Fools In The Great Gatsby

“Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it is compounding a felony” (Robert Benchley). The average person does not always make smart decisions, and alcohol tends to worsen that issue. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, many characters cope with their problems by drinking their lives away. But, what they do not realize, is that drinking makes their problems worse and makes their behavior portray them as unintelligent. Through the poor decisions made at social events, Fitzgerald conveys his agreement that drinking makes people more of a fool than they already are.
After drinking at Myrtle’s apartment, guests’ became unstable, disoriented, and lost judgement. Everybody was confused and lost by the end of the party. After losing focus due to being drunk, “People disappeared, reappeared, made plans to go somewhere, and then lost each other, searched for each other, found each other a few feet away”
After getting drunk, Owl Eyes crashes his car, and afterwards he “stood in the middle of the road, looking from the car to the tire and from the tire to the observers in a pleasant, puzzled way” (Fitzgerald 53). At the party, he made the poor decision to drive, which really could have hurt him and others. While trying to leave, he was so drunk that he crashed and had no clue what was going on. At Gatsby’s party, everyone’s judgement was clouded and they became irritable, so “Most of the remaining women were now having fights with men said to be their husbands” (Fitzgerald 51). Usually, people do not want to fight in public, and they want to be seen as classy and presentable. But while drinking, their judgement was not the same, and they started arguing and saying things they did not mean. Under the influence, visitors at the parties are unaware of the harm they are doing to themselves and to