Bad Choices in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

1582 Words4 Pages

Bad choices are made every day by everybody. Those bad choices could lead to consequences that are going to bother a person for a long time. Even more, that person may try various ways to correct that error. The intention is good, but things can go even worse if the effort is based on unrealistic fantasies. This effort is presented as a part of modernist ideas. Modernist writers dramatize this effort through the tragic outcomes of the characters. Three modernist pieces, A Street Car Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, all of them sent out a message to the audience, the loss of past and how it cannot be recovered. Each piece features a character who lost hope, strived to recover the hope, and ended with a tragic outcome. A Street Car Named Desire featured Blanche; Blanche spent her whole life trying to get some attentions. Death of a Salesman featured Willy; Willy spent his whole life trying to apply the idea “Be Well Liked.” The Great Gatsby featured Jay Gatsby; Gatsby spent his whole life trying to win back Daisy. All of those characters ended with tragic outcome. Blanche was sent to asylum by her own sister. Willy committed suicide after felt humiliated by his sons. Gatsby was murdered with a gunshot planned by Tom Buchanan. Blanche, Willy, and Gatsby’s tragic fates are caused by their false beliefs about life, which are proven wrong by the contradictions between the reality and the illusion.
Some people felt responsible for the failure of others, ignoring the fact that the failure is inevitable. This responsibility could bother those people for a long time, alluring them to false beliefs and poor decisions. Blanche in A Street Car Named Desire is this kind of person. Discovering that her husband is a homosexua...

... middle of paper ...

...f one defies the natural law and strives to recover the loss, he or she is already on the road to a tragic end. More ironically, the efforts draw the character farther from what they wanted; the rape made Blanche even less credulous, the funeral made Willy even less respected, the request made Gatsby less favorable by Daisy. All three modernist pieces presented false beliefs about life and showed the consequences of obeying those believe. The consequences revealed a bloody truth – the loss of the hope cannot be recovered. What is lost is already the past; only the future can be earned by the hard work done in the present.

Works Cited
Williams, Tennessee. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton&Company, 2003.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1976.
Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004.

Show More
Related

  • Recklessness In The Great Gatsby

    206 Words  | 1 Pages

    Jay Gatsby is know to be a man of many riches and enjoys to throw humongus parties every weekend. However, based on Nick Carraway’s description, Gatsby’s parties are very prodigal. Nick describes the amount of workers and tools need to fix Gatsby’s house after a party: “[a]nd on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears…” (Fitzgerald 39). By listing the amount of servants needed, Nick exploits the recklessness of Gatsby’s parties. In addition, by using the word “all day” the reader can infer there was quite a big mess the servants were tasked with cleaning. Thus, Gatsby’s gigantic party is just money spent to create a huge mess. Nick also describes the

    Read More

  • Flaws In The Great Gatsby

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gatsby makes many mistakes throughout the novel, all of which Fitzgerald uses these blunders as a part of his thematic deconstruction of the American Dream. However, Fitzgerald does not write Gatsby as a bad person whom embodies all that is wrong with western capitalism. Instead, Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as a good man who was victim of the qualities ingrained in him by an imperfect ideological system. It is this distinction which makes Fitzgerald’s argument all the more potent, and his audience’s ability to mourn Gatsby as a tragic figure all the more important. Whereas Fitzgerald’s opinion of Gatsby may otherwise have been misconstrued as a negative one, the scene of Gatsby’s funeral clearly conveys the character of Gatsby as a tragic and sorrowful one.

    Read More

  • Plot Flaws in The Great Gatsby

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was a novel that epitomizes the time in our history known as the roaring twenties. It was a time of great extravagances and frolicsome attitudes. The novel also revealed the darker side of this time with its underlying themes of greed and betrayal on the part of many of the characters. The novel as a whole seems to be a very well thought out piece of literature with little or no flaws. However, if studied a bit harder several defects can be spotted. These include such things as shifts in setting, sequence manipulation, and shifting of narrators.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Passion Quotes

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s conflicts between passion and responsibility demonstrate that chasing empty dreams can only lead to suffering. Gatsby’s motivation to achieve his dream of prosperity is interrupted when his fantasy becomes motivated by love. His eternal struggle for something more mirrors cultural views that more is always better. By ultimately suffering an immense tragedy, Jay Gatsby transforms into a romantic and tragic hero paying the capital price for his actions. Gatsby envokes a deeper Conclusion sentence

