How Does Fitzgerald Create Corruption In The Great Gatsby

Nick believes that he is a high standing midwestern boy. He has high expectations for everyone he meets including himself. He makes sure to maintain his standards, even in the corruption of the East. Even Nick is wealthy, he can’t control his way of thinking. He became dishonest and it was because he wanted to achieve what he believed he deserved in the American Dream.

As a society, America has created certain ideas and stereotypes of each class including the citizens within them. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses around the superficial communities of West and East Egg, and their misconceptions of one another. The citizens of East Egg, such as Daisy and Tom Buchanan, frown upon the up-and-coming men of West Egg. This includes Gatsby, who dreams of the riches they take for granted. Gatsby, who obtains his money through dishonest means appears villainous, unsuccessfully attempting to join the wealthy and elite society of East egg. However, there may be more to Gatsby's story. As Nick, the narrator, says he is “worth the whole damn bunch put together”(154). Through his descriptions and comparison of Tom’s house and Gatsby’s house, Fitzgerald reveals the true nature of the two men. While Gatsby appears to be morally corrupt, in the end he actually has pure intentions, instead it is Tom who emits negativity and is ungrateful for his life.

Nick was raised in wealth and understands the relative comfort and leverage it provides. He recalls how his father told him, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (1). Nick recognizes his privilege because of his father’s admonition. Furthermore, he assesses individuals apart from their situation because he is aware of his privilege relative to others’. In combination with his belief in his own honesty, he therefore maintains accountability because he is impartial about his privilege and does not justify his mistakes by self-exculpating with the aid of his privilege, unlike Daisy and Tom Buchanan. The Buchanans live in affluence seeking their whims: Jay Gatsby for Daisy and Myrtle Wilson for Tom. He decries the Buchanans’ money-begotten recklessness, explaining that “Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money” (179). Nick views Tom - in cheating with Myrtle, assaulting her, and hollowly apologizing to Daisy for cheating with Myrtle - and Daisy - in depending upon men, manslaughtering Myrtle, and deplorably fleeing the crime - as misguided users of privilege and hopelessly careless as a

During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so

Nick’s understanding of Gatsby’s dream goes beyond just establishing the friendship between the two men. Nick is one of the few ordinary, middle-class characters in the novel, and in many ways, he represents the American people as a whole. Though Nick is the narrator of the story, he does not directly drive the plot besides helping to reunite Daisy and Gatsby in his home. Nick lives a middle class life unlike the extremely wealthy people around him, and admits several times that he does not feel part of this elite group, even imagining himself outside of the party. By developing Nick as an ordinary, middle-class character rather than part of the abnormally wealthy people in the novel, Nick becomes

Nick is not the type of man that needs to be a millionaire to be happy with himself, but he still does not have that American Dream lifestyle. He does have friends and enough money to get by but he is struggling a little bit. His lifestyle is not the best but he is making it work. Fitzgerald uses tone word so well that the story paints a picture of Gatsby's parties for the reader.

Born in 1905, Howard Hughes was an extremely wealthy and successful businessman, engineer, and filmmaker who lived the quintessential American dream ("The Aviator: A Real Life Great Gatsby"). Hughes was known for his extravagant Hollywood parties and luxurious life in his younger, more public years. However, as Hughes aged, he immersed in a more secluded and introverted life, convoluted with mental health issues, financial conundrums, and other inexplicable issues that led to the end of his idealistic lifestyle ("Howard Hughes"). The intended parallel between Howard Hughes and Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, highlights two wealthy men who have a luxurious lifestyle that, in the end, will not bring them the

Nick is accepting the hard fate and acknowledging that the road ahead will not be easy, but at the same time he continues to act the same and hang around the same people. This doesn’t make him a good or bad person, though. This simply shows that Nick doesn’t know what will be best for him; he doesn’t realize how deep he is in a complicated relationship with all the other characters. This also leaves him to feel alone at times: “I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others—poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner—young clerks in the dusk, waiting for the most poignant moments of night and life” (Fitzgerald 62). He senses the loneliness in himself and others.

Nick metaphorically describes his state of being both in and out of the luxury world around him, to describe the existential crisis he deals with within both sides. His consideration of his role “within” serves as proof of the potential hope that persists in him, in spite of the cons within this world. Moreover, Daisy Buchannan emphasizes to her daughter the importance of a girl’s role in their time. Daisy informs, “I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.

Nick is still, however, an honest and good man. He is not extravagantly rich, but unlike Gatsby he earned all of his high social connections fairly. He is rather disgusted with the East and it’s empty values by the end of the book. But he is still intrigued by it all, as he demonstrates through his relationship with Jordan Baker. He holds an almost subconscious

Throughout the book, Nick is a character that everyone has a sense of trust with. This attribute was what made Nick so popular in the world of high class, and this attribute is something anyone can apply to themselves to open doors of new opportunity for themselves. Nick begins the story giving the reader context, saying his father taught him not to criticize people because everyone comes from different upbringings, explaining

Nick is a selfless character in this book, he makes attempts when possible to put his friends above his own well being and make sure they are well. You should care about this factor of Nick’s personality because people need to depend on people sometimes, no one is truly one hundred percent perfect or dependent. You see it on playgrounds where toddlers play, people helping people, so why shouldn’t we put that in a good light? For example, during the period of time when Gatsby stood staring at Daisey through their windows Nick understood that Gatsby was a

Nick simply tried to keep going on as a non judgemental person, but the changes happened so sudden that he hardly noticed he had changed. “ Disgusted with the meaninglessness of this sophisticated society, he vows to return to his roots and ponder the lies of the American Dream. “ There was a point where Nick did change his roots and became a different person as the story went on. Realizing then that he had changed from who he used to be, Nick wanted to return to his roots and to his old self and be the same neutral guy with the same morals he once lived

One of the mottos that rules his life has to do with not “criticizing anyone” and remembering that “all the people in this world haven’t had the [same] advantages” (Fitzgerald 1). This ultimately leads Nick to portray himself as highly noble and tolerant. Charitably, Nick realizes himself being drawn into a dishonest lifestyle with people he knows in the East coast society, who are constantly lying to one another. What makes Nick so self-effacing is how he acquires his personal ambitions beyond being drawn in and becoming blinded by the glitz lifestyle that many of the socialites live by. His modest nature senses him to personally distance himself from many of the egotistical characters in the novel. When Nick

However, the truth begins to shine through Nick’s own idealism when he begins to learn of the reality of the lives of the wealthy, and of the troubles even they must face. The first moment that Nick realizes the truth of the troubles that even the rich have their their troubles is when he first meets Tom’s mistress and Tom breaks her nose for repeatedly saying “Daisy”.This reveals to Nick that Tom, who