Preview

Carelessness In The Great Gatsby

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1336 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Carelessness In The Great Gatsby
The possibility of attaining membership to the “rather distinguished secret society” in the 1920s filled many with the fantasy of obtaining wealth, status, and power (22). The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is set in the fictitious East Egg and West Egg of New York City in the 1920s. Nick Carraway, the narrator, explains his experiences with wealth and the wild and reckless lifestyle it brings. Through a series of scenes depicting reckless and impulsive behavior, Fitzgerald emphasizes the carelessness of wealthy individuals in the roaring twenties. Fitzgerald uses this motif of carelessness in order to convey the idea that as the lure of the American Dream becomes too great, people will often lose their sense of moral values and will …show more content…
After the fight in the hotel between Tom and Gatsby, Daisy feels helpless and decides to go back to East Egg with Gatsby. Gatsby describes her as “very nervous and she thought it would steady her to drive and this woman rushed out” (143). Gatsby is shown as careless because he doesn’t care about the fact that they killed a woman. He only worries about Daisy and wants her to calm down by letting her to drive the car. Gatsby continues to explain to Nick, “‘Well, first Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and then she lost her nerve and turned back’”(143). Daisy “loses her nerve” emphasizing that she is not able to choose between Gatsby and Tom. She can not withdraw herself from it so she decides to drive while being emotionally unstable. From the description, we can tell Daisy has the option to avoid the tragedy however, because of her careless decision and volatile emotion, she crashes Myrtle. After crashing into Myrtle, Gatsby continues his explanation to Nick, “...I pulled on the emergency brake. Then she fell over into my lap and I drove on”(144). Gatsby does not even care the death of Myrtle when he “ drove on” after the crash, which is shown that he is not terrify by the accident. He speaks as if Daisy’s mood is the even more important than the car accident that they

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Roaring Twenties was a period of frivolous days and exciting nights. Times were prosperous and life was good for most. In The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes about the fictitious life of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire (Gross 1). The setting of the novel is New York in the twenties, a time, and place, where people were jovial and carefree. In New York, more than anywhere, people did not worry about life's downs, but focused on the highlife and partying. Prohibition made partying difficult, but it prevailed nonetheless. In the novel, Fitzgerald's description of humans was of an appalling nature. He shows them as careless, greedy, and inconsiderate; much like they truly were in this decade. Inevitably he would become involved in some type of lackadaisical ways. Fitzgerald's writing's were significantly influenced by these surroundings. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing was profoundly influenced by events in his life, the exciting times he lived in, and the people he knew.…

    • 1668 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fitzgerald uses metaphors, similes, and motif of rumors to demonstrate that people are careless. Reading through out the book you encounter many reckless actions committed by a wide spread of characters including both daisy and Gatsby. Carelessness is a topic that keeps spreading in The Great Gatsby and this is supported by the action of many characters.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The humble narrator of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, owes his steadfast virtues to his midwestern origins. These moral virtues that he learned out west elude, however, him as he becomes entangled in a life of greed, corruption and lies. The promise of monetary gain brought Nick out East, but it was ultimately the dearth of morality and opulent lifestyle that prompted his return to the midwest. The death of Gatsby, a noticeable product of a flawed American dream, is the turning point for Nick, whence he realizes that West Egg does not promote the same values to which he is accustomed. Nick Carraway, transplanted from his midwestern roots to the glitz and glam of West Egg, is perhaps the only honest character in The Great Gatsby.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the theme of “Wealth can breed carelessness” using the literary devices and/or techniques of irony, flashback, and point of view. Throughout the story, Nick Carraway exposes the affluent main characters through their hideous actions and words. Whether to them it is virtuous or not, the result was completely repulsive. First of all, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the theme of “Wealth can breed carelessness” using irony. According to the text, when Jordan is driving with Nick, “‘They’ll keep out of my way,’ she insisted. ‘It takes two to make an accident.’ ‘Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself.’ ‘I hope I never will,’ she answered. ‘I hate careless people. That’s why I like…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Great Gatsby was set in the 1920’s when sections of society were corrupt due to the horror and violence of World War One. The wealthy people, who survived, labelled the Lost Generation, decided they would live the rest of their lives extravagantly. For some money, objects and excitement became the only goal in life, showing morals were lost. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the theme of the Lost Generation throughout the novel to convey Jay Gatsby’s corruption through the eyes of our first person narrator, Nick Caraway. In Chapter One Nick tells us of Gatsby’s mansion, with “a tower on one side”, “a marble swimming pool” and “forty acres” it appears to the reader that no expense was spared. Once again Gatsby’s excess is portrayed through Nick’s elaborate descriptions. Instead of having a swimming pool in the house, we are told that it is in fact a marble one, thus showing the excess money he has for luxury.…

