Morality, Superficiality and Dishonesty in The Great Gatsby
Helena Granik 12AR November 2014
‘All the characters, without exception, are materialist, superficial and dishonest.’ Examine the extent to which this statement is true in pages sixty-four to sixty-seven of The Great Gatsby.
Scott F. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is set in 1920s America, after the First World War, and it was a period when the economy boomed and was an easy time for people to make vast amounts of money. Are both Gatsby and Nick completely ‘materialist, superficial and dishonest?’ If so, to what extent do these traits vary in these characters?
Nick’s narration exposes Gatsby’s obsession with accumulating worldly possessions. The car, a symbol of prosperity and success in the 1920s, is also the embodiment of Gatsby’s materialism. He has modified his motor to the point of being overpowering, excessive and frightening (‘and there in its monstrous length’) solely for his image and projection. The ‘triumphant hat boxes and supper boxes and toolboxes’ infer that Gatsby’s vast (repetition of ‘and’) accumulation of possessions for no other purpose than to show off is akin to a ‘triumphant’ victory. When Gatsby describes his adventures in ‘Paris, Venice, Rome- collecting jewels…things for myself only’ in order to ‘forget something very sad,’ it shows that he hoards valuable objects to satisfy his emotional needs.
Nick initially finds Gatsby’s extravagant vehicle quite appealing (‘he caught me staring in admiration at his car’). The ‘rich cream colour’ is unusual for a motor car and is therefore an exciting novelty. Nick also notes the metal from which the car is made (‘bright with nickel’) as though to assess the quality of it; had Nick been completely disinterested in Gatsby’s material assets, these are details which he might have overlooked. Nick seems disapproving of Gatsby’s materialism as he describes the car with noticeable disdain; the car is ‘swollen,’ enlarged and rounded to the point of being distorted and ugly. Given his earlier awe,
‘All the characters, without exception, are materialist, superficial and dishonest.’ Examine the extent to which this statement is true in pages sixty-four to sixty-seven of The Great Gatsby.
Scott F. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is set in 1920s America, after the First World War, and it was a period when the economy boomed and was an easy time for people to make vast amounts of money. Are both Gatsby and Nick completely ‘materialist, superficial and dishonest?’ If so, to what extent do these traits vary in these characters?
Nick’s narration exposes Gatsby’s obsession with accumulating worldly possessions. The car, a symbol of prosperity and success in the 1920s, is also the embodiment of Gatsby’s materialism. He has modified his motor to the point of being overpowering, excessive and frightening (‘and there in its monstrous length’) solely for his image and projection. The ‘triumphant hat boxes and supper boxes and toolboxes’ infer that Gatsby’s vast (repetition of ‘and’) accumulation of possessions for no other purpose than to show off is akin to a ‘triumphant’ victory. When Gatsby describes his adventures in ‘Paris, Venice, Rome- collecting jewels…things for myself only’ in order to ‘forget something very sad,’ it shows that he hoards valuable objects to satisfy his emotional needs.
Nick initially finds Gatsby’s extravagant vehicle quite appealing (‘he caught me staring in admiration at his car’). The ‘rich cream colour’ is unusual for a motor car and is therefore an exciting novelty. Nick also notes the metal from which the car is made (‘bright with nickel’) as though to assess the quality of it; had Nick been completely disinterested in Gatsby’s material assets, these are details which he might have overlooked. Nick seems disapproving of Gatsby’s materialism as he describes the car with noticeable disdain; the car is ‘swollen,’ enlarged and rounded to the point of being distorted and ugly. Given his earlier awe,