Theme Of Honesty In The Great Gatsby

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We all have dreams that we fantasize so much that they may be in contrast to reality. We have all experienced the utter disappointment of having the harsh reality of the world make itself known to us. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald presents us Nick Caraway, a meek Midwesterner both intrigued and repulsed by the roaring extravagance of the East in the 1920s. Nick’s enthusiasm and confidence to establish a successful life in New York is betrayed when he experiences the underlying emptiness and corruption to the morality of the upper class forcing him to reconsider his adaptability to this modern lifestyle. Fighting in World War I may have caused Nick to become numb to the calm and peaceful life of the Midwest. When he …show more content…

He claims his upbringing has instilled in him high morals and values, as opposed to those of Easterners. As a result, when he is faced with the inevitable falsification of those he considers friends, Nick has difficulty retaining judgement internally. There are two prime examples of dishonesty in this novel: Jay Gatsby’s fabrications and Jordan Baker’s evasions. There are several instances when Nick suspected Jay of withholding the truth. His first impression of Gatsby was one of those moments: “Sometime before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care” (Fitzgerald 32). Another instance of distrust was when Gatsby says how he worked for three years to earn the money to buy his house and Nick questions this because Gatsby told him earlier that his money was inherited. Jay quickly tries to recover from his lapse of concealment which causes Nick to remark on this: “I think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what business he was in he answered: ‘That’s my affair,’ before he realised that it wasn’t an appropriate reply” (Fitzgerald 58). Jordan Baker presents another form of dishonesty: lying to get what she wants. We find out that Jordan lies about leaving “a borrowed car out in the rain with the top down” which sparks Nick’s judgement: “She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage” (Fitzgerald 38). This may be due to her need to feel superior to others. All in all, the magnitude of lies Nick encountered drove him to yearn for the truthfulness in the

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