Reputation In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals many things about society in the 1920s. Throughout the book, Fitzgerald suggests that people are not happy or satisfied with who they are, so they create perceptions around themselves to fit into society, whether it be for love, status, or wealth.
Many people will do anything to impress those they love because the alternative is being alone. Some build their entire life and personality around those loves. For example, Gatsby has built his entire life to impress Daisy. During Nick’s first visit to one of Gatsby’s parties, he met Owl Eyes in Gatsby’s massive library. Owl Eyes was intrigued by the library and described the books as “absolutely real - have pages and everything. I thought they’d be
While talking to Nick, Tom reveals that he told Wilson who killed his wife and that Wilson was “crazy enough to kill me if I hadn’t told him who owned the car… what if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to him” (Fitzgerald 178). Tom Buchanan is the type of person that will do anything to save his own life or reputation. It is at this point that Nick is realizing how corrupt Tom is. The worst part of Tom’s accusation is that he didn’t see it as a way to help his friend, Wilson, he saw it as an opportunity to help himself. He didn’t feel guilty about it, was even happy about this revelation because by telling Wilson this, he was taking care of his wife’s lover, Gatsby, and his late mistress’s husband. Both Gatsby and Wilson were removed from their lives, and were removed from Tom’s worries. Daisy was exactly where Tom wanted her, and his reputation was still as perfect as it was before Gatsby. This reveals that Tom is actually a very fragile, child-like person. If something doesn’t go his way, he uses his status, wealth or reputation to fix it. However, since he has built such a strong perception around himself as the powerful, old money man with his perfect family and life, no one, except Nick, can observe any of Tom’s