    Read More

  • Gatsby’s Quest For True Love

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    Have you ever been in a situation where you have almost met your goal, but something in the way is preventing you from fully accomplishing it? Jay Gatsby, one of the protagonists in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, loses the love of his life, Daisy, due to years of separation and is trying to win her back. Daisy’s husband, Tom, however, won’t let her go that easy. Gatsby fights his way to get back the lover he waits so many years for. Preceding Gatsby’s risky quest, his main goal in life is to obtain a great wealth in order to impress the beautiful Daisy. He only thinks about Daisy and their life together. He will do anything to be reunited, no matter the consequences. Jay’s shadow side is revealed and anima is present throughout his journey. Gatsby appears to be an altruistic, benevolent, stately young man. Upon close scrutiny, it’s unveiled that he is malicious and selfish because he wants Daisy for himself and he is wiling to ruin a family for her. But, his anima shows how caring, romantic, and vulnerable he really is through his devotion and passion for Daisy. Gatsby is unsuccessful in completing a traditional hero’s journey, but he does create his own unique version of the archetype. In this unorthodox interpretation, Gatsby learns the repercussions of wanting what you can’t have and dishonesty throughout the course of his battle for his lover.

    Read More

  • The American Dream Destroyed Willy Loman and the Great Gatsby

    1895 Words  | 4 Pages

    In conclusion, in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Miller’s Death of a Salesman shows how dreams can be made and destroyed. By having the American Dream dominate one’s way of life can lead to death, just like Gatsby’s and Willy’s. This was due to the lack of control over their own lives. The novels shows the ideal life that is dreamt of and how many went to the extreme extent to achieve it, if it was not met they believed that they were not worthy of living, thinking that would be the best way out. The two novels show the American dream; either to pursuit of happiness, or to pursuit of material wealth.

    Read More

  • Greed in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

    479 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gatsby and Greed In this day and age, money is a very important asset to have. One needs to have at least enough to live on, though great amounts are preferable. In The Great Gatsby, by Thomas F. Fitzgerald, having a large amount of money is not enough. It is also the way you acquire the money that matters.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby

    2435 Words  | 5 Pages

    His dream turns into a dark nightmare that leads to his untimely downfall. His romantic idealism has not prepared him for the corrupt world in which he enters. Gatsby is surrounded by proof of the unhappiness that “success” can bring, as seen especially through Tom and Daisy. Their marriage is full of lies and deceit, and they are both searching for something greater than what they already have. Gatsby is so blinded by his dream that he does not see that money cannot buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald effectively offers a powerful critique of a materialistic society and the effects it can have on one’s hopes and dreams.

    Read More

  • Carelessness In The Great Gatsby Analysis

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    How can one be so careless? In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom and Daisy were both careless in their actions. Their choices affected those around them, in the end killing three people. Tom showed his carelessness by cheating on his wife Daisy, openly showing off his mistress Myrtle, and telling Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that killed his wife. Daisy showed her carelessness by cheating on her husband Tom, openly showing her love for Gatsby in front of Nick and Jordan, and killing Myrtle without stopping like any sane person would. Tom and Daisy 's actions caused negative impacts on the people around them, however they had their money to lean on. Their money got them away at last where they didn

    Read More

  • Greed In The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Modernist movement took place in a time of happiness, a time of sadness, a time of objects, a time of saving, a time of prosperity, a time of poverty and in a time of greed. Two novels, written by Steinbeck and Fitzgerald, portray this underlying greed and envy better than most novels of that period. These novels, The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath, show that despite the difference between the 1920s and the 1930s, greed remained a part of human life, whether superficially or necessarily, and that many people used their greed to damage themselves and others. In both of these novels, greed as a whole is negative, corrosive, abrasive, destructive, and apocalyptic. As an example, in Gatsby the namesake, Gatsby’s, desire for Daisy forces him to become a jester to the rich through many parties, who inevitably fabricate stories about him, destroying his credibility, in order to impress Daisy.

    Read More

  • The Complex Themes Hidden in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1703 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although after reading “The great Gatsby” one may get a feeling of hopelessness, it one of those novels that leaves you inspired even long after reading it. It’s a masterpiece not only because of the thrillingly brilliant plot or memorable characters but also because of the life lessons that it teacher to the reader. It is not just a typical ...

