Examples Of Disillusionment In The Great Gatsby

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In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby the narrator, Nick remarks, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”(179). This conclusion by Nick can be aimed at three characters from this unfortunate realm: Jay Gatsby, George Wilson, and Myrtle Wilson. To begin, Jay Gatsby is introduced as a mysterious man who throws massive parties at his mansion in West Egg, yet is never seen nor introduced to his guests. Nick learns of this after he asks three people of, “his whereabouts [they] stared at me in such an amazed way, and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements, that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table—...”(42). This early description of Gatsby provides a deeper understanding into who Gatsby is and his goals of throwing these parties. Later we learn Gatsby’s past; he is new money with no name, thus unrespected among the rich in East Egg. Here lies the first disillusionment Gatsby is met with. He believes he can gain relevancy and respect among those in East Egg by throwing …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby can be displayed in three characters: Jay Gatsby, George Wilson and Myrtle Wilson. The reader can see this frustration of these characters as each, in their own ways, flounder at becoming one with the wealthy. Gatsby is unable to gain the gift of the past in the future and thus loses his life ambition, Daisy, along with his life. George Wilson is unable to maintain happiness as he has no control over his own life or wife, and through his anger and discontent, murders Gatsby and himself. Myrtle Wilson falls short of Tom’s love as well as eminence among the upper class, and through an ironic event is stuck dead by her disillusionment, in the manifestation of Tom’s “true love”,
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