Lie In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby Essay To be great is to be giving, honest and being devoted to doing the right thing. A person that is great is selfless, and puts others before himself. A great person does not lie or do wrong to others to benefit himself. In the novel The Great Gatsby by FitzGerald, the character Gatsby is the exact opposite of great. The title itself is merely a sarcastic statement and readers realize that as they continue reading the novel. Gatsby is not great because he is self-centered, obsessive and a liar.
The Great Gatsby is shown to be self-centered in many parts of the book. Readers can interpret this when the text states, “‘I want to get the grass cut,’ Said Gatsby. We both looked at the grass, there was a sharp line where my
This is shown in the text when Gatsby states, “‘I’ll tell you God’s truth. I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West, all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition,’” (65). This passage reveals that Gatsby is lying. He is in fact, not the son of wealthy people, his parents were middle class farmers; and none of his family members or ancestors ever went to Oxford, because they were all too poor. Also when Nick asks him where in the Middle West is he from, he answers San Francisco, which is nowhere near the Middle West, which proves that he made up the whole thing. Also, at one point in the story Gatsby accidently tells Nick that it only took him three years to gather up money to buy the mansion. Nick then questions him and says that he thought Gatsby inherited the money. Gatsby quickly realizes his mistakes and tries correcting it by saying he lost all the money in the panic of war. However, that makes no sense at all, and it is proven that Gatsby is lying to Nick. Another time Gatsby lies to Nick is when Nick asks him about what business he does. Gatsby’s instinct was to reply to Nick with a sharp response and tell him that it is none of his business. However, he realizes that he has been rude and he corrects himself and says that he was in the drug and oil business, but he is not in either now. At this point Gatsby is clearly lying to Nick because in reality he is doing illegal business with Myer Wolshiem that he doesn’t want anyone to find out about. Gatsby not only is a liar, he is also involved in serious crime and does many wrong