preview

How Does Jordan Baker Show Dishonesty In The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays

People who lived in the 1920s had a skewed sense of morality. The American Dream was changed when the men serving the country came back from World War I. They had left the country as sheltered boys and came back as corrupted men wanting to drink, smoke, and have sex. This type of behavior contributed to the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. People were no longer hard-working citizens, but rather self indulgent individuals. In The Great Gatsby, skewed morality is portrayed through Jordan Baker, who displays dishonesty, and Tom Buchanan, who displays hypocrisy. Jordan Baker’s skewed morality lies within her incurable dishonesty. She owes all her popularity to her golfing success; however, her success is based on lies. It was made known that Jordan Baker cheated at golf; this proves her ability to be dishonest. Nick Carraway also accuses Jordan of cheating at life, saying she chooses men that she will be able to lie to in order to maintain her advanced persona. Jordan Baker sees nothing wrong with lying to get people to believe she is better than them. Her ethic approved dishonesty, just as Tom Buchanan’s ethic approved hypocrisy. …show more content…

When Tom discovers the affair his wife Daisy has been having with Jay Gatsby, he was outraged. He disproved of Daisy being with another man even though he had had multiple affairs, even one that caused his family to have to pack up their home and move to a new city. Tom’s affairs were anything but discrete. While Daisy was with Gatsby, Tom had been with Myrtle Wilson and he did not keep this a secret. Myrtle was even introduced to Nick by Tom as his “girlfriend.” By failing to see the similarities in his and his wife’s actions, Tom believes he is right to accuse Daisy of her actions. His sense of morality was no longer one of a hard working man, but of a self indulged

Get Access