Loss Of Morals And Values In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Drop Off

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the forces and changes of the post world war one period in America. The War left people with a feeling to remove their grief. People looked for anything that could create pleasure, often leading to materialistic ideas. The young people of this time period felt hopeless, and aimless, causing a drop in morals and values. The Great Gatsby shows the loss of morals and values in the 1920’s through the characters behaviors, this can be seen with Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy.

World War One was devastating. The loss of life shocked many people. The need people felt to remove their grief from the war created an era of people who were lost and defeated. Slowly people’s morals and values started

to decay. The people of this generation lived under the idea that there were no consequences for their actions, they all were trying to live life in the fast lane and enjoy it while it lasts. The young people of this age had abandoned the values they had before, leading to a break in traditions (Boundless). The young woman of this time period, especially seemed to have a drop in values and morals. The Roaring 20’s was the age where women began smoking, wearing shorter skirts and drinking. Prohibition played a huge role in this era. Alcohol was illegal which caused bootleggers to make millions and speakeasies to be practically everywhere (History.com). People of this generation admired the rich and the American Dream.
The American dream started out about the pursuit of happiness and hope.

The 1920’s American dream, had the idea that if a person worked hard enough, s/he could move from poverty to wealth. The 1920’s Dream changed to focus on materialistic goals such as who could throw the best party and who could own the biggest house. The shift from happiness and hope to materialistic goals in the American Dream led to a drop in morals and values. Middle and Lower class people of this time period would do anything to rise to the top, even if it were illegal. Achieving the American Dream in this time period was challenging to say the least. During the 1920’s hard work wasn’t enough to change a person’s social class, just as Gatsby had worked hard to become wealthy he could never become one of the social elite. People were either born into money or they weren’t, to most people it was something that was not changeable. Money played a big part in how people behaved towards

others.
Tom Buchanan has an assertive and controlling nature because he comes from old money. “Old” money is the respectable type of money, as Gatsby comes from “new” money so he is seen as tacky and not equal. The Roaring Twenties was very much about showing what owned and owning the best money can buy. Mr. Buchanan is controlling of everything he possibly can, when Nick Carraway visits the Buchanan household Tom is quick to show him what he owns,”’ “I’ve got a nice place here,” he said, his eyes flashing about restlessly. Turning me around by one arm, he moved a broad flat hand along the front vista, including in its sweep a sunken Italian garden, a half acre of deep, pungent roses, and a snub-nosed motor-boat that bumped the tide offshore” (Fitzgerald 7). Tom shows the corruption of the rich through how he interacts with others. Tom has the idea that because he has money and is of a high social class that he is worth more. In every interaction Tom has with the car garage owner, George Wilson, he talks down to him as if he were a servant. Tom also shows the loss of morals in this time period when the reader finds out about his affair with another woman named Myrtle. Social class plays a role when Tom makes the connection between Gatsby and Daisy and says,”Self-control!" Repeated Tom incredulously. "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out…”(Fitzgerald 130) Tom is talking about Gatsby’s background and is claiming Gatsby isn’t worthy of Daisy. Tom thinks he can always rely on his wealth if something goes awry, such as after Gatsby is killed, he interacts with Nick and talks about how Gatsby had deserved to die (Fitzgerald 178).
Gatsby has the money, he has the glamorous lifestyle of an upper class citizen, but he doesn’t belong to the upper social class because he does not come from “old” money.

Gatsby is obsessed with wealth and the higher social class. Daisy Buchanan is someone Gatsby loves but he also loves the idea of her wealth and class. "Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly. That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money – that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it… high in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl […]” (Fitzgerald 120). If Gatsby could have Daisy in his life he could have the classy lifestyle every middle and lower class American dreams of. Jay Gatsby also embodies the surge of materialism during this era, he throws the biggest parties and owns the fanciest of things even down to the shirts. Gatsby has a loss of morals when he goes to great lengths to move from the lowest social class to the social elite. Gatsby’s appearance is much different from his reality, at first the reader is introduced to Gatsby as someone had a privileged upbringing and had been educated at Oxford, ’”Well he told me once he was an Oxford man”’(Fitzgerald 49). The reader later finds out that Gatsby has lied about his background. Gatsby was raised in poverty,”His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people-” (Fitzgerald 98) and had attended a small college for two weeks then dropped out, “An instinct

to his future glory had led him, some months before, to the small Lutheran college of southern Minnesota. He stayed there two weeks,”(Fitzgerald 99) . Gatsby also lied about how he got his money which was through illegal alcohol sales,”“He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That's one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn't wrong”(Fitzgerald 133) . Gatsby stands as the symbol of the American dream in this book because of how he moved through the ranks from poverty to wealth. “I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited they just went there.” (Fitzgerald 41) Gatsby’s parties were over the top and were soley about showing off his wealth to the public which was common for those who have recently come into wealth. The people who attended Gatsby’s parties were people looking to live the lavish lifestyle of the rich for a night, most of the people who attended had little money and were trying to achieve the materialistic American Dream. The parties Gatsby threw set him apart from the social elite along with showing a loss of morals because the parties were only thrown for superficial reasons.
Daisy was born into the materialistic side of the American Dream. Daisy is of the social elite, her wealth and class has corrupted her, she is careless.’ Daisy uses her money as a shield, she hides behind it and lets other people clean up the messes she has made. Daisy embodies the corruption of the rich in this time period because of how she uses her money to protect her from the consequences of her actions,”They were 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 had made…”(Fitzgerald 179). Daisy shows her lack of morals when she hits Myrtle Wilson with Gatsby’s car. Daisy then lets Gatsby take the fall for her action and this results in Gatsby’s death. In the book at Gatsby’s funeral she doesn’t even bother with sending a flower nor showing up This scene shows just how careless she is. Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship was a way for Daisy to get the attention she wasn’t getting from Tom. She enjoyed the attention Gatsby gave her but once he was killed she moved past him and onto other things and once again retreated back into her money. Daisy has a lack of morals and values and uses her wealth and class to use people to her benefit,”’Was Daisy driving?” “Yes,” he said after a moment,”but of course I’ll say I was.”’(Fitzgerald 143).