In The Great Gatsby, what  

morals, values, or goals are

expressed and described?
the novel develops strong themes concerning morality and personal values. Nick's
character is developed to represent solid personal values and moral conduct, while
the Buchanans come to 2represent immorality, amorality, and personal values that
have been corrupted by enormous inherited wealth and the social status it has
created for them.

Nick, who comes East after being shaped by Midwestern values while growing up,
believes in honesty, friendship. and loyalty. He values decency in human behavior...

The novel develops strong themes concerning morality and personal values. Nick's
character is developed to represent solid personal values and moral conduct, while
the Buchanans come to represent immorality, amorality, and personal values that
have been corrupted by enormous inherited wealth and the social status it has
created for them.

Nick, who comes East after being shaped by Midwestern values while growing up,
believes in honesty, friendship. and loyalty. He values decency in human behavior
and is dumbfounded and appalled by Tom and Daisy's lack of decency in the novel's
conclusion. Gatsby's death is meaningless to them, except as a personal
inconvenience and complication. It is Nick who makes arrangements for Gatsby's
funeral, becoming more and more angry when he realizes he is the only one of
Gatsby's "friends" who cares about him:

. . . I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and

me against them all.

Nick is not self-centered and obsessed with his own well being, unlike Tom, Daisy,
and Jordan, as well as Myrtle Wilson, and Meyer Wolfsheim. After his time in the
East, Nick comes home to condemn all the major players, except Gatsby, as being
"foul dust."

In terms of the characters' goals, Nick's is substantial and honorable: to establish a

career and make his way in the world. Gatsby's goal is grand and romantic: to repeat
the past with Daisy, whom he loves at all costs. Myrtle wants to escape poverty,
which in itself is understandable, even though her methods to achieve it are
contemptible. George Wilson's goal in life is to survive economically, which points to
the drastic discrepancy between the social classes in American life. Tom and Daisy,
having everything, have no goals at all; their lives are lived without purpose.

Writing an essay on morality and wealth in The Great

Gatsby: Could someone give me a thesis and some
examples of what I could write?
Morality is a value-based code of conduct. The basis of a person's values determine
his or her sense of right and wrong. In several cases in this novel, wealth is
seemingly the sole basis of some characters' basis of morality.

Through these characters we see a single, vaunted value expressed - material

wealth. They dream a dream of material success. They dream of glamour. In a way,
these are figures in search of the American Dream. However, it is through these
characters as well that we see the dangers of such a shallow base for morality. 

On the flip side of the American Dream, then, is a naivete and a susceptibility to evil
and poor-intentioned people.

The affair undertaken by Tom and Myrtle is a nice place to start. This affair relates to
the idea of wealth as a justification for actions (from both sides - Tom and Myrtle).
Tom seems to feel his social position, derived solely from financial wealth, sets him
above or makes him better than George Wilson. 

Tom is demeaning to George Wilson, his mistress's husband, who owns a garage in
the wasteland between New York and East Egg.

For her part, Myrtle feels that she is owed the kind of treatment that Tom gives her.
Since her husband cannot offer her the kind of oppulent treatment that Tom can, she
is justified in carrying on an affair with Tom. We see here again in Myrtle the notion
that wealth erases morality. 

The primary moral consideration of many characters seems to be related to wealth.

Gatsby makes an illegal fortune allowing him to buy many "beautiful shirts" that
impress Daisy to such an extent that she is (nearly) willing to leave her husband for
the wealthier man. 

However, Gatsby and Daisy both have a dream, a romantic notion, which determines
their behavior. More than money, it is a dream of true love that guides Gatsby and
Daisy to do what they do. 

Morality for them remains relative. There is no code of right and wrong, in a
conventional sense, that dictates their behavior. Instead, there is a romantic vision of
the "right life" that both of them strive to achieve. Gatsby feels that he can
accomplish this through Daisy. She, for a while, feels reciprocally but later decides
that it is only through Tom that she has a chance to fulfill this vision. 

Essay on the immorality of the characters and incidents in The Great GatsbyWhat
do you think of this essay topic and can you please help me expand on it? The Great
Gatsby is ultimately a story...
Essay on the immorality of the characters and incidents in The Great Gatsby

What do you think of this essay topic and can you please help me expand on it?
The Great Gatsby is ultimately a story about morality and the essentially immoral
society at the time.

In a literary essay, discuss to what extent you agree or disagree with the above
statement. Substantiate your views with close reference to incidents and characters
in the novel.

EXPERT ANSWERS

In the character analysis section of enotes, Jordan Baker of The Great Gatsby is
described as having

an amoral aura about her, and the world revolves around herself and false material
values.

This description seems to apply to Daisy and Tom Buchanan as well as they act on
what is expedient to them.  Tom exploits the women that he takes; they are no more
to him than sexual objects in his smug and villainous world.  Daisy, too, feigns being
"foolish" to exploit others and maintain her illusions.  There is a passivity to Daisy
that suggests the effete, amoral personal.

