In The Great Gatsby the author F. Scott Fitzgerald provides a scene of destruction of morals in society. The characters all go beyond their morals to get what they want, showing that their morals are not that important to them.
Myrtle Wilson is a energetic woman who lives with her husband George in the 'Valley of Ashes.' They are of the middle class and live above the gas station that George owns. Myrtle wants to be accepted into the upper class and to get there she has an affair with Tom Buchanan. She sacrifices her marriage to George, to get into Tom's world. When Myrtle is confronted about why she married George, if she didn't love him, she says "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman. I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit enough to lick my shoe." Fitzgerald makes it appear that she is pushed around a little bit by Tom, but she will take anything as long as she will be accepted into the upper class.
George Wilson is probably the most tragic character in the book. His wife is having an affair right under his nose and he doesn't know about it. Fitzgerald portrays him as being a "slow" p
Jay Gatsby is the supposed hero of The Great Gatsby. He believes that his new found wealth can buy love and bring back the past. He believes that you can bring back the past '"Can't repeat the past?" he incredulously. "Why of course you can!"' How he earns his money is a mystery until Tom does some investigating '"I found out what your 'drug stores' were." He turned to us and spoke rapidly. "He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That is one of his little stunts. I picked him up for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn't far wrong."' Gatsby makes it his mission in life to win Daisy's love.
erson. When Tom brings Nick to meet Myrtle, Nick asks if George objects to her going out all the time and Tom says '"Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He's so dumb he doesn't know he's alive."' By the end of the novel Wilson has figured out what is happening. So he tries to take control of his life, which in the 1920's is having control over what your wife does. He keeps Myrtle locked up, and is planning on movin
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