Morality Essay

Lily Sahakian
Period 2
5/22/16

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys that in the 1920s people were very
materialistic which led to little morality. No one in the book has solid morals, including Nick;
everyone is so worried about the wealth aspect of the American dream that they forget about
being happy. In a way, from being so materialistic, the characters were discarding their morals
and values created a kind of superficial happiness. Everyone may have seemed happy on the
outside but how they truly felt on the inside was the opposite.

This obsession with materialism throughout the book is shown in, The Great Gatsby:
Human Being, by Elaina Chastain. She says Gatsby forces himself into success delving into
criminal acts. His main reason for doing so is to become famous and win over his long-time love,
Daisy Buchanan.(Chastain online) Just for Daisy, Gatsby has devoted his values to corruption
in order to please her with his possessions. This desire for material success ruins Gatsbys
morals in two ways. One being he becomes materialistic for Daisy which makes him come off as
creepy that he would do anything to try to get her, and it makes him look desperate because
wealth was all he had to keep her with him. Second was that in order to attain that wealth, he
has to do shady things. For example, in the book, we are introduced to the character Wolfshiem,
who is most likely a mob member. In chapter four Gatsby says to Nick, Hes the man who fixed
the Worlds Series back in 1919. (73) In Gatsby being friends with this man and knowing they

Morality Essay

Lily Sahakian
Period 2
5/22/16

do business together we can assume it was not 100% legal. Gatsby looked passed his morals
and laws for money.

Another thing that stuck out was in general everyone was materialistic. Not one main
character or any character wasn't materialistic to some extent. In Ranking the Morality of The
Great Gatsbys Characters, the article says Simply put, every character in the Great Gatsby is

immoral. There is not one character even Nick, who is a self-proclaimed judgement free
narrator who doesnt engage in some kind of bad behaviors. (Online) One big generalized
example of this can be shown on page sixty one when some partygoers talk about Gatsby,
Hes a bootlegger, said the young ladies, moving somewhere between his cocktails and his
flowers. One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg
and second cousin of the devil.(64) All this shows is that Gatsbys guest don't even know him,
there is a lot of speculation. Yet he's known as The Great Gatsby, so what in fact makes him
great if no on even knows the real him? His wealth. People were so materialistic back in the
1920s that they called someone great due to their wealth instead of their personality.

There are many more examples as to why people were materialistic and had no morals
but these are just a few. Conscience was limited, and some could argue that it is the cause of

Morality Essay

Lily Sahakian
Period 2
5/22/16

the sadness that occurs in this book. The characters didnt know their limits and how to be
pleased with life without wealth.

Works cited

Chastian, Elaina. "The Great Gatsby: The Human Being a Moral Agent." The Artifice.
N.p., 4 May 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2015
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY:
Scribner, 1996. Print.
Ranking the Morality of The Great Gatsby's Characters." TerrierWoof. N.p., 15 Oct.
2013. Web. 22 Mar. 2015

Morality Essay

Lily Sahakian
Period 2
5/22/16