Morality in The Great Gatsby Essay

where a blurred line between riches and morality exists. Former U.S. Congressman, Clare Boothe Luce said, “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you are being miserable,” (Clare Boothe Luce). Boothe brings attention to how money has its benefits, but also brings out the worst in people. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes the selfish and immoral behaviors of those in the upper class. The story focuses on Jay Gatsby, who tries to win the…

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most famous novel The Great Gatsby explores his pessimistic views of the new age and high class using the different characters to represent the disjunction of the new technology and ideas in the Modern Age. Tom and Daisy represent the immoral illusion of wealthy and aristocratic society that destroys the community when resisting the change in the Modern Age. Gatsby also puts on an illusion of wealth but unlike Tom and Daisy, he becomes delusional because he believes in this…

Gatsby Modernism In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, an ambitious and lonely man, alienates himself from society with his outrageous dream of a perfect life with Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby lives alone in his West Egg mansion which sits directly across the water from the Buchanan residence which is located in East Egg. Gatsby longingly reaches for the green light which shines at the end of the Buchanan’s dock. This green light represents Daisy and the fact that Gatsby can only…

Preface The Great Gatsby is the symbol of Fitzgerald’s greatness. Although it was treated indifferently when it was published, it had gained its fame gradually by 1960s. Finally, it was recognized as the most important work in the Jazz Age. In the past, there were lots of pieces of writing on The Great Gatsby. For example, The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald’s World of Ideas, by Ronald Bergman, focused on Fitzgerald and the prevailing conception and value, demonstrating that how they influenced the…

The American Dream in The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby, since its publication in 1925, has throughout the years, become an iconic piece in American literature. It has been seen as “perhaps the most striking fictional analyses of the age of the gang barons and the social conditions that produced them” (qtd. in. Smiljanic). The Great Gatsby undoubtedly gives the reader a look into an era in America history where materialism reigns over morals and the American dream is corrupted by society’s…

storyline and the message of a novel. When reviewing characters in relation to the story, literary critics often face the question of morality in each character or rather which character is the moral compass of a novel? By definition the term moral compass is used to describe someone who has a great ability to judge what is right and wrong and act accordingly. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the narrator, Nick Carraway, is often one who could be named the moral compass because he is a…

they wish to redo, or a great event they wish to relive. The danger in this; however, is becoming so consumed with the past that one loses their identity. F. Scott Fitzgerald explores this concept in The Great Gatsby, using morality as a measure of identity. Gatsby’s moral ambiguity illustrates how obsession with the past prevents the development of an identity. The majority of how Fitzgerald defines Gatsby is his inability to let go of his past relationship with Daisy. Gatsby is introduced…

A Comparison of The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise While published in 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, dealt with themes of class and love which continue to resonate today. Just four years later the author penned the novel for which he is perhaps best known, The Great Gatsby. Scholars have pointed to similarities in themes amongst Fitzgerald’s works including both The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise, however far less common is an analysis of how…

expresses his criticism of the materialism of the Jazz Age through his juxtaposition of the idealistic Gatsby with the materialistic foil characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Tom and Daisy are old money. They have no need, unlike Gatsby, to resort to criminal dealings because they have “possessed and enjoyed from a very young age” (O’Keefe. 20 November 2016). In that manner, the Buchanans are foils to Gatsby: they are old money to Gatsby’s nouveau riche, a contrast emphasized by the symbolic…

you want”. He sticks with this philosophy in his work The Great Gatsby. This book is written through the perspective of Nick Carraway and in this way we are made to see the world as he does. There are many themes in this novel but some of the most important and recurring ones are society and class, isolation, and religion. Fitzgerald explores these themes in the book with the help of his characters, most importantly Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan. Though it may not…