Moral Dilemmas In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Through the empty lives of three characters from this novel Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan Fitzgerald shows that chasing shallow dreams leads only to misery. When World War I ended, America seemed to promise unlimited financial and social opportunities for anyone willing to work hard for an American Dream. The prosperous acquired wealth only to pursue pleasure. For some, striving for wealth only made them realize that the dream crudely corrupted them. Though the characters in The Great Gatsby seem to like the freedom of the 1920s, their lives exhibit the emptiness that results when wealth and pleasure become a terror they could never imagine.

In Greek Mythology, Midas, a powerful and wealthy king, believed that gold was the key to achieve happiness. He shared his extravagant life with his only daughter, whom he loved very dearly. He was granted one wish and he wished for his touch to turn things to gold. The next day, Midas touches a table and sure enough it turns into gold. His daughter rushes in and overjoyed, he hugs her turning her into a statue of gold.

Though Gatsby follows a corrupt path to gain considerable wealth through the façade that he has been born a wealthy upperclassman, he does so not for his own indulgence, but for Daisy’s love and approval, showing how people unknowingly undermine their moral values through disillusionment of their dreams. As he was actually born into a working family, Gatsby’s attempt to rise in status is seen as more understandable to the readers who can relate much more to his desires. Gatsby does not understand that his actions are not only immoral, but disillusioned as he equates reality and unreality. The idealistic diction and reference to his dream as a “rock” implies a foundation- stability and sturdiness- for Gatsby to leap off of and achieve what he desires. However the reality is difficult for Gatsby to accept as this “rock of [his] world” is founded on an intangible dream, a fantasy, “a fairy’s wing”.

The literary theme of greed can alter one’s chosen path or objective, severely changing the future or prospect of a future event. The term “greed” is defined as an intense and selfish desire for something. This correlates with the villain Cryos in Burning Water, Frozen Flame, who has a bitter and egoistic craving for world dominance. The article "New York stories: Mike Peters explores the American traditions that underpin The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman" by Mike Peters analyzes the greediness of Jay Gatsby. Peters explains that Gatsby’s “greed for wealth and success, is possessed of Cody’s unscrupulousness” (e.p. 3).

Wealth and greed can easily change a person’s lives. One of the major changes is that you can destroy your life in a way that can affect your decisions in the future. Just like how Tom and Daisy are, in The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that follows Jay Gatsby, a man who orders his life around one desire: to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. Gatsby's quest leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved, and eventually to death.

There are two words that properly describe Mr. Jay Gatsby; a phony and charismatic person. Gatsby has a very strong personality and will not give up on his so called “American Dream”. However, nobody knows the real Gatsby, not even Nick Caraway at first who later we see as Gatsby’s one and only true friend. Jay Gatsby is a man in his mid-thirties who lives a more or less of an extravagant life which he is financing by the great deal of money he miraculously came about in some way that nobody is for certain of. In all reality nobody knows much about him at all, they only know him from the extravagant, lavish parties that he throws in hopes that one day his true love, Daisy will show up.

A truly motivated individual is the most powerful driving force known to history. Empires have been built and felled by the will of a single man. Yet the driving forces behind these individuals are just as important as their momentum; With the ability to carry man to legend or stop them in their tracks. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explores a diverse set of characters, set apart not just by their race, sex, class, or creed, but by their motivation. Set in the roaring 20’s, with money, booze, and adulteration rampant, Fitzgerald romanticizes the settings and characters in glamorous fashion.

TGG Essay In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald offered commentaries surrounding a number of different themes - morality, wealth, betrayal, and power. But the theme that surrounded and followed the book’s title character - Jay Gatsby from his beginning to his downfall, is no other than the American Dream. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s ultimate fate reflects the declining state of the American Dream in the 20s, which is becoming increasingly materialistic and corrupted. Jay Gatsby perceives material wealth as the gateway to joining the echelons of the “old riches”, and the key to win back the heart of Daisy.

Greed and love, in most cases go hand in hand. People will sometimes become jealous when a loved one show affection or chooses someone else over themselves. This in many cases can drive a person to horrible or outrageous things this fact is one of the main parts in the novel The Great Gatsby. This can be summed up by one sentence and used as a theme statement and that sentence is “sometimes people will do anything to get what they want. Daisy is a prime example of how sometimes people will do anything to get what they want.

An important theme in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is the corruption of morals because of wealth. It doesn’t matter if one comes from old or new money, wealth will corrupt the morality of even the humblest. The first example of wealth corrupting morals is in the indifference to infidelity between the married Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. The next example of wealth corrupting morals is seen in Jordan Baker’s actions to keep her luxurious lifestyle. Third, Jim Gatsby’s pursuit of wealth lead to the corruption of his morals.

The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates a morally ambiguous character that can’t be defined as strictly good or evil. Moral ambiguity is the driving force towards Gatsby’s actions. The character Gatsby demonstrates morally ambiguous qualities that initiate plot throughout the whole novel. Morally ambiguous choices can be viewed towards Gatsby’s character throughout the novel. The first glimpse of Gatsby is introduced in the first chapter while Nick is “exempting him from his reaction” of a “uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever” already placing Gatsby in a position of moral ambiguity (Fitzgerald 2).

The Disillusionment of the American Dream is evident in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The main characters that exhibit this through their lives are; Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson and Mr. Jay Gatsby. All of these characters hold on to their dream, but all of these characters are somehow let down. The first character, Daisy Buchanan, has the dream of love. She grew up in a very wealthy home.

A Failed Dream: How Inauthenticity Leads to an Empty Life Money is the root of all evil. While Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is not necessarily and evil character, he loses part of himself in the desire for wealth as he attempts to attract the attention of Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy woman who married into a prestigious family. Gatsby is an inauthentic character because his shallow love of Daisy leads to a false sense of the reality of his relationship with her; thus he does not achieve the American Dream through his failure to achieve happiness along with his wealth Gatsby’s inauthenticity is rooted in how his love of Daisy is surface level and relies heavily on Daisy’s status in society showing how his

Gatsby was a man who came up from essentially nothing by gaining his money through bootlegging and other illegal acts in order to gain a reputation in society. Gatsby’s constant desire to accomplish more in his life demonstrates the corruption of the American Dream. It is evident that Gatsby has had a thirst for the American dream since a young age, this is shown when Gatsby’s father says: “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind?

American novel deals in depth with the theme of Greed as an aspect of human conscience crisis which leads to dilemma, problems, and predicament for human being. Novels such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, Henry James’s Washington Square , Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery, and others expose clear image for the theme of Greed and its implications. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the human predicament of Americans in 1920s, through his best novel The Great Gatsby . In this novel Fitzgerald deals with the theme of a lust for money and greed .