Morality In Gatsby

1132 Words3 Pages

Sandesh Paudel, R4
Magister Focht
The Great Gatsby Essay
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel set in the era of the 1920’s that explores the effects of societal values placed upon wealth. It illustrates that the society’s ill-founded obsession with wealth leads to social stratification, inequality, and ultimately, corruption of morality. The Great Gatsby tells the story of Jay Gatsby, who climbs up the social ladder and displays his newly attained wealth by building a giant mansion in West Egg and hosting lavish parties. Gatsby does this in order to win back Daisy Buchanan, a girl who he had loved for years. Daisy, however, had married Tom Buchanan while Gatsby was away at war. Gatsby nevertheless persists at trying to attain Daisy throughout the entire novel. Gatsby shows extraordinary determination and commitment towards his irrational dream of attaining Daisy. Fitzgerald creates a parallel between Gatsby’s unreasonable obsession with Daisy and the society’s unjustifiable fixation upon money. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy is repeatedly equated with wealth in order to illustrate that the wealth is unworthy of the societal preoccupation that it receives.
Fitzgerald paints Daisy to be a symbol of wealth and of high status throughout the novel. For instance, Fitzgerald equates Daisy with wealth when Gatsby states that Daisy’s “indiscreet” voice has “inexhaustible charm” because it “is full of money” (Fitzgerald, 120). The word “indiscreet” suggests that Daisy’s voice is devoid of thought. While Daisy’s voice is charming to the ear, it doesn’t have much substance or meaning behind it. It is not the meaning behind her words that is charming. Instead, Fitzgerald uses the metaphor “money” to associ...

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...phere (Fitzgerald, 23). Fitzgerald uses diction and imagery to create grim mood. This serves to exemplify overwhelming differences between the rich and the poor. While the wealthy in East and West Egg regularly attend to lavish parties and live on opulent mansions, others are left to struggle in grim surroundings. Hence, Fitzgerald shows that greed for excess wealth contributes to social injustice by creating social division.
Fitzgerald associates Daisy with wealth, in order to characterize wealth as undeserving of the values that people place upon it. Gatsby is mistaken to believe that attaining Daisy would bring him happiness, similar to how the society is mistaken to believe that wealth is the key to happiness and nobility. On the contrary, Fitzgerald demonstrates that the greed for wealth causes social injustice, and deteriorates the moral fabric of the society.

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