What Is The Dishonesty In The Great Gatsby

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The world is overflowing with honest, compassionate people; if one cannot be found, become one. Nick Carraway, of The Great Gatsby, chose to be one of these people when he discovered that the East was full of selfish and dishonest people. “As we see throughout the novel, Nick does inspire people to moments of candor, of confession, such that he is not only a witness but he’s the only person privy to the real characters of individuals he encounters” (“List of Characters and Summary Analysis”). F. Scott Fitzgerald intended Nick to be the most honest character in the novel. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the moral decay and deceit of the other characters in the book contribute to uncovering the only ethical character in the …show more content…
All the characters show some type of dishonesty through their words, actions or feelings.“Many of the characters thrive on emotional dishonesty, and live for the appearance rather than substance of character” (Beetz 499). The characters from the novel have been changed morally by the East in hopes that they will gain their own version of the American Dream. Tom and Daisy, originally from the West, have changed since their move to the East. Tom physically cheats on his wife with Myrtle, and Daisy emotionally cheats on her husband with Gatsby. The moral decline is so obvious that it is apparent to Nick within the first few days of interacting with the diverse life forms of the East. “Ultimately Nick understands the meaning of their lives and the sadness of their worlds” (Beetz 499). Unfortunately, the members of the elite East never obtain the type of satisfaction they have been looking for. “This is the world where the dream has died” (Beetz …show more content…
“He was left with his singularly appropriate education; the vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the sustainability of a man” (Fitzgerald 101). Jay Gatsby, previously known as small town James Gatz, created the illusion of a perfect life to gain the affection of Daisy. The novel is appropriately named after him because he entails every example of moral decay. Gatsby started his spiral of moral decay after he inherited his fortune. “And it was from Cody that he inherited the money-- a legacy of twenty-five thousand dollars” (Fitzgerald 100). Gatsby inherited his money from a man named Dan Cody, but this was not always a fact. Rumors about Gatsby being a murderer, a spy, and bootlegger circled him day in and day out. The rumors about him being a bootlegger only intensified when his friendship with Meyer Wolfsheim flourished. “He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919” (Fitzgerald 73). Wolfsheim was a gambler and overall bad guy who, in the end, only ruined Gatsby’s
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