Gatsby Project

Morality and Ethics

By: Sarahy Delvalle, Dean, Daniel Rada, Margo Alvarez

How does Ethics and Morality
differ from the characters in the
book ?
Nick Carraway
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the
“…. Must be about His Father’s business, the orgastic future that year by year recedes
before us. It eluded us then, but that's no
service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.
matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch
So he invented the sort of Jay Gatsby that a out our arms farther. . . . And one fine
seventeen year old boy would like to invent, and to morning—— So we beat on, boats against
this conception he was faithful to the end.” (Ch. 6) the current, borne back ceaselessly into the
past.”
“.... I see now this has been a story of the West, after
all - Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were
all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some
deficiency in common which made us subtly
unadaptable to Eastern life.” (Ch. 9)

Although nick seems to have the best morals and

ethics out of everyone he is still somewhat flawed. He
knows both his cousin, daisy, and tom are having
affairs but he doesn’t tell either of them.
 Jay Gatsby
Gatsby is in love with daisy who is married.
He tells nick that the past can be repeated
and chooses to block out that daisy is
married and has a child. He wants to break
up a marriage just to achieve his dream not
taking into account that he will be destroying
a family.
"I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can't
repeat the past."
"Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of
course you can!"
He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking
here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his
hand.
"I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before,"
he said, nodding determinedly. "She'll see."
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future
that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then,
but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch
out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into the past.“
 Daisy
Daisy shows no interest in her daughter. Also she
knows that its affair that she is dating with
Gatsby but still goes out with Gatsby. Later, she
kills Myrtle because she wanted to deny the fact
that she was having affair with Gatsby. She does
not confess that she killed Myrtle. Even after
Wilson shoot Gatsby, and she knew it was her
fault, she didn’t show up to funeral and acted as
if nothing has happened.
”Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love
you now—isn't that enough? I can't help what's past."
She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him
once—but I loved you too.“
“She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head
away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl.
And I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl
can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.“
“What if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to
him. He threw dust into your eyes just like he did in
Daisy's but he was a tough one. He ran over Myrtle
like you'd run over a dog and never even stopped his
car."
 Tom
Tom does not have direct quote but his action is very
corrupted throughout the whole book. He cheated on
Daisy, and still wanted her. He also fake the situation
causing Wilson to shoot Gatsby. Tom is probably most
unethical person in the book.
“[Tom], among various physical
accomplishments, had been one of the most
powerful ends that ever played football at New
Haven—a national figure in a way, one of
those men who reach such an acute limited
excellence at twenty-one that everything
afterward savors of anti-climax.”
"And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a
while I go off on a spree and make a fool of
myself, but I always come back, and in my
heart I love her all the time."
Jordan
“You threw me over on the telephone. I don't
give a damn about you now but it was a new
experience for me and I felt a little dizzy for a
while." (Ch. 9)
Jordan comes from a competItive nature.
She values independence and takes an
unsentimental approach to relationships.
Jordan avoids commitment because she
cannot stand the thought of putting herself
at a disadvantage in a relationship. Her
competitive spirit shines through in her
chosen career as well, going so far as to cheat
in a golf tournament. Jordan loves to gossip
and uses dishonesty and dry, cynical
commentary on her surroundings as a means
of maintaining control over her emotions.
Chapter 6: Summary

Nick sees neither Gatsby nor Daisy for several weeks after their reunion at Nick’s house.
Stopping by Gatsby’s house one afternoon, he is alarmed to find Tom Buchanan there. Tom has
stopped for a drink at Gatsby’s house with Mr. and Mrs. Sloane, with whom he has been out
riding. Gatsby seems nervous and agitated, and tells Tom awkwardly that he knows Daisy.
Gatsby invites Tom and the Sloanes to stay for dinner, but they refuse. To be polite, they invite
Gatsby to dine with them, and he accepts, not realizing the insincerity of the invitation. Tom is
contemptuous of Gatsby’s lack of social grace and highly critical of Daisy’s habit of visiting
Gatsby’s house alone. He is suspicious, but he has not yet discovered Gatsby and Daisy’s love.
Chapter 9: Summary

Writing two years after Gatsby’s death, Nick describes the events that surrounded the funeral.
Swarms of reporters, journalists, and gossipmongers descend on the mansion in the aftermath
of the murder. Wild, untrue stories, more exaggerated than the rumors about Gatsby when he
was throwing his parties, circulate about the nature of Gatsby’s relationship to Myrtle and
Wilson. Feeling that Gatsby would not want to go through a funeral alone, Nick tries to hold a
large funeral for him, but all of Gatsby’s former friends and acquaintances have either
disappeared—Tom and Daisy, for instance, move away with no forwarding address—or refuse to
come, like Meyer Wolfshiem and Klipspringer. The latter claims that he has a social engagement
in Westport and asks Nick to send along his tennis shoes. Outraged, Nick hangs up on him. The
only people to attend the funeral are Nick, Owl Eyes, a few servants, and Gatsby’s father, Henry
C. Gatz, who has come all the way from Minnesota. Henry Gatz is proud of his son and saves a
picture of his house. He also fills Nick in on Gatsby’s early life, showing him a book in which a
young Gatsby had written a schedule for self-improvement.
How does this relate to the American
Dream?

Everyone ultimately fails at achieving their american dream. Gatsby

no matter how much money he had couldn’t get daisy to choose him.
Nick was torn by Gatsby's death and the fact that his cousin just went
on with her life as if nothing had happened. Daisy couldn’t have both
gatsby and tom and eventually went back to tom to achieve her
“perfect family”. Tom could not have myrtle because she died so he
went back with daisy. It goes to show that no matter how much
money you have or how much class achieving the ultimate american
dream takes more than that
 Works Cited
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1973, pp. 3-13. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/wal.1973.0018

Fruscione, Joseph & Von Cannon, Michael. "Fitzgerald and Hemingway." American Literary Scholarship, vol.

2013, 2013, pp. 175-189. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/594551.

Ward, Jesmyn. "The Doomed Dreamer." New York Times Book Review, Apr 22, 2018, pp. 10. ProQuest,

https://cerritoscoll.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2028114311?accountid=

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Mendelsohn, Daniel, and Zoë Heller. "Bookends." New York Times Book Review, Dec 29, 2013, pp.

23-BR.23. ProQuest,

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 Works Cited

Banach, Jennifer. "F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American Dream." Critical Insights: Fitzgerald, F. Scott, edited

by Don Noble, Salem, 2010. Salem Online.

Damon, William. "American dreams and visions." Hoover Digest, no. 2, 2014, p. 160+. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context,

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xid=f79657b2. Accessed 11 Dec. 2018.

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 Works Cited
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www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar752871. Accessed 4 Dec. 2018.

Roberts, Marilyn. "Scarface, The Great Gatsby, and the American Dream." Literature-Film Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 1, 2006, p. 71+.

Literature Resource Center,

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English Review, vol. 17, no. 3, 2007, p. 9+. Literature Resource Center,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A158832066/GLS?u=cerritos&sid=GLS&xid=b7f96bec. Accessed 3 Dec. 2018.

Works cited
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LITTLE, MATTHEW. “‘I Could Make Some Money’: Cars and Currency in The Great Gatsby.” Papers on Language &
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Thank you