Myrtle Wilson, however, is not such an amoral character; she truly is

immoral.  Fitzgerald describes her in more concrete terms.  She carries her "surplus
flesh sensuously as some women can," and she exhibits a vitality, making her
actions actively immoral as they are in defiance to the love of her husband, who
desperately attempts to restrain her by forcing her to stay home. 

Myrtle also demonstrates a moral corruption as she attempts to move up in social

class, pretending to be other than what she is as Nick remarks,

The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into
impressive hauteur.

 In the hotel room, she is affected in her manner with the McKees:

"I told that boy about the ice." Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the
shiflessness of the lower orders.  "These people!  You have to keep after them all the
time."

Before the others in the hotel room, she pulls her chair close to Nick and boldly tells
him of her first meeting with Tom with some detail.  When she boldly calls out "Daisy!
Daisy!," overstepping the bounds of her class in Tom's amoral perception that is
unconcerned with anything else, she has her nose broken.

Of course, like Myrtle, Jay Gatsby is also guilty of moral corruption as he attempts to
move up in social class, using any means necessary. His involvement with the
underworld of Meyer Wolfscheim is, of course, the most salient example.
I agree that the major characters--Jay and Tom and Myrtle--would give you plenty of
material for an essay on immorality in The Great Gatsby.  Think of Jay's illegal
business ventures, Tom's consistent affairs with women (even on his honeymoon, for
petes sake) and his views on racial superiority, and Myrtle's affair and lying.  Like I
said, plenty to digest with them.  Two minor characters with major morality problems,
though, include Jordan Baker and Meyer Wolfscheim.  She is a professional golfer
who cheats.  That kind of behavior at that level is outrageously immoral.  Wolfscheim
was, solely or in part, responsible for "fixing" a World Series.  That's immoral on a
national scale, as well. 

You should be able to have a lot of fun with this essay!

If you threw this assignment at me right now, I would likely concentrate on Daisy. 
You don't have quite as much material as you do if you were to follow Gatsby or
perhaps Nick, but she provides a pretty fantastic portrait of an immoral woman, if
you'd like to take that angle.

She is incredibly manipulative and uses her beauty to get whatever she wants,
whether that is attention, adoring worship from Gatsby, or eventually absolution from
her crime and a clean getaway.  She uses Tom, she uses Nick, she uses Gatsby,
everyone and everything she has ever been around she bends to her purposes.

I think you could make an interesting essay out of that, but there are tons of other
ways to take that as well.

How is the theme of morality conveyed by the characters

of The Great Gatsby?
Though this is a novel with a moral, the characters in the story are often not involved
in moral decision-making. Instead, they are figures of privilege, people who see
themselves as being unbound by standard morality. This exceptionalism is fatally
challenged in the end, when Myrtle is run over by a car and Gatsby is killed as a
result. 
The elitism of the rich, in the end, is nothing more than an excuse for bad behavior. It
does not protect them (not all of them) from the repercussions of immoral behavior. 

Though Daisy, Tom, Jordan and Nick escape punishment for their involvement in
Myrtle's death, no characters are finally innocent in the novel. A quick review of the
characters shows us how moral (or immoral their world is:

Tom, Daisy, Myrtle, and Gatsby are involved in affairs, cheating in one way or
another. George Wilson commits murder. Jordan Baker cheats in her sport. Tom is a
racist. Gatsby is a bootlegger and a fraud. 

Nick is the only character that grows through the novel. He is not perfect, in any
sense, but he matures.

We can see the novel as presenting a progression and development in Nick

regarding morality, judgment and empathy. Nick narrates the story and records his
responses to the people and events that populate East and West Egg. 

His first moral shock comes when he goes to dinner with Tom, Daisy and Jordan and
discovers that Tom's affair is a scandal but not a matter of morality. Tom is cheating
on Daisy, yet no one suggests that this act is immoral. It is, rather, dramatic and
rude, but the affair itself is not as much of an issue as the fact that everyone knows
about it. 

The concern for perception here is directly related to the shallow values of the rich
set; "values" which lead to dishonesty and immoral behavior. 

The materialism of the East creates the tragedy of destruction, dishonesty, and fear.
No values exist in such an environment.
The example of Jay Gatsby is central to a discussion on the special morality of this
group of people. Gatsby puts an great emphasis on achieving a certain dream of
love. This dream is, in itself, pure. Yet, to achieve his goal of marrying Daisy, Gatsby
must break up a marriage (between Tom and Daisy), effectively undoing two lives in
order to realize his own dream. 
Gatsby never doubts the validity of his position, morally or otherwise, and maintains
confidence even in the end after Myrtle has been run over. He waits for Daisy to call.
George Wilson comes instead as an arbiter of misplaced moral justice and Gatsby's
dream comes to an end.
Jay Gatsby, the dreamer and romantic, is a liar and a criminal (as a bootlegger) and
Nick sees him as being a low sort of person at first. Later, Nick learns to empathize
with Gatsby, recognizing Gatsby's rare penchant for maintaining innocence in the
face of circumstances that would have erased any innocence in others. 
Nick's ability to empathize with Gatsby can be seen as evidence of his own moral
growth. In the end, he does not judge Gatsby, but relates to him with sympathy -
something he could or would not do at the novel's outset. 
Nick is the only character willing to sympathize with Gatsby in the end. He goes so
far as to tell Gatsby how he feels, before Gatsby is shot. 
[Nick] tells him he is better than the “whole rotten bunch put together.”
This statement represents the sole important moral achievement in the novel. Nick
learns that people can be good and bad at the same time and he chooses to see the
good in Gatsby. 

