Depiction of Wealth and Morality in The Great Gatsby

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In my final paper I will argue that F. Scott Fitzgerald represents the country in relation to civilization and the city in his novel The Great Gatsby. This novel take takes place in New York City on the East Coast of the United States shortly before the start of the great depression at some point in the 1920’s. This novel is constantly comparing the fictional cities East Egg and the West Egg witch is modeled to be the two different sides of long island. The continued comparison of the society on the East side versus the West side of Long Island shows the difference that earning your wealth has on your morality compared to being born into it. Both the East Egg and the West Egg are extremely wealthy, however the people who live in the East …show more content…

He could have easily given the blame to Daisy and taken none for himself, but he selflessly made sure that Daisy got none of the blame because he loves her and he does not want her to get into trouble. The reader can tell how noble Gatsby was when he says, “ but of course I’ll say I was [driving]. You see when we left New York she was very nervous and she thought it would steady her to drive” (150). This shows how much morality that Gatsby has compared to Daisy who wouldn’t take the blame for the accident that she caused, instead letting Gatsby take the fall for her actions. In the end, this generous act by Gatsby is what caused his demise as the husband of the women Daisy ran over, because he is clueless to the fact that it was not Gatsby who killed her, kills him. As it can been clearly seen, the difference in morality of those who were born into their wealth and those who worked hard their whole lives to achieve it is very obviously different. This is shown when Gatsby take the blame for the death that Daisy caused in the car accident, and is equally shown when Daisy and tom heartlessly leave Nick right after the death of Gatsby. This proves that working hard in life and earning wealth instead of it being presented on a silver platter makes stronger willed individuals, who are more likely to do the right thing. F. Scott Fitzgerald represents this concept well while comparing the East and West Egg throughout the course of his

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