preview

Examples Of Integrity In The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays

Nowadays, the word ‘integrity’ is continually utilized to clarify the character in the literature. Integrity by the definition in the Cambridge dictionary is: “the quality of being honest”. As the dictionary indicates, usually, a lot of people utilize integrity as a synonym for the honesty, but in my opinion, the word integrity implies much more than fair being honest. American media proprietor Oprah Winfrey said: Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not. Hence, having integrity means doing the right thing in a reliable way by following own moral or ethical convictions in all circumstances, indeed in the event that no one is watching. As taking after the meaning of integrity, …show more content…

The novel that I chose is The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald reflects how he feels about the American society in 1925 by concerning wasteful lives of four wealthy characters, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Jordan Baker, observed by the narrator, Nick Carraway. Since Nick, the story's narrator participates in the novel, it is quite different from other novels and he is the person who I think has a integrity. Briefly, Nick is an upper-class American man who attended Ivy League university and moves from the West to New York to work in the bond business. He always questions the high society even while he participating in it. Nick shows integrity in both words and deeds. First of all, Nick always remembers’ his father’s words about the criticize: “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. …show more content…

"You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.” The line shows Nick’s disenchantment with the wealthy east coast habitat and later that night, Nick stayed outside of the Buchanans’ house while waiting for a taxi back to West Egg, too disgusted with their behavior to go inside and join them since he was the only person who pities her death and has integrity. Indeed, the clear integrity of Nick is perceived at the end of the novel. After Gatsby’s death, Nick struggled to arrange the funeral since he alone is moved by Gatsby’s death. At that point, he said, ”They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into the money of their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” The quote indicates how materialistic Tom and Daisy are. They are debased by their wealth and perception of things that lead them to be careless. Likewise,

Get Access