Examples Of Integrity In The Great Gatsby

Emma Dolci Ms. Belardo English II Honors 10/20/24 Personal Integrity and the American Dream Personal integrity can be defined as truthfulness/honesty with both the individual and others, as well as aligning behaviors to match one’s own values and morals. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, several characters go through dramatic situations as they each attempt to achieve their American Dream. They lived in Long Island, New York, in two towns: East Egg (old money residents) and West Egg (new money residents) during the 1920s. Once the narrator, Nick Carraway arrives in search of a New York City job and to visit his cousin, Daisy, readers are taken along his point of view throughout his interactions with the other characters. The major characters, Jay Gatsby, Myrtle & George Wilson,
In summary, the answer is no, it is not possible to achieve the American Dream while preserving personal integrity as seen through the character of Tom Buchanan due to his racist views, his ill-mannered treatment of others, and the lack of accountability he possesses. To begin, one way in which Tom is unable to maintain his personal integrity is through his racist beliefs, that help him in further achieving his American Dream of having wealth and status. While meeting with Nick, Jordan, and his wife Daisy in his home, Tom discusses the idea of race through the novel he reads, The Rise of the Colored Empires, “‘This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us who are the dominant race to watch out for or these other races will have control of things’” (13). Through “scientific” reasoning, Tom believes that whites are the dominant race and everyone else is simply in their way. As he works towards his dream of continuing to be wealthy and gain social status, he believes myths such as this in order to eliminate his