Carelessness in Great Gatsby The roaring twenties was full of selfish, careless people who craved money and partying. The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, takes place in Long Island, New York during the roaring twenties and the prohibition era. Many people did not conform to prohibition and continued to drink anyway, in fact they loved to party. Long Island was split into two parts, West Egg and East Egg. The residence in East Egg are those of “old money”, which who inherited their money. West Egg is the less fashionable of the two and is known as “new money”. The people were so invested in money and partying they began to be careless, which sums up one of the most important ideas in this book. Fitzgerald criticized this …show more content…
Jordan is a professional golfer who cheated her way through to win the tournament. The newspaper suggested that she moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round (Fitzgerald 57). Jordan is careless in this way and lies abundantly. She not only is a lazy golfer she is also a lazy and careless driver. Nick tells her she is a rotten driver and she should not be on the roads. Jordan protested that she is a careful driver and even if she isn't, other people are, “They’ll keep out of my way. It takes two to make an accident” (Fitzgerald 58). Jordan believes that she is a careful driver but also insists that if she wasn't careful, which she isn’t, others would stay away from her, and it would be their fault if they got in an accident because they wouldn't have been out of her …show more content…
Nick goes to visit Tom and Daisy for dinner one night, along with Jordan Baker. While at dinner Tom gets up to answer a phone call, which happens to be from his mistress, Myrtle. Suddenly the mood gets tense while Daisy is aware of why he eluded the dinner table, “Then suddenly she threw her napkin on the table and excused herself and went into the house”(Fitzgerald 14). Tom has this wonderful wife and daughter and has the decency to answer the phone from his mistress, while they have guests over. This action taken by Tom greatly affects Daisy. His carelessness to be polite causes Daisy to feel forlorn, she gets up to go stop Tom. Tom is aware that Daisy knows he has a mistress, yet doesn’t care enough to do anything about it. Not only does Tom affect Daisy, he also continues to lead on Myrtle. As Nick and Tom go to New York for a day, they pick up Myrtle and have a party in their apartment. The conversations were tense and mainly about marriage. Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, mentions how neither Myrtle nor Tom can stand the person they are married to, but explains why they aren't just divorced and married to each other, “It's really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s catholic, and they don't believe in divorce”(fitzgerald 32). Nick does
His duplicity continues, as he meets Tom’s mistress, and later arranges Daisy and Gatsby’s meeting, even going as far as to say “don’t bring Tom” (85). These are clear deceptions and violations of trust, which both reveal that Nick is not the honest and forthright man he wants the reader to believe his is; on the contrary, in many ways he is the opposite of honest and forthright. However, Nick’s most clearly professed lie is in protection of Daisy, when Tom insists that Gatsby had killed Myrtle, and Nick remains silent, forgoing telling Tom about the “one unutterable fact,” - that it had not been Gatsby who was driving the car when it had hit Myrtle, but Daisy - in favor of protecting Daisy (178). This obvious deception shows that despite Nick’s conviction in his honest character he does not neglect others, who depend on him. Once again, Nick mischaracterizes his traits and even fails to recognize his deceptions and violations of trust as being dishonest, failing to evaluate his own
Tom tries to show to the Nick his mistress with the proud. Myrtle appears as the total opposite character to the Daisy. She is ‘thicklish, faintly stout” (Fitzgerald 29), but “sensuously” and “immediately perceptible vitality about her” (Fitzgerald 29). She is the woman from “the bottom” who wants to be acceptable as a lady from upper class. She is terribly vulgar, but she is more alive and natural than Daisy is. The unpleasant scene in their apartments, where Carraway appeared because of Myrtle’s invitation, is full of the philistine contentment and boasting. It is finished with even more disgusting event: Tom broke Myrtle’s nose because she dared to mention many time his wife’s name. Tom lets himself to be brutal and free from conventionalities of the upper class; thus, he behaves also more natural, but he does not want to lose Daisy and all what she
A couple days later, Nick and Tom are going to New York City when Tom decides to stop in an ashen, industrial dumping ground town in order to pick up his lover, Myrtle. Although her husband, George Wilson, greets the two men, he remains oblivious to the fact that his wife is involved in an affair. Nick, Tom, and Myrtle then continue on to New York City and hold a gaudy party at a small apartment Tom keeps in the city to carry on his relationship with Myrtle. The party promptly comes to an end when Myrtle begins taunting Tom about Daisy and he ends the argument by breaking her nose.
Fitzgerald’s word choice when describing Jordan is seemingly repetitive, as Nick describes her mannerisms as being “motionless,” “discontented,” “unobtrusive,” “impersonal,” “devoid of meaning,” “dull,” and “languid” (Fitzgerald 8-15), painting a clear image of her tired, bland personality. She participates in the conversation between her, Nick, Tom, and Daisy during dinner, but her dialogue contains short, simple sentences such as “we ought to plan something” and “things went from bad to worse” that are concise, usually muttered or yawned, and generally don’t contain very important information. In fact, the only
Many people in the 1920s lived very extravagant lives. The time of the “Jazz Age” or the “Roaring 20s” where girls were flappers and the men were bootleggers. People loved to have fun and be carefree. However, alcohol dependence was becoming a problem and many started realizing that. Taking action to stop this was the hard part. Alcohol was corrupting the 1920s even though some did not recognize it. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the corruption during the 1902s through his main character, Jay Gatsby, and his illustration of prohibition.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a scathing criticism of the rich men and women of 1920’s America. The only driving force behind them is the lust for excess money and pleasure.
Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, there is a constant theme present: social class. Fitzgerald makes a connection between the theme of social class, and the settings in the novel for example The Valley of Ashes which is described as a “desolate area of land” (p.21) and a “solemn dumping ground” (p.21) which is where the poor people live. The Valley of Ashes is situated between West Egg and New York, West Egg being the place where the aspiring classes are situated, which is the “less fashionable of the two” (p.8), this is where Gatsby lives. West Egg is the place of ‘new money’, Fitzgerald shows this by the idea of the main character Jay Gatsby, rumoured to be selling illegal alcohol (prohibition) which means he is quickly making vast amounts of money.” Who is this Gatsby anyhow? Some big bootlegger?”(p.86) Gatsby shows off the amount of wealth he has by his fabulous parties and oversized mansion. “There was music from my neighbour's house through those summer nights. In his enchanted gardens, men and girls came and went like moths, among the whispering and the champagne and the stars.”(p.33) Fitzgerald uses the word ‘enchanted’ to paint a visual picture of what the house and the scene looks like, a magical and enchanted castle, with elegant furniture. This is in comparison to East Egg where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live, in a house where “The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside” (p.10). East Egg being the place of ‘old money’ which is made from the inheritance of their past generations, the people who live it East Egg are mainly well educated, historically wealthy and live quite elegantly, but they are also quite ‘snobbish’. Gatsby’s background does not fit into the social standards of East Egg...
The quote evokes an image of selfishness, severe dishonesty, and overall carelessness which perfectly describes the rather shallow character, Jordan. While it may seem logical for her to keep her wrongdoings concealed, it is still immoral and shows that she has been corrupted by the desire for fame and wealth. Similar to Tom, Jordan lives life in a selfish manner, lacking concern for others. She is able to ignore her issues in order to keep her reputation, but it ultimately leaves Nick with a tainted impression of Jordan. This displays Jordan’s lack of foresight that is fostered by her nonchalant perspective on life. Then, immediately after Nick mentions how dishonest Jordan truly was, he narrates:
Several individuals mark Gatsby to be a man of great wealth, with a beautiful estate, and an abundance of friends. To illustrate, parties that are hosted at Gatsby’s house are magnificent, filled with professional entertainment, music and dancers, and guests varying from politicians to movie stars. Fitzgerald paints the picture of the parties at Gatsby’s house in great detail in this passage “The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names.” (Fitzgerald 44). It can be seen that these were extravagant parties filled with lust and alcohol. The evidence shows that no ordinary man would be throwing parties of this form, only a man with great wealth and resources would pull of such a feat. Furthermore, this was the prohibition era, which meant that alcohol and the consumption of alcohol was illegal. After this brief look into Gatsby’s life, one can understand why he was considered “great”, but to truly understand Gatsby’s greatness, one must look into his
The Great Gatsby “The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, depicts the vast social difference between the old aristocrats, the new self-made rich and the poor. He vividly interprets the social stratification during the roaring twenties as each group has their own problems to deal with. Old Money, who have fortunes dating from the 19th century, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility. The New Money made their fortunes in the 1920s boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth. As usual, the No Money gets overlooked by the struggle at the top, leaving them forgotten or ignored.
... The environment surrounding the people that used to go to weekend parties and celebrations would be changed forever, affecting the lifestyle of everyone and eliminating the ability to hold these festivities. Real citizens lived a life much like the characters of the novel, and they were forced to completely reconsider their lives, financial decisions, and priorities. The issues faced by the novel’s characters were real-life tragedies so many Americans went through at the end of the Roaring Twenties. The Great Gatsby captured these aspects of what the people, places, and events of the 1920s were really like before the Great Depression – the beginning of the end – took hold over the entire country.
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
Nick is astonished at this information. He finds it hard to believe that Tom, with a beautiful wife and child, would be having an affair with some woman in the city. Miss Baker thinks “everybody knew” about the affair, yet Daisy is still with Tom. Being too ignorant to make herself believe it’s true, Daisy is willing to stay in the marriage, even when she is presented with an opportunity from Gatsby to escape. Daisy is willing to stay with Tom just because he has “old money,” and that shows how important it is to her. Everyone else’s morals are just as bad as Tom’s because they know about what’s going on and know that it’s wrong, but they don’t say anything about it. Later in the story, when Wilson is looking for the driver of the yellow car that killed Myrtle, he also suspects that person of having an affair with...
The Roaring Twenties is considered to be a time of excessive celebration and immense corruption. The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a criticism of American society and its values during this era of history. This criticism is first apparent in the people who go to Gatsby's parties. They get absurdly drunk, do not know who their host is and are rude by excessively gossiping about him. This commentary is also shown in the corruption of the police. Gatsby is able to pay off the police so that the activities going on at his home will go unnoticed and so that he may behave as he wishes. This criticism is finally shown in the corruption of friendship and love, the simple fact being that there is none. People use Gatsby and then throw him away. Fitzgerald's criticism of American society and its values during this time period is first shown in the behaviour of people at Gatsby's parties.
She lies, cheats, and somehow gets away with it all, perpetuating her sense of entitlement. The incident that helps Nick to see who she really is, as stated in the book, is as follows: “[Jordan] left a borrowed car out in the rain with the top down, and… lied about it-and suddenly I remembered… At her first big golf tournament… she had moved the ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round” (58). While these two coinciding events introduce her questionable morals, Nick fails to see this until later in the book. Nick overlooks this trait of hers, and goes to show how even when presented with direct evidence of wrongdoing, she can get away with whatever she wants. She believes that she deserves to get her way no matter what the expense may be, even if it may put others in danger. A dangerous situation the Jordan gets herself into because of this sense of entitlement through deception is when she is taking a drive with Nick. In the novel, Jordan states, “‘[other drivers] will keep out of my way… It takes two to make an accident’... ‘I hate careless people. That’s why I like you”