Decline Of Morality In The Great Gatsby

Morality’s Decline The Great Gatsby, a novel by Scott Fitzgerald, has shown the decline of morality in the upper class in the American society. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, has shared the lessons he has learned from East Egg. Towards the end of the novel Nick learns that his own lifestyle does not connect very well with the upper classes’. He has realized that he had been so caught up in the wealthy's’ drama and their pursuits of life that he did not notice that the way they were living was wrong; the lying, harsh judging, and deception of people he use to think of as friends became too hard to deal with, ultimately causing him to move to the West.

Tom Buchanan, one of Nick’s peers from Yale University, is a man with an enormous sum of money but does not have any decency with the way he lives his life. All that matters to him is that he is wealthy and the fact that he can control and bully almost everyone around him, including his wife Daisy Buchanan. Nick strongly disapproves with how Daisy and Tom are in a loveless marriage and how they cheat on each other. Tom becomes angry at how Daisy is having an affair Jay Gatsby, yet he is doing the same thing with Myrtle Wilson. Nick sees that this is a very hypocritical thing for Tom to do.

Gatsby is willing to lie for her and take the blame for Myrtle’s death. “‘Was Daisy Driving?’ ‘Yes,’ he said after a moment, “but of course I will say I was’” (Fitzgerald 110). This shows Nick how dishonest Gatsby is and the risks he is willing to take for a woman who does not love him. The real personality of Jay Gatsby has been exposed to Nick at this point. This is really disappointing because Nick has been looking forward to learning about Gatsby and learning about how he is so full of life and wonder, but all that is crushed when Nick learns about his true nature. Nick’s imaginings of Gatsby is better than the actual man