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Great Gatsby Essay

Decent Essays

“Is Tom most responsible for Gatsby’s death? Daisy? Myrtle? Gatsby himself? Give reasons why or why not each character is implicated in the murder.” Great Gatsby Essay There are five people that are responsible for Jay Gatsby’s death. One of them is directly to blame, since he pulled the trigger. The other three were involved in the murder. The one who pulled the trigger was George Wilson. He was in pain because of the murder of his wife. He loved her, and he was completely insane with grief. Wilson thought that Gatsby was Myrtles lover. He said, “She ran out to speak to him and he wouldn’t stop” (Fitzgerald 166). This means that Wilson thinks that Myrtle knew the owner of the yellow car. Since Wilson had found out …show more content…

I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over” (Fitzgerald 142). Myrtle is the fourth person responsible for Gatsby’s death. If she was not having an affair with Tom then none of this would have happened. Myrtle was taking advantage of her husband’s kindness and his lack of intelligence, “A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity-except his wife, who moved close to Tom” (Fitzgerald 30). if her affair with Tom was non-existent then George would not have known who Gatsby was and he might not have shot him to avenge his wife’s murder. If Myrtle had not run in front of the car that she would still be alive and so would Gatsby. She could have just waited until the next day to see Tom she did not have to run in front of his car. Gatsby himself is the fifth person to blame for his death. If he was not trying to restore his old relationship with Daisy then Tom would not want to get revenge on him. Another reason that Gatsby is responsible for his own death is that forgot everything except Daisy. He did not think about anything except Daisy. He also should not have kept driving after Daisy hit Myrtle. After he pulled the brake he could have gone back to see if Myrtle was alive and to get help for her, “I tried to make her stop but she couldn’t so I pulled on the emergency brake. Then she fell over into my lap and I drove on” (Fitzgerald 151) He only threw

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