The Great Gatsby Political Analysis

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Niccolò Machiavelli’s views on politics can be applied to all aspects of life, including literature, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, is no exception. Machiavelli’s views help us judge characters and make conclusions on who is a good or bad prince. A prince is someone who has power and seeks to maintain and expand it. Throughout the book it is easy to see how power plays a role in the story’s development. Some characters are natural princes while others are not. Overall, Gatsby was a failed prince because he lost all the power he had by wanting to be loved, especially by Daisy, and still managing to make himself hated by others. Throughout the book, the reader can see that Gatsby has power. Nick gets to know Gatsby better than anyone else in the story and slowly becomes controlled by him. From the very beginning, when Nick stays after the party to apologize to Gatsby for staying so late, the reader can see that Gatsby has power over him …show more content…

In The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli makes it clear that a prince should always try to “escape hatred” (67). Gatsby fails to do this. His choices towards the end of the novel led to people “dislike[ing] him” and being unable to “forgive him” (Fitzgerald 143, 179). Gatsby lost sight of what was important and everyone around him turned on him. Even Nick begins to have negative feelings towards him. Gatsby starts bossing Nick around and it makes Nick “sorry [he’d] ever stepped foot upon [Gatsby’s] overpopulated lawn” (Fitzgerald 68). He should've been more careful in using his power. Since he overestimated his abilities it led to Nick “disapprove[ing] of him” (Fitzgerald 154). He became too comfortable around the other characters and was not careful to maintain his status above them. If Gatsby had used his power responsibly then the other characters would not have turned against

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