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The "rotten crowd" to whom Nick is referring is Tom and Daisy, the bourgeoisie. Therefore, the Buchanan is described as part of the "crowd" who escape from their problems and masked behind their money as shown here, "But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them" (chapter9.4-10).For instance, "the knuckle was black and blue. “You did it, Tom,” this shows that Tom's aggressiveness, barbarism and dangerous temper (Chapter1-12). In addition, Tom represented the men during that time, "It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things", where it can be inferred, that during the 1920s, the beginning of the twentieth century, America was characterised by racism, brutality and ill-treatment towards …show more content…
Thus, it is better for women during that time to be oblivious to whatever is happening in their life so that they would not get hurt in the way. "I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified", this shows that in nicks point of view, the Buchanan hold different moral values than Gatsby (chapter9.136-145). Nick hence, reveals that even a fraud and corrupt like Gatsby is better than the other frauds and corrupts because of his childish romantic desires which are focused on ideals such as love instead of materialism, and because he did the chivalrous thing in waiting and sacrificing himself for Daisy. Therefore, Tom and Daisy in Nick's perspective were seen as, "careless people," as they refused to accept the consequences as a result of their actions and rather hid behind the safeguard of their wealth. The wealthy do not want observe the real events happening in the world around them because they refused to have any guilt for their reckless
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 he 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). 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 traits. By highlighting Nick’s opinions of and interactions with life amongst the rich, F. Scott Fitzgerald crafts Nick into a complex character whose contrasting thoughts and actions create a many leveled, multifaceted character who shows the reader that one’s appraisal of one’s own traits can often be incorrect.
When Nick visits Daisy she tells him the story of how her daughter was born, “It’ll show you how I’ve gotten to feel about––things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling.” By leaving Daisy behind at a time when she most needs him, Tom loses his value of companionship with Daisy. He no longer fits the three criteria that Daisy feels she needs in a man. Daisy knows that Tom no longer loves her and is having an affair with another woman, but despite all of this, Daisy has no intention of leaving him (20). This is because Tom, despite no longer fulfilling her emotionally, is still better for her financially and socially than if she left him to live alone. If Daisy wants to stay in her class, she has no option other than to stay with Tom. When Daisy finally sees Gatsby again, she suddenly has another option besides staying with Tom. Daisy knows that Gatsby has true feelings of love towards her, but leaving Tom would prove to be risky as it could tarnish her reputation and by extension her social stability. Daisy is now struggling between taking a risk for love and maintaining a safe, stable life she is ultimately unhappy
Our story unravels early on in The Great Gatsby, Nick's very wealthy cousin, Daisy, simply has it all: she is beautiful and graceful; her bank account is large; she's traveled and knows people no matter where she goes. Her husband, Tom Buchanan, is without a doubt very lucky to be with her; but there's a ripple in this perfect couple: he's cheating on her. Not only is Tom cheating on her, but he's cheating on her with someone of a far lesser class; which makes the reader question why he's with her in the first place. Daisy had a very good reputation among the elite; she had never done anything that would have embarrassed her. "They moved with a fast crowd, all of them young and rich and wild, but she came out with an absolutely perfect reputation" (82). This illustrates how well put together Daisy is, he has used her, and continues to use her not only for her wealth, but also for her firm social standing. She could, literally, make or break Tom depending merely on whether or not she stayed with him; of course he'd remain with her, she defined his social standing.
Even though he had some thought that the meeting would provoke harmful tensions between Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, he went along with it anyways, further demonstrating his own innate lack of reservation. Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.
For example, after Daisy speaks to Nick, the man in which she gave a look that there was no one else in the world that she wanted to see, he realizes her insincerity in all she had claims the paragraph before; he feels as if he is part of a trick. This scene foreshadows her practically tricking Gatsby into believing she will leave Tom to be with him, in which this desertion of Tom does not occur. Furthermore, Daisy’s smirk to Nick seemed to him “as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged”. This explanation reveals that Daisy and Tom are joined by their ample wealth as a result of them having an esteemed and respectable place in society (old money); therefore they look down on others below themselves, such as Gatsby, who have to earn their money. Consequentially, for this reason, Daisy chooses to remain with Tom
Jordan’s and Gatsby’s memories of Daisy, the piecing together of Gatsby’s actual history and Nick’s reflections on his own life belong to different eras and possibly jumping between these different timelines and impressions and Nick’s present impressions would have been inelegant. Fitzgerald places him in this hard position for a reason, to help him reveal just how befoul the society was becoming. Rather, William Voegeli, a critic of “Gatsby and the pursuit of happiness” shows a different side to this, he states, “Nick rents, Gatsby buys, and the Buchanans inherit,” also stating “”you’re no better than anybody else and no one else is better than you” (William Voegeli 1). Which shown in the novel is not true, Nick is a middle class character compared to the magnificent West Egg class.
In the beginning of the book Nick calls himself “One of the few honest people that I’ve ever known”. Throughout the book Nick gives examples that even though he is polite; he will tell people how it is. A few examples are when he talks about how dishonest his friend Jordan is, as well as calling Tom and Daisy careless people. Nick also says that Gatsby represents everything that makes him feel like an unaffected scorn. Nick proves throughout the story that he really isn’t as honest as he has thinks. Nick does not reveal he knows about Tom’s affair with Myrtle. He also pretends he didn't know Daisy was driving the car. Another example of his dishonesty is when Nick doesn't tell the police at the crime scene everything he knows, which would have saved Gatsby's life.
