Preview

What Is Wrong In The Great Gatsby

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1250 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is Wrong In The Great Gatsby
Bernie Sanders, a politician, once said, ¨for many, the American Dream has become a nightmare¨. The American Dream was coming true for many in the 1920s, shortly after World War I, and was caused mainly by the country being in an economic boom. The “Jazz Age” was a time when practically everyone believed if they worked hard enough, they would become successful, which at the time meant rich and of high status. Although, this was very flawed and the truth was that being happy was unachievable because they were constantly unsatisfied with their achievements, no matter how successful they truly were. Francis Scott Fitzgerald criticizes the reality of the American Dream in his novel The Great Gatsby. This story is follows the rich Nick Carraway …show more content…
Camrynn Tanner describes Daisy as “using Gatsby for her own enjoyment, she ends up going back to Tom,” (Tanner). Basically, Tanner believes that Daisy never had any true intentions for commitment to Gatsby. Instead, she just wanted to use him to get back at Tom, who had cheated on her with Myrtle Wilson. When Nick sees Tom and Daisy after they did not attend Gatsby’s funeral, Nick says “they were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money,” (Fitzgerald 137). This shows that Tom and Daisy both had no empathy for other people as long as they could continue living in their leisurely, wealthy lives. Nick also says that they “let other people clean up the mess they had made,” (Fitzgerald 137). This refers to them both showing no sympathy for Gatsby’s heartbreaking end and Daisy persuading to take the fall for her killing Myrtle. Tom and Daisy are both terrible people whose only goal is to get more money and status. They stay together because they are meant together by sharing the same low standards of what is acceptable when treating

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Daisy’s soon proves to not just be promiscuous, but also extremely careless. Gatsby even said, “She only married you because I was poor” (137). The fact that Daisy left Gatsby and married Tom just for his money shows that she is careless about Toms feelings and takes advantage of him for only his wealth. Even when Daisy and Gatsby get into a car accident and hit poor Myrtle. A couple days after this accident, Nick finds out that “she and tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them” (172). Daisy is obviously not concerned with the horrible thing she has done and takes off with her…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While Tom certainly causes much damage to others and their things, some of his stems from deliberate thought and action. Daisy, on the other hand, want so live in her protected, luxurious world without having to pay any consequences for her decisions or actions. In the end, she is the cause of the Wilsons' and Gatsby's deaths. She is careless with her daughter's well-being. In one considers her situation, he would see that Daisy brings a dangerous bootlegger into her daughter's life and exposes her to extremely selfish behavior on a regular basis. Finally, Daisy is responsible for Nick's disillusionment. When the novel opens, Nick possesses sympathy and a strange admiration for his cousin. But, as Gatsby progresses, Nick realizes that his cousin's careless behavior ruins things and lives, causing him to describe Tom and Daisy as he does in your quote. All of this seems not to bother Daisy because the novel ends with Tom and her using their money to build another house, travel away from their troubles, and maintain their place in society despite their destructive…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The most distinguishable ‘vision’ of America can be translated as the ‘American Dream’. Both Fitzgerald and Miller explored the ideas around this same vision at two different times in american history to examine the success of society and looking into detail of how valid the ‘American Dream’ is. The term itself was first used by James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book, The Epic of America. The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ is the epitome of the hypocrisy behind the American Dream. Sarah Churchwell sees The Great Gatsby as a "cautionary tale of the decadent…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nick admires his motivation and drive to get Daisy back. Nick also likes Gatsby’s unwavering devotion towards Daisy, including taking the blame for Myrtle's death. Nick believes in Gatsby and wants him to get Daisy back. Even when Nick first gets invited to his party, Nick respects Gatsby unlike most of the other partygoers. Nick found out that the only reason Gatsby kept having these parties was for him to be able to meet Daisy. Nick realized the amount of work Gatsby was going through to win Daisy back. Nick is the only character that realizes Gatsby’s actual…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    with perceptible reluctance”(132). Daisy admitted this reluctantly because she had created an illusion of the perfect life with Tom, but it was just a lie. With time she had convinced herself that this lie was the truth. That was until Gatsby came into the picture and temporarily altered the way that she viewed her life with Tom. Daisy was faced with the choice of being with Tom or Gatsby. Daisy’s decision between the two men became much clearer once she realized that Gatsby would be killed in the process of covering up her crime. Nick said, “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him, called her instinctively and without hesitation. But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them”(164). Daisy knew that she had committed a serious crime and Gatsby would take the fall since he was wrapped around her finger. Daisy did what she did best and retreated back to her money and reckless lifestyle, ultimately choosing Tom. Daisy’s future is set in stone when she chooses to return to Tom and his…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gatsby tells Jordan (Nick’s girlfriend) to try and convince Nick to invite Daisy over to his house for lunch. Gatsby’s plans was to get her to Nick’s house so that he could show her his huge mansion, knowing that she would be blinded by all the rich and high class of Jay. After lunch with Daisy, Jay was certain that he was winning her back over. According to Nick Daisy and Tom are insulated by wealth and the mores of restraint and gesture (Bloom’s Guide). But there was only one thing Gatsby needed Daisy to do, “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’”…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is clear to see from the beginning of the novel when Nick Carraway walks into the Buchanans when the entire house is decked in various shades of reds. Nick describes walking into their house as if, “Inside the crimson room bloomed with light,” (Fitzgerald 22). Tom and Daisy are two very passionate and quite eccentric characters, but they are not the only two. It seems anyone who seems to come into relations with two instantly have a life full of lovely drama. Gatsby was almost predestined to, one day, hit his downfall the day he met Daisy. The first one to fall in love is the one who fails. Gatsby loved Daisy, or at least he really thought he did. It was this love that would eventually bring him his demise, his death.…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Flaws In The Great Gatsby