    Read More

  • What Is The Reality Of Reality In The Great Gatsby

    807 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gatsby’s obsession of his love for Daisy and wealth prove his dream as unattainable. Throughout the novel, he consumes himself into lies to cheat his way into people’s minds convincing them he is this wealthy and prosperous man. Gatsby tries to win Daisy’s love through his illusion of success and relive the past, but fails to comprehend his mind as too hopeful for something impossible. In the end, Nick is the only one to truly understand Gatsby’s hopeful aspirations he set out for himself but ultimately could not obtain. In the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to parallel many themes of the roaring twenties to current society. The ideas of high expectations and obsession of the material world are noticeable throughout the history and is evident in many lives of people today.

    Read More

  • In The Great Gatsby, Is Gatsby Truly Great?

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    The obsession with wealth often blinds people from the potential crisis. The crisis of having everything they worked and struggled for redefined if the reality fails them. Just like strivers who chase the American dream, Gatsby also spend his whole life in persue of his American dream, which Daisy was a major component of it. Gatsby’s “American dream” seems actualized when Daisy comments him “resemble the advertisement of the man(Ch7).” But Daisy eventually betrays Gatsby and went back to the arms of Tom. This is the final nail in the coffin, with Gatsby’s dr...

    Read More

  • Frankenstein and The Great Gatsby

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chasing dreams and aiming high in life are the inspiration for many, if not most people in the world. Unfortunately, chasing these dreams too aggressively may have devastating consequences. There is countless number of examples of situations where pursuing dreams too vigorously lead to the downfall of people’s lives. The two novels “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald depict great examples of characters that sacrifice and become insatiable to acquire their dreams but the consequences are dreadful. They are both set at very different time frames and societies. Frankenstein is set in the 1800s and is considered a science fiction while The Great Gatsby is set during the summer of 1922 and is thought upon as a socially criticizing novel. One being a gothic novel and the other being a modernist novel, they may seem very different. Frankenstein uses the themes of the danger of knowledge, lies and deceit, compassion and forgiveness/revenge. The Great Gatsby’s themes are based on the American dream of 1922, upper class shallowness, and romanticism. Although these novels don’t seem to relate at all, some of the main themes are similar in both novels. These themes include emotion, romanticism, tragedy, and ambivalence. Different time frames, genres, settings, and ideas, but the idea of people making ruthless decisions is clear on both novels.

    Read More

  • Gatsby

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    A great lecturer once said, ³Man is so caught up in his own recklessness that he does not notice the values of life.² The theme proclaimed in the quote reflects literature in the abundance that it is used in throughout the history of writing. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald, spokesman of the Jazz Age, illustrates the shallow emptiness, careless recklessness, and materialistic concerns of the rich in his novel The Great Gatsby. First and foremost of all are the issues of the materialistic concerns of the rich. Jay Gatsby, a young rich bachelor, had so many personnel possessions because he wanted Daisy, the first love of his life, so much that she was the equivalent of ³Winter Dreams² to him. Gatsby¹s silk shirts being tossed over his head out of his dresser is a good example of how his money means nothing to him and how he would give it all away to have Daisy. Also his eccentric cars were the center of attention because of their high price and extreme beauty. All of these examples of prosperity represent the lives of the people of this novel to a point. Together, the citizens of this book are more concerned with their possessions and money, than their health and lives. Subsequently, the people at his parties show careless recklessness with their abuse of alcohol and their bodies. First of all, the people at Gatsby¹s balls drank all night and showed no respect for Gatsby¹s house or possessions. Also the participants of the parties held at Gatsby¹s mansion are audacious enough to drive home while very intoxicated. Furthermore the individuals who were drinking were astonished to see the car in the ditch but none of them bothered to help. Alcohol in large amounts and large groups can cause misjudgements and even death. All in All drinking by Gatsby¹s guests led to extremely reckless behaviors. Next and final of all is the emptiness that the characters of this book posses and how it affects their lives. Tom Buchannen, an insidious man who had an affair with Myrtle, has the nerve to be married to Daisy and have a mistress. Following Tom is a man they call Kiplinsinger, a gambling piano player, who lives with Gatsby and doesn¹t go to the funeral but he has the brashness to ask for his tennis shoes back. Other guests of Gatsby are shallow enough to trash his house and not care that they are very drunk.

    Read More

More about Bad Choices in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Open Document