Self-Centeredness Illustrated in The Great Gatsby

766 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: American social classes in the 1920s

Self-centered people live in a world where only their own agenda matters, and the wants and needs they have overpower any moral code imbedded in their conscience. This type of person becomes oblivious to all the things around them that keep order, as they disregard any concern that conflicts with what they desire. Such people are depicted in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, that takes place in Long Island during the 1920’s, The Great Gatsby. The book, which takes almost a satirical view of the social and moral problems of the 20’s, shows how people who are completely submerged in only their own business are never satisfied. Like many of the characters in The Great Gatsby, being negligent of other peoples lives causes you to end up being miserably self-centered and naïve, which was evident in all levels of the 1920’s social structure.

It seems that all the characters in the book, ranging from those who attend Gatsby’s parties, to Gatsby himself, display acts of being self-centered throughout the novel. The middle class citizens that flow into the West Egg for his parties have no desire to really meet Gatsby, and only attend the parties for their own gain. They wreck his house every weekend, only to return again and expect it to be ready for them. The actions they take show how in this era people were immersed in themselves, and that they didn’t care how something went about happening, as long as it didn’t conflict with the plans

they had to create conflict. Even the lowest classes, that dwell in the ash-fields of Long Island had their preferences ahead of what was best for those around them. Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, embodies how wealth and temptation can lead to a person being naïve and inconsiderate of what they already have. ...

... middle of paper ...

...urred in the exuberant wealthy class, but ranged throughout the class system of this time period. A self-centered person is someone to feel sorry for, because they are so wrapped up with themselves they will never see the world clearly. A self centered nation, or island in this case, surpasses just being a trait, and instead becomes a trend. The idea of burning through wealth, and giving up your personal values for something to please you is an unrealistic way to live. The nation began to take a turn for the worst, and it is almost foreshadowing the doomed future. In the 1930’s the Great Depression hit, and I’m sure the idea of being self-centered became extinct. This follow-up is proof that being self-centered leads to a downfall or change. Even if a person could live like Daisy forever, they wouldn’t really be living, because they would never really be satisfied.

Show More
Related

  • Compare And Contrast Chicago And The Great Gatsby

    1571 Words  | 4 Pages

    “He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it … It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself.” (Fitzgerald 48). In chapter 4, Gatsby was riding into town with Nick, and then a police came, all Gatsby did was raised a little white paper and the cop apologized for stopping him. This isn’t only about corruption in 1920’s, but how he was above the law. He has the reputation of the president. He can get away with anything he wanted, he loves the power and the respect. When people say Gatsby it’s like he’s an imperial. The spreading rumors of Gatsby are horrific by the sense that, they were so out of this world you don’t know how people really believed them. Everybody had different point of views of Gatsby, he loves each one if the rumor didn’t contain the truth, or him being poor. His actions seem that all he wants people to do is think of him as an opulent man. Gatsby loves recognition. This makes him lose the idea of his past life which he hated. He strived to forget how he grew up, and where he came

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Theme Essay

    1400 Words  | 3 Pages

    Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Self Fulfillment In The Great Gatsby

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, both text creators use their main character to display how to attempt to overcome the inevitable adversity that comes with the pursuit of self-fulfillment. The quote “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” by John F Kennedy greatly resembles the ideas proposed by the text creators through Gatsby and Willy Loman. Throughout the sources, both Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby pursue the American Dream relentlessly to the brink, where they ultimately drown in the relaxing pool of self-fulfillment that is death. However, in their attempt to secure the satisfaction of self-fulfillment, the main characters are used by the

    Read More

  • Free Great Gatsby Essays: A Very Insecure Gatsby

    423 Words  | 1 Pages

    In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby many characters are not as they seem.  The one character that intrigues me the most is James Gatsby.  In the story Gatsby is always thought of as rich, confident, and very popular.  However, when I paint a picture of him in my mind I see someone very different.  In fact, I see the opposite of what everyone portrays him to be.  I see someone who has very little confidence and who tries to fit in the best he can.  There are several scenes in which this observation is very obvious to me.  It is clear that Gatsby is not the man that everyone claims he is.

    Read More

  • Truth in The Great Gatsby

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    loses sight of who they are.  Gatsby's house and parties were a part of the

    Read More

  • Gatsby Rough Draft

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gatsby yearns to be part of the high society, but, in reality, he is an outsider to his social class. An important note for this is that he is a very wealthy person and has an expensive mansion, yet he lives on East Egg, while the “real” high society people live on West Egg. Near the end of the novel, Nick showed the reader that he was one of Gatsby’s only real friends; it showed when Nick was one of the only three people that attended his funeral. Nick seems to be more or less the only one who cares about him after his death.