Where is the part that indicates that

Gatsby is a bootlegger in The Great
Gatsby?    
EXPERT ANSWERS
MWESTWOOD  | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR

Rumors of Gatsby's being a bootlegger circulate with partygoers in Chapter

Four while indications that Jay Gatsby may be involved in criminal activity
are suggested in Chapter Five, and then confirmed by Tom Buchanan in
Chapter Seven.

In Chapter Four, gossip among some of Gatsby's guests depicts him as a

German spy during the war, and there are whispers about his being a
bootlegger who killed a man that discovered that he is a nephew to von
Hindenburg.

In Chapter Five, in reciprocation for Nick's having arranged his meeting

with Daisy at Nick's cottage, Gatsby offers Nick a business opportunity:

"....I carry on a little business on the side, a sort of sideline, you

understand. And I thought that if you don't make very much....you might
pick up a nice bunch of money. It happens to be a rather confidential sort of
thing." (5)

Then, in Chapter Six, Tom Buchanan accompanies Daisy to one of

Gatsby's parties. He wonders aloud about Gatsby:

"Who is this Gatsby anyhow?...Some big bootlegger?" (6)

For, after observing and listening to the guests, Tom realizes that they are
not the types who come to East Egg. In the 1920s, men who quickly and
mysteriously acquired fortunes were frequently suspected of illegal activity.

Further, after suspecting Gatsby's motives regarding Daisy, Tom does

some investigating of Gatsby's past. Then, in Chapter Seven, Tom accuses
Gatsby, 

"I found out what your 'drug-stores' were....You're one of that bunch that
hangs around with Meyer Wolfsheim...." (7)

As he turns to Nick and Jordan and Daisy, Tom adds,

"He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and
in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter....I picked him for a
bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn't far wrong."(7)

"What about it?" Gatsby politely responds as he does not try to display any
emotion. Instead, he turns on Tom,

"I guess your friend Walter Chase wasn't too proud to come in on it." (7)
Tom responds that Gatsby betrayed Walter, but Gatsby counters by saying
that Walter was glad to "Pick up some money."

In another attack on Gatsby's character, Tom points to Walter's having

been able, also, to have had Gatsby arrested for violating certain betting
laws if it had not been for Wolfsheim's threats of violence that Walter is
even now too afraid to mention.

WILLIAM DELANEY  | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR

People suspect that Gatsby makes most of his money as a bootlegger, but
he isn’t positively identified as such until the big scene in New York when
he and Tom quarrel over Daisy. Tom has been investigating Gatsby and
has learned some facts about him which he uses to try to destroy Daisy’s
illusions. The most significant accusations are on page 133 in my edition of
the novel.

“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’s one of
his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I
wasn’t wrong.”

Gatsby doesn’t deny Tom’s accusation. Obviously Tom has gathered too
much damaging information about him, and the more Tom talks the worse
it seems to everyone present . Tom has found out that Gatsby, with
Wolfsheim and others, is involved in other illegal activities.

The fact that Gatsby had bootlegging operations in the gangster-ridden city
of Chicago makes him seem especially corrupt, because that city was
known for mobster rule, criminals like Al Capone, and frequent murders.

How did Tom victimize George in The

Great Gatsby?
EXPERT ANSWERS
AMARANG9  | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR

First of all, Tom was sleeping with George's wife, Myrtle. This was as much
Myrtle's fault as it was Tom's but we can say that by sleeping with his wife,
Tom was hurting George and Myrtle's marriage. Faced with a failing
business and a cheating wife, who no longer had any respect for him,
George's misery partly had to do with the affair between Myrtle and Tom. 

Tom is also subtly condescending towards George; note...

First of all, Tom was sleeping with George's wife, Myrtle. This was as much
Myrtle's fault as it was Tom's but we can say that by sleeping with his wife,
Tom was hurting George and Myrtle's marriage. Faced with a failing
business and a cheating wife, who no longer had any respect for him,
George's misery partly had to do with the affair between Myrtle and Tom. 

Tom is also subtly condescending towards George; note in Chapter 2 how

Tom promises to sell George a car but keeps delaying the sale, saying he'll
go elsewhere if George complains. 

Perhaps the most dramatic instance when Tom victimizes George is when
Tom tells George that Gatsby is the one who killed Myrtle with the car.
(This is untrue; Daisy was driving.) In the final chapter, Nick confronts Tom,
asking him if he blamed the accident on Gatsby. Tom replies: 

"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 told George that Gatsby was responsible for Myrtle's death. (George
had already suspected Myrtle was having an affair and may have also
concluded that Gatsby was the man she was having the affair with.) When
Tom blamed Gatsby, this leads George to confront Gatsby and kill him,
then to turn the gun on himself. Again, Tom plays a direct role in George's
misfortune.