Connor Inglefield

Pd.2

Gatsby End of Novel Essay

Conscience is an excellent motivator for ambitious people to pursue
the objects of desire, this is apparent in the choices made by characters
in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby presents
characters whose morals are flawed as conscience is pushed aside in
favor of selfishness.
Nick is the exception to the other characters in The Great Gatsby,
who matured through the novel. Nick shows his self-awareness from the
beginning as he reminisces upon his younger and more vulnerable
years (1). Nicks vulnerable years extend beyond his childhood as he
enjoyed a time of selfishness before giving into his conscience. Nick
chooses to both be a part of the characters lives and distance himself
from them at the same time: I was within and without. Simultaneously
enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life (43). Toward
the end he could not take it anymore and fully pulled away from them, a
move that was social suicide for him. Theyre a rotten crowd, I shouted
across the lawn. Youre worth the whole damn bunch put together
(154). Nick tells Gatsby that he is so much better than Daisy, Tom, Jordan
and the others who are rotten to the core. Sadly, this was the last thing
Nick told him before Mr. Wilson shot and killed Gatsby.

Gatsby epitomizes selfishness in his lavish splurges or parties, and

his insatiable pursuit of Daisy. He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that
she should go to Tom and say I never loved you (109). In this quote Nick
is describing what Gatsby is asking of Daisy so that Gatsbys dream of
him and Daisy being married can happen. When this is happening Gatsby
is listening to his dream instead of his morals. He ends up asking too
much of Daisy when he assumes she would recant her love for Tom and
lie about her feelings to play into Gatsbys fantasy. Was Daisy driving?
Yes he said after a moment, but of course Ill say I was (143). Gatsby
is tells Nick he is going to take the blame for hitting Myrtle so that Daisy
will not get in trouble. Gatsby is again not doing the moral thing and
instead he is taking the blame for the accident.
Daisy is set upon a pedestal by Gatsby, but is nothing more than a
selfish and shallow women underserving of love. Daisy is seen dressed in
white, and in a white little roadster (114) to portray the pureness and
innocence that Gatsby sees in her to the reader. She is far from innocent
and is manipulative enough to get what she wants: attention. Daisys
murmur was only to make people lean towards her, an irrelevant criticism
that made it no less charming (8). She craves the attention so much that
she can draw a crowd closer to her by a murmur in her voice because
people see the pretty and innocent woman she wants them to see. Im
glad Jay. Her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her

unexpected Joy (89). Gatsby sees Daisy for her beauty, but the way Nick
describes Daisy is just like a normal woman.
In Fitzgeralds book The Great Gatsby, the characters all show a
similar pattern that they talk perfect and act perfect with their rich lives
and their lavish splurges, but Nick shows a lot of their flaws in Gatsby and
Daisy throughout the book. The Great Gatsby is showing that you can
have everything in life but sometimes that stuff doesnt matter to you if
you dont have what actually matters like Gatsby he is wealthy, owns a
Mansion, went to Oxford, and lives a lavish lifestyle, but his life was never
complete if he did not have Daisy in his life.