It is clearly shown that Myrtle is nothing to Tom, and he did not care about the responsibility with his mistress. We could notice that Tom will only treat Myrtle well when he is happy, but when it comes to marry, he never thinks about divorce with Daisy and marry Myrtle. Myrtle is like a toy to Tom. He uses her to make him feel that he has power, and he could control her. When Myrtle is die in chapter seven, he does not feel so sad about it. He is sad because Daisy is leaving with Gatsby. Tom’s personality is so much like the second rules