    Read More

  • Self Control In The Great Gatsby

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book overall is a very hard book to understand because of the way it was written and the time frame in which the book was taking place in and the complexity of the characters the book has. Nick Caraway is particularly difficult because he is not only a major character to keen into he is also telling the story a year later and reflecting his thoughts on how he behaved. Nick holds the qualities of slow judgement on people he meets but he only does this because it was infused in him at a young age by his father and he is very practical with what to do and how to do it also he has some integrity to him and knows how to handle himself as a man. Nick must be understood because he is not only the man caught in the cross fire

    Read More

  • Narrative Essay On The Great Gatsby

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    As The Great Gatsby progresses, the reader feels a range of emotions for each of the character, especially the narrator. The story of Jay Gatsby is told in the point of view of Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s only real friend and he is also a participant in the book. Although most of the main characters in the book are rich and come from “old money” Nick works hard to rent a house “at West Egg, the-well, the less fashionable of the two [Eggs]” (5). Even so, Nick says that his “ own house [is] an eyesore, but it [is] a small eyesore” (5). Nick does not exactly complain about his house as much as the reader would expect him to. Throughout the book, Gatsby has three different personas and he uses the other characters in the book to make his ultimate dream come true. Nick is not excluded and he is taken advantage of by Gatsby just like everyone else. Ultimately, Nick is

    Read More

  • F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first character who represents the shallowness of the wealthy is Myrtle Wilson, even though she is not wealthy at all. She seeks to escape her own class and stoops to the low point of betraying her trusting husband who loves her more than anything. Her attempt to break into the higher class that Tom belongs to is doomed to fail. Even though she does take on Tom's way of living during their affair, she only becomes more vulgar and corrupt like the rich. She scorns people from her own class and loses all sense of morality. Myrtle never finds a place in Tom's higher social division, and what reveals her impertinence most is that she thought she would succeed in the first place, giving up all her morals for the wealthy.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Final Essay

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    As depicted by Scott F. Fitzgerald, the 1920s is an era of a great downfall both socially and morally. As the rich get richer, the poor remain to fend for themselves, with no help of any kind coming their way. Throughout Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the two “breeds” of wealthier folk consistently butt heads in an ongoing battle of varying lifestyles. The West Eggers, best represented by Jay Gatsby, are the newly rich, with little to no sense of class or taste. Their polar opposites, the East Eggers, are signified by Tom and Daisy Buchanan; these people have inherited their riches from the country’s wealthiest old families and treat their money with dignity and social grace. Money, a mere object in the hands of the newly wealthy, is unconscientiously squandered by Gatsby in an effort to bring his only source of happiness, Daisy, into his life once again. Over the course of his countless wild parties, he dissipates thousands upon thousands of dollars in unsuccessful attempts to attract Daisy’s attention. For Gatsby, the only way he could capture this happiness is to achieve his personal “American Dream” and end up with Daisy in his arms. Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is somewhat detrimental to himself and the ones around him; his actions destroy relationships and ultimately get two people killed.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Selfishness In The Great Gatsby

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    Selfishness is a disease of the soul that every person experiences several times throughout their life. To say that it has never been experienced would be hypocrisy. To say that it is a “good thing”, would be erroneous. Although as humans we like to lie to ourselves, it is no question that selfishness can make any person act like a fool. It consumes us and makes us into someone we are not. Whether it leads to getting people killed, falling in love, or buying alcohol, selfishness always leads to destruction.

    Read More

  • Great Gatsby Quotes

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    You have to always keep after them” (Fitzgerald 32). For a low-class woman, whose home is the Valley of Ashes, Myrtle has a very snooty personality, as if she was a European monarch, getting their daily diamond embedded into their crown. She is convincing her friends and winning Tom’s heart, this filthy woman is one step closer to achieving her goal. Myrtle also knows what she wants, due to her acting like a European monarch and getting the heart of a rich man to be her master.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Nobody Analysis

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gatsby does not want to be acknowledged for being “just some nobody.” These insecurities are shown in Gatsby’s past. They arise from his childhood, growing up poor and wanting to be something. This wanting to be somebody causes Gatsby to have the need to be acknowledged. We see this through his extravagant parties, the need to have Daisy, and his false story of going to Oxford. His extravagant parties are used to make an allure on him. This draws people in and makes him

    Read More

  • A Freudian Reading of The Great Gatsby

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby is generally regarded as an excellent novel which expresses much more than the superficial plot. The Great Gatsby could be, however, more complex than the average reader might imagine. The Great Gatsby is often interpreted as the corruption of the American Dream. In this framework, the Buchanans are viewed as the example of irresponsibility and degradation, and Gatsby the embodiment of idealism and sentimentality. In this essay, I want to offer another reading of The Great Gatsby in Freudian frame of reference.

    Read More

  • Self-Identity in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    590 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Great Gatsby, many individuals are involved in a struggle to find themselves and who they want to be. Personal identity is a very challenging thing to define. Everyone has an image in their mind of who they want to be. These images are usually very different from the actual identity of a person. In this novel, Jay Gatsby’s search or struggle for a new identity for himself is an ongoing journey. He has dedicated his entire life creating an image to impress Daisy Buchanan and to set himself into her society. This image does not necessarily depict who he is in reality.

    Read More

More about Self-Centeredness Illustrated in The Great Gatsby

Open Document