    • 1396 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses on the wealthy class that live in New York, and takes place during the “Roaring Twenties”, and era of economic prosper and recklessness after World War I. Fitzgerald highlights the irresponsibility and lack of morality that derives from wealth. Throughout the novel, there are a number of characters that abuse their wealth or power in a way to excuse their moral irresponsibility. Through Gatsby’s disputed accumulation of wealth and Tom’s unceasing trysts, Fitzgerald paints a vivid picture of two men who choose to use their wealth and objectives as an excuse for their immoral habits.…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Later on, while he is trying to get Daisy from Tom, Gatsby is so overly consumed by his want of her he cannot see her immoral character, which creates a strange scene especially after the argument that happened in New York and accident in the Valley of Ashes when Gatsby sits outside and watches Daisy’s home, exclaiming to Nick “I’m just going to wait here and see if he tries to bother her about that unpleasantness this afternoon” (145). This helps establish that Gatsby is blind to her by sitting outside watching over her even when it is clear from Nick’s point of view that nothing will happen yet Gatsby is just paranoid about Tom hurting Daisy. However, it also shows how consumed he is by her, since he just sits calmly waiting to make sure…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Correspondingly, Fitzgerald, like all authors, wrote The Great Gatsby for a reason more than just the 1920s life in its splendor. In the book, The Great Gatsby, characters are wealthy seemingly beyond measure. For example, they have cars to take them to the fanciest party in East Egg, and the women can afford to stay home. East Egg stands out in contrast to West Egg with its glamour and excess, but much of that glamour comes with a price. Jewels replaced morality, and money replaced relationships. “My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires-all for eighty dollars a month. Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable…

    • 1811 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Careless Characters and How Their Choices Affect Them in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby is a classic novel in which many characters lives revolve around money, however money cannot buy happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald pursued many things writing the book The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald offers many themes in the book he shows power, greed, and betrayal. Fitzgerald showed Gatsby as a Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups but, in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. By creating distinct social classes old money, new money, and no money Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism running throughout every strata of society.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Carelessness is the beginning of all evils; Carelessness is the flaw of the upper class of society. In The Great Gatsby, the characters are adored for their status, but their carelessness is ignored. Every character exhibits carelessness in different ways. Jay Gatsby is careless in his want of love; Nick Carraway is careless in his judgment of others; and Tom Buchanon, Daisy Buchanon and Myrtle Wilson are symbols of the carelessness of wealth in American society. Money and love corrode people’s minds and lead them to be arrogant and careless towards others.…

    • 1699 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Great Gatsby Mistakes

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Time is a continuous aspect of life where many take certain events from their lifetime and organize them into the past, present, and future. Although people live present time, it is astonishing to believe that one may be trapped in one of these blocks because of their personal ambitions. For example, in The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby continues to live in the past particularly because of his many “mistakes” of not getting what he wanted. Because of the many things Gatsby wanted to change, Gatsby transforms into an obsessive perfectionist that will stop at nothing to get his way in order to make up for everything he wished for, including his loved one. What he never realized is that one cannot change the past no matter how hard they try because the present seems to overflow what the past has ever…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Camrynn Tanner describes Daisy as “using Gatsby for her own enjoyment, she ends up going back to Tom,” (Tanner). Basically, Tanner believes that Daisy never had any true intentions for commitment to Gatsby. Instead, she just wanted to use him to get back at Tom, who had cheated on her with Myrtle Wilson. When Nick sees Tom and Daisy after they did not attend Gatsby’s funeral, Nick says “they were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money,” (Fitzgerald 137). This shows that Tom and Daisy both had no empathy for other people as long as they could continue living in their leisurely, wealthy lives.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby sets its scene in the Long Island region of New York during the summer of 1922. The time period that this story takes place in is pivotal to how the story unfolds and why the course of events happen in the manner in which they do. The 1920s is known in the United States as a decade of incredible economic success. In this novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald the story focuses on the negative and less known aspects of this era. With the end of the first World war only a few years past in 1918, there was a dizzying and staggering rise of the stock market that led to a sudden and sustained increase in the nation’s wealth. A new found sense of materialism was discovered as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. Fitzgerald provides an accurate judge of American character in The Great Gatsby during the 1920s. His book is a perceptive and astute account of the time in which he obviously studied and then successfully captured the angst of society drama and the sadness of lost love and the promise that lurks just beneath the roar of the twenties. This novel is known the world over today as an accessible door into the history of that…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Great Gatsby

    • 1981 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story about life in 1920s America. “The Great Gatsby” was written in 1925 by F. Scott Fitzgerald and became one of the greatest literary documents of this period, in which the economy prospered. It is a story told through the eyes of a young man, Nick Carraway, as he befriends his mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby, and witnesses a summer of love, extramarital affairs, the downfall of the American dream, life of the upper class and tragedy. “The Great Gatsby” is a novel that illustrates the obsession with the American dream and how it can lead to downfall and tragedy.…

    • 1981 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays