Loyalty and Honesty

[MarvinL]

Dear Reader,

I am a german student and we have just reads The Great Gatsby in class. I very much enjoyed the book and felt much sorrow for Gatsby that he did not fullfill his American Dream.

Everyone in our class has gotten an assignment. Mine is:

Loyalty and Honesty are 2 qualities under the sportlight in the story. Discuss this statement.

For one it is true.

I can talk about the different relationships. That character are loyal or not loyal to each other.But what else is there to say?

Honesty?? Gatby is just a fictional character.Gats is the real person. Gatsby got wealth through illegal things. I really dont have much idea what to say...

please any1 help me.

Thanks alot
marvin

[Stismet]

I haven't read the book, but it sounds to me like if Gatsby got his wealth by doing illegal things, that really does put the spotlight on Honesty. If you focus on that a bit, you can get a lot of good information. Doing illegal things, depending on the activity, can also bring up loyalty - is it truely loyal to do such things?

Just a few ideas. Good luck.

[djmyerhmgirl]

The other characters are also linked to the themes of loyalty and honesty.
The main characters are:
Daisy:
Loyalty
She promised Gatsby, before he went to war, that she would wait until he returned. She got sick of waiting and married a richer man with a better education, displaying disloyalty to Gatsby there. Later she cheated on Tom with Gatsby, which is obviously disloyal to her husband
Honesty
Daisy isn't dishonest directly, but she allowed others to believe it was Gatsby who killed Myrtle when in fact she was the one at the wheel. When the 'sh*t hits the fan' so to speak, Daisy lets others take care of her.

Tom
Loyalty
Obviously Tom cheated on Daisy with Myrtle. He was abusive to his women, which shows he was a particularly dishonourable, if not disloyal, character.
Honesty
Tom was dishonest to George Wilson, telling him he was going to sell him a car with no intention of doing so. Tom also slept with a married woman.

Nick
Loyalty
Nick was loyal where possible to his friends and overall appeared to be an honourable character.
Honesty
Nick was mostly honest. By refusing a leg-up from Gatsby in the form of an opportunity to sell illegal bonds (a high-paying job) he appeared righteous and he probably felt he was, but there were instances (which don't come to mind at the moment) when he wasn't so righteous. Nick's character is flawed.

Gatsby
Loyalty
His loyalties lay with his heart. Gatsby was an impossibly selfish man and felt that if he could win back Daisy's heart, all would be well. Gatsby did not stop to consider the feelings of other characters involved and everything he did was a result of his love for Daisy. He took the blame for Myrtle's death as a means of protecting Daisy.
Honesty
As a result of Gatsby's love for Daisy, he started trading ?stolen? (may have been forged) bonds. This was in order to win back her heart, as he understood how materialistic Daisy was.

Jordan
Loyalty
Not much was said relating to Jordan's loyalty, but she held her part in reuniting Gatsby and Daisy.
Honesty
It can be said that Jordan was a dishonest woman. THe first time Nick met her, they spoke of the golf tournament at which the caddy accused her of cheating. There were several witnesses. Later the caddy and all witnesses took back their words.

Myrtle
Loyalty
As Tom's mistress, she was obviously not loyal to her own husband, or to Daisy. Although Myrtle spoke often of Daisy, the two had never met.
Honesty
Myrtle, as a minor character with few relationships in the book, didn't appear often enough to create a distinguished character with strong personality traits. However, it was said that she told her husband that she was going to visit her sister in New York when she met with Tom on a regular basis.

George Wilson was hopelessly infatuated with his wife, Myrtle, and believed everything she said. He was impossibly loyal to the woman and would have given his life in place of hers even though he knew of her infidelity.