“‘They’re a rotten crowd’ I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together,’” (Fitzgerald 154). This is one of the last things that Nick says to Gatsby after he was murdered. Saying that all his friends are corrupt and that Gatsby is more valuable than even all of them together. Fitzgerald introduces the readers to Tom, Daisy, and Jordan in his book The Great Gatsby. The book is written from Nick’s perspective. Nick writes every aspect of every character, he is the side character, while Gatsby is the main character. Nick shows that every character is not what they seem. Gatsby is worth more than them. Gatsby maybe be corrupt but he is better than everybody else. Nick is right when he gave his last compliment to Gatsby. The crowd may be rotten as Gatsby, but he is worth more than everyone put together.
Tom is the husband of Daisy. He is Gatsby’s love rival. He is a narcissistic guy who thinks that he is better than everyone else because of his old money. He is a rich guy who did nothing to accumulate all his wealth, he only was born lucky and inherited all his wealth. He was arrogant and racist: “Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.” (Fitzgerald 14). Tom is speaking about a book that uses “science” to justify racist acts to other races other than the white one. At that time there were highly-regarded scientists who measures the sizes of different races’ skulls. they determine that the biggest skull were the white ones; therefore, they were the superiors. Tom believed in that research. He was racist and sexist. He looked at women as objects. He didn’t care about having affairs and that his wife knew about it: “Tom’s got some women in New York,” (Fitzgerald 15). This is what Jordan tells Nick. Tom did nothing to hide the fact that he was having an affair with other women. Everyone knew that Tom was unfaithful, even Daisy. He did not mind hitting women if they were bothering him. He even broke the nose of her mistress when she was saying the name Daisy. Tom did not care about his lover, he saw her as an object that he could easily get rid of. He did not even care about Daisy. Never showing a piece of love to his wife. Tom had a disgusting personality. He was an arrogant man that was thought to be superior to everyone else. He discriminated against people that had New Money. He did not love his wife and used her as an object as well as other women. However, Daisy was not that innocent either, she was corrupted by her husband’s money.
Daisy was similar to Tom in one thing, “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,” (Fitzgerald 104). Daisy did not mind using people. She used Gatsby to make jealous Tom and take her revenge by having an affair with another man as he did with other women. She used to love Gatsby; however, she chose Tom over him because of his wealth. She did not love Tom but she kept preferring him because of his wealth. Daisy got corrupted by money: “her voice is full of money,” (Fitzgerald 83). Even Gatsby recognized that Daisy was not that pure girl that he used to be. She only cared about money. When she had the opportunity to have love over money, she chose the money. Destroying Gatsby’s life and leading him to be murdered. Gatsby protected Daisy when she killed Myrtle Wilson in a car accident. He knew that her husband, George will take measures to have his revenge. Nick even suggested Gatsby leave for some weeks until everything settles down, but he refused to leave because he wanted to protect Daisy. Gatsby was murdered by George. He protected the love of his life sacrificing himself. However, when it was the funeral of Gatsby, Daisy was not present. She refused to go, she did not even care that Gatsby sacrifices himself to save her. Daisy only cared for money. She forgives Tom of all his affairs. She decided to leave Gatsby. Only concerning about money; however, Jordan is not innocent either.
Jordan Baker “instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to be at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body, ” (Fitzgerald 30). She would lie and cheat when the favors are not on her side. She had a superiority complex. She took advantage of her beauty and fame, using it to satisfy her own desires and soothe her insecurities. She was a big lier. She lies to people in order to maintain an advantage over others. She wanted to be superior that is why she avoided “clever, shrewd men” so that she could remain superior. She is as rotten as everybody else.
Gatsby is worth than all this rotten crowd. Tom was narcissist, racist, and sexist. He did not care for his wife and he had multiple affairs with women, never doing anything so that the rumors would come to the ears of Daisy. Daisy was corrupted by money, she used Gatsby to have her revenge, and preferred money over love. Jordan has a superiority complex. She wants to remain on top of everyone else, constantly avoiding on-purpose smart men who could overshadow her. Gatsby had shady businesses, and he was perfect, no one is. However, he was so much better than them. Nick was right when he said that Gatsby is worth more than they put together. Everyone was corrupted in a way, but Gatsby was a nice guy who sacrificed himself for the love of his life.
The Great Gatsby