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Just like someone said: Your character is your destiny. It decided one’s sense of worth and the ways of thinking and attitude. So, what are the great flaws in the character of main characters and how this lead Gatsby walk into the depths of despair? Let’s start from Gatsby.…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He believes she is obligated to him and only him. Gatsby also believes there is no conflict between himself and Daisy that could arise. This however is very untrue. Gatsby doesn’t realize in a way that Daisy is married or at least thinks she married to save herself. She admits however that she loves both of the men she is deeply involved with, Gatsby and Tom. She states, “I did love him once- but I loved you too”(140). Gatsby has to prove himself to Daisy with material possessions because that is all he has now. He doesn’t really have a respectable position in society although it is upbeat all the time. Nick says, “While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher- shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue” (98). Gatsby doesn’t realize none of these things will change the way she feels for her husband. Gatsby’s love doesn’t seem to be enough for her. Daisy wants more then what he can offer her. Gatsby might have the feeling of proving himself to her but this won’t change what has already happened. Daisy loves Tom now and no real material can change that sadly for…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion at the end of the book Nick finally realizes how careless Tom and Daisy really are. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vastness carelessness, or it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (Fitzgerald…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The American Dream I believe that we have to be successful in order to be able to reach The American Dream. In the book, "The Great Gatsby" success is meant by having the biggest houses and nicest cars. Gatsby was very rich so he had a huge house and very fancy things. “Gatsby’s gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn.” (The book The Great Gatsby page 50) Having success means everything. Now having success in our society is having a lot of money, having expensive cars and expensive things. Also living in a huge house. To be able to be successful now you have to go to school and go to college and get a good paying career. Back then they would just sell or transport illegal…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What exactly is the American Dream some say its undeniable riches, others say having a family and a house. In his novel The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald suggest that the so called American Dream, is nothing but just a dream that can never be attanied. He uses characters like, Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby to show the corruptness in old money and new money, and the dissatifaction of those who have everything but can’t fill the empty void that they seek.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The ideal of the ‘American Dream’ has hardly changed over the past century. The dream is a unique American phenomenon. It represents a nebulous concept that is exemplified by a number of American values. Many deem wealth and success to be the means to this paradigm. When stability, security and family values also become part of the suburban lifestyle, the American Dream comes close to becoming reality. Nick Carraway, the candid narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby analyzes the legitimacy of this principle through the inevitable downfall of Jay Gatsby. The novel takes place during the ‘roaring twenties’ in two sophisticated, affluent Long Island neighborhoods. The people in these neighborhoods epitomize the superficiality and arrogance that distorts the American Dream. Fitzgerald utilizes this environment and its people to examine the negative attributes of the American Dream that eventually withered. So the ‘American Dream’ wasn’t dramatized in this book.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The concept of the American Dream is shown throughout The Great Gatsby, and it is surely portrayed in Gatsby’s character. The American Dream that was define by moving between social classes soon came to a standstill after the 1920s. The statistics show the unattainability of achieving the American Dream today. While the American Dream used to be promising for Americans in the 1920s, it is evident that in modern times, the possibility of achieving the American Dream is truly a…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel The Great Gatsby, the relationship between the different characters eventually disintegrated because of unreal love and the struggle for wealth. The most controversial relationship in the novel is the relationship between Daisy and Tom. Infidelity in their marriage has caused problems not only for themselves, but for other characters also. Tom and Daisys relationship seems to be normal and healthy at the beginning. They are a wealthy couple living in East Egg, one of the most powerful and wealthy communities in New York. Tom is a friend of Nicks from when they went to Yale, and Daisy is Nicks cousin. Nick soon discovers that Tom and Daisys relationship is not all bliss. Tom and Nick go to New York City where they meet Toms…

    • 1503 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays