Examples Of Corruption In The Great Gatsby

Moral Corruption at Its Finest How human beings behave in society is dictated by moral standards of conduct that are generally accepted as right or proper. This sense of morality can become perverse such that the lines between right and wrong are blurred. The person becomes depraved and their behavior eschews what is generally considered to be right. In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald the characters are portrayed in an immoral manner. F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the destruction of morals in society during the era of the “Jazz Age.” The main characters: Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby are categorized as morally corrupt; they lose their values in attempt to find their place in the social world. These
Early in the novel, Tom says to Nick, “I want you to meet my girl” (Fitzgerald 28). Nick is Daisy’s cousin, but he meets Tom’s mistress anyway without much objection. Although Nick finds himself to be decent, he allows all the cheating and lying to occur. In order for Gatsby to rekindle the love with Daisy, he uses Nick to, “call up Daisy from the office the next morning and invite her for tea” (Fitzgerald 88). Gatsby goes to Nick for help to see Daisy. Nick knows she is married but arranges their secret meeting anyway; he allows the people around him to cheat on each other. At the end of the novel, Nick runs into Tom and thinks “there was nothing I could say except the one unutterable fact that it wasn’t true” (Fitzgerald 187). Nick knows the truth about Daisy being the driver of the car that kills Myrtle, but he doesn’t tell the truth in order to clear Gatsby’s name. Nick allows everyone to do as they please and he does nothing to stop the moral corruption that occurs. Because of this, Nick is unquestionably morally corrupt, he allows the people he associates himself with to be immoral, but claims he is the most decent; you are the company you