The Great Gatsby Selfish Quotes

Tom was prejudiced against those who were lower class than him, as well as those who were different than him in other ways. "Self-control!" Repeated Tom incredulously. "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out […] Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they'll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white." (Fitzgerald 229). This is ironic because Tom was a cheater and he did not value family life or marriage enough to prevent him from cheating on Daisy with Myrtle. Tom was unable to see these ugly traits in himself, though. He only saw them in others. Tom flaunted his …show more content…
Gatsby is a mysterious character who lives in West Egg, which is the area where the newly rich live. Gatsby makes a point to show to show off his wealth. He lives in a giant mansion, and throws elaborate parties for upper class guests, many of whom don't even know what he looks like. The parties are meant to impress Daisy, his long lost former love. Daisy, who is married to Tom, comes from a wealthy family, and chose Tom over Gatsby because she did not think Gatsby would become wealthy enough. This created an obsession in Gatsby to prove to Daisy that he could be the successful man that she forever wanted. In fact, he bought the mansion just across the water from Tom and Daisy’s residence so Daisy could see the lavish lifestyle that he was living. One night when Gatsby’s neighbor, narrator Nick Carraway, comes home he says, “The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight, and turning my head to watch it, I saw that I was not alone — fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor’s mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars. Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local …show more content…
Miss Baker had mentioned him at dinner, and that would do for an introduction. But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone — he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness”(Fitzgerald 20-21). Gatsby reaching out into the green light was actually him reaching to Daisy across the water, as Daisy was his entire reason for being there. As Jordan Baker told Nick about Gatsby buying the house across the bay from Daisy, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would by just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78). Actually, Daisy was actually his entire reason for having the wealth that he now enjoys. We find out later in the novel that Gatsby was actually a man from a midwestern town of humble origins, and that he created an illusion of who he was based on who he wished he was. Rather than going by his given name Gatz, he created the character Gatsby, a member of the upper class elite which Daisy had not believed he was. He tells many lies-illusions of who he is- such as going to Oxford and being a war hero, all in order to continue to create this character he has become. When Gatsby finally