Examples Of Dishonesty In The Great Gatsby

The classic American novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, contains one of the most complex story lines. It is a story of lying, cheating, and deception. In fact, if the novel was not explained in the first person point of view, the audience would have great difficulty discerning between falsehood and actuality. However, the realization of the amount of deceit displayed in the novel can also lead the audience to wonder about the integrity of the character relaying all the information, Nick. After analysis, it can be determined that the integrity of Nick does affect the reader’s understanding of events quite extensively because of his skirting of facts to suit his bias. To begin with, bias against the poor is used quite frequently …show more content…
Such a bias is usually referred to as self-righteousness and encompasses the basic idea that many humans believe themselves to be the ultimate best and also believe themselves to always be correct in every situation. An example of this comes in a direct statement Nick says about himself after discussing the dishonesty of Jordan. He says, “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (59). Such a statement demonstrates that Nick believes everything he does to be honest; however, his actions say otherwise as he sets up a date between Gatsby and Daisy, a married woman. Nick encourages Daisy to cheat on Tom, which according to today’s societal knowledge is absolutely dishonest. Furthermore, if Nick believes himself to be the most honest person yet also proves through his actions that he is not, then he is fooling himself in believing that everything he accomplishes is honest. Since he is wrong in analyzing his own actions, he is probably wrong in communicating them to the readers of The Great Gatsby. All in all, due to his bias of everyone except himself, Nick provides a difficult time to the audience when it comes to understanding the events of the