The Destructive Carelessness of Fitzgerald's Wealthy

Fitzgerald thinks they are inauthentic and destructive to everything and everyone around them. What disgusts him the most is that people like Tom and Daisy seem to be able to cause all this devastation around them and then turn around and walk away without a second thought. Though Tom and Daisy have tried to distance themselves from Gatsby and the culture of new wealth, they can’t escape the attitude of carelessness that has infected the wealthy in this time period. The Roaring 20’s was a time of carefree enjoyment, but what is often looked over is how those who indulged themselves refused to accept the consequences as a result of their actions and instead hid behind their shield of money. The wealthy didn’t see what was actually going on in

the world around them because they refused to have any guilt for their reckless behavior. It didn’t matter if you were old wealth or new wealth, because money, once you acquire it, gives you the mobility required to be reckless. For example, Tom’s blaming Myrtle’s death on Gatsby when he didn’t know the entire picture (Daisy actually ran her over) demonstrates his tendency towards putting those he deems inferior in harm’s way. He acts irrationally and allows his vision of Gatsby as a good-for-nothing, new money man to cloud his judgement. He puts a deliberate barrier between himself and Gatsby, between old money and new money. He almost treats Gatsby as someone from a different species–a different race. He does not even feel remotely bad about directly causing Gatsby’s death, as though he were just squashing a bug.