Throughout the entire novel it is clearly portrayed that Nick Carraway is not a moral character by any stretch of the imagination. Nick Carraway may seem to have some good values, but he is in fact immoral for many reasons. First, Nick uses Jordan Baker; he never actually became interested in a serious relationship with the golf star. Miss Baker is basically just a fling to him. Secondly, Nick Carraway always seems to be the middleman in all the trouble that is going on in the novel. The narrator knows about all the lying, deceiving, two-faced things that are going on throughout the story, and he is completely ok with it. Also Nick defends Gatsby even though he very well knows of all Gatsby's criminal activity and liquor smuggling. Finally, Nick is the character who sets up two of the main characters, Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, to have an affair. It never crosses Nick's mind that it is an immoral thing to set up an affair. During the novel there is a discussion between Gatsby and Nick about when to set up the secret meeting with Daisy. During this exchange Nick actually says, "I'm going to call up Daisy tomorrow and invite her over here to tea.
Her sequence of lies leads George Wilson to believe, senselessly, that this was all Gatsby’s fault. The shame of the affair eventually compels Wilson to shoot Gatsby and then commit suicide. Daisy, could have owned up to her mistakes and saved Gatsby’s life, but for Daisy Fay Buchanan, self-preservation is far more valuable than personal merit. This in fact proves “the greatest villain in the Great Gatsby is in fact Daisy herself, for her wanton lifestyle and selfish desires eventually lead to Gatsby’s death, and she has no regards for the lives she destroys” (Rosk 47). Nevertheless, Nick Carraway sees right through her disturbing ways and reflects upon the Buchanan’s. After Nick ponders a thought he muttered “They are careless people Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made” (Fitzgerald 170). Many people see Daisy Buchanan as a poised, pure, and elegant woman who is happily married; however, few like her cousin, Nick Carraway, suffer from knowing her true self: careless, deceptive, and selfish. Daisy is able to use money to get her out of every situation she runs
For example, “...Tom Buchanan and his girl and I went up together to New York...for Mrs.Wilson sat discreetly in another car” (26). Even though Tom is close to Myrtle, he knows how detrimental it would be to his reputation if one of his rich friends saw him with Mrytle, so he makes her sit in another car. Likewise, Tom realizes the recklessness in his choices he is doing because it is both bad for himself, if someone in the “secret” society finds out he has a mistress. Also, it is bad for Daisy because she is getting cheated on without even knowing. Along with Gatsby and Tom, Daisy also commits reckless behavior when she does not go to Gatsby’s funeral. All his life, Gatsby acquired wealth and a huge mansion on the Long Island Sound right across from Daisy’s house, just to impress Daisy. He even hosted extravagant parties to attract Daisy to his house. After Daisy decides she does not want to go to Gatsby 's funeral, Nick Carraway concludes, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast
Gatsby realizes that life of the high class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby's time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an "enormously wealthy" family, seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind (Fitzgerald 10). Nick describes Tom's physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a "hard mouth and a supercilious manner...arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face...always leaning aggressively forward...a cruel body...[h]is speaking voice...added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed" (Fitzgerald 11). The wealth Tom has inherited causes him to become arrogant and condescending to others, while losing his morals. Rather than becoming immoral from wealth as Tom has, Gatsby engages in criminal activity as his only path to being rich. His need for money had become so great that he "was in the drug business" (Fitzgerald 95). Furthermore, he lies to Nick about his past in order to cover up his criminal activity. Gatsby claims to others that he has inherited his wealth, but Nick discovers "[h]is parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 104). Gatsby enters a world where money takes precedence over moral integrity. Materialism has already overshadowed a portion of his spiritual side. A quest for true love is doomed for failure in the presence of immorality. Once wealth has taken priority over integrity, members of the high social class focus on immediate indulgences, rather than on long-term pleasures of life such as love.
Although Nick’s morals are “inclined to reserve all judgements”, this displays his neutrality (Page 1). Nick believes in people’s free will, thus not interfering with their choice, leading them to be responsible for their mistakes. An example is when Tom introduces his mistress, Myrtle, to Nick. Nick is just a ride along, Tom feels comfortable confiding in him. Tom has the trust in Nick that he wouldn 't tell Daisy about her. Although he isn’t honest with Daisy about this, he is a loyal friend to Tom. This somewhat shows the Nick’s equality and loyalty between Tom and Daisy. He doesn’t take sides with either of the affairs: Tom with Myrtle and Daisy with Gatsby. Nick is loyal to them because he doesn’t stick his nose in places. He doesn’t judge too quickly because of the advice his father told him in his younger years, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Page 1), Nick is more of an observant person, who see the connect of the characters and relate it to the American
At the end of the book, it is revealed that all of Tom, Daisy, and Nick are extremely careless. Nick’s carelessness detriments his reliability as a narrator. Because of Nick’s deep and familiar connection with Gatsby, Gatsby is “the exception” and Nick cannot be a reliable narrator towards him. Nick really admires and appreciates Gatsby as a friend, although it seems that Gatsby may not feel nth same way ads Nick. Gatsby may have befriended Nick solely because of his connection with Daisy. Nicks obsession with Gatsby and Gatsby’s obsession with
Tom Buchanan epitomizes the advent of moral uncertainty of the Modernist Era. Upon Tom’s introduction in the novel, Fitzgerald makes his lack of morals very evident. When Nick goes to have dinner with the Buchanans and Jordan, he learns something new about Tom. Jordan tells Nick something she believed everyone knew.
“Guided only by Nick’s limited view of her, readers often judge Daisy solely on the basis of her superficial qualities” (Fryer 43). What the reader sees through the eyes of Nick only appears as a woman whose impatience and desire for wealth and luxury cost her the love of her life, Gatsby. Nick’s narrow perception does not allow one to see that “. [Daisy’s] silly manner conceals a woman of feeling or that her final ‘irresponsibility’ towards Gatsby stems from an acute sense of responsibility towards herself” and that Nick “.clearly does not understand what motivates her” (Fryer 43).