Jordan Gonzales 

Mrs.Sharp 

English 11 

8 February 2019 

The Great Gatsby ICE (#1) 

The Great Gatsby is a tremendous book that was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he wrote 

this book during the eccentric times of the roaring twenties, the time in which people would 

enjoy the nightlife of parties and clubs, and this book gives the effect of that with gatsby’s parties 

in the book, but to go deeper into this story we must think about the movie, with nick carraway, 

the main character throughout the story, in a psychiatric hospital telling this story, and why is he 

there, that is what the topic is, this essay will detail the characters and their personality, events, 

and conflicts that led nick here. 

Nick was around a lot of people in this story, and their problems and personalities could 

be a clear way to nick’s problem. The character that can start this off is gatsby, the one nick has 

been around with from beginning to end, and one of the many problems nick has to deal with 

was gatsby's obsession, and jordan reveals it in the book when she tells nick that “Gatsby bought 

that house so that daisy would be just across the bay.(Fitzgerald 78)” Gatsby's problem is 

constant obsession is daisy, the girl who once liked him, but he had to go fight in a war (WW1) 

and she marries tom by the time gatsby gets back, and due to daisy’s relationship with tom, she 

once again falls for gatsby, but he gets her say “I never loved him (Fitzgerald 132)” at the hotel. 

But she did give a rebuttal with saying that “Even alone I can’t say I never loved tom. (Fitzgerald 
133)” And this is a affair that daisy and tom both have been having in order to try to escape their 

relationship problems and they didn't want to really fix it, they eventually wanted to try soon 

after the hotel when they sat together at the kitchen table back at their home and as nick watched 

them, he noted that “They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or ale-and 

yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the 

picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.(Fitzgerald 145)” Nick 

was notioning that they were trying to fix the relation with just proximity alone, rather than 

communication, as described by the quote. Nick has gone through enough to the point that he 

might have gained some issues just by being near this drama and conflict between these peoples 

problems. 

Now this whole problem is because of daisy’s terrible relationship with tom, tom’s affair 

with myrtle, gatsby’s affair and obsession with daisy and nick has been in the middle of this from 

gatsby’s house all the way to the hotel, and it would be a good reason for nick to get therapy. 

Now the first event was when daisy went to gatsby’s house for the first time, and soon after that 

they started to love one another, then tom finds out that daisy has been with gatsby, and it can be 

decided that he was jealous about daisy’s relationship with gatsby compared to his relationship 

with her rather than him being angry over the affair period, that is why he wanted to expose 

gatsby by explaining his business connections rather than fighting for his wife, he wanted daisy 

to realize gatsby is a person who deals with terrible people.and nick knew about the affairs and 

gatsby’s connections for a while, so he wasn't surprised by what tom found, and myrtle’s death is 

a good reason why nick needed to go to a mental institution for help, because these people are 
the reason that this happened because gatsby let daisy take the wheel, daisy was in her feelings 

and turned to the lane that myrtle was on and hit her, which was a mistake on all their halves due 

to these affairs caused myrtle to try to stop gatsby’s car (because she thought it was toms) by 

running in the middle of the street and daisy driving while emotionally distressed caused myrtle 

to be killed by their selfish actions and then wilson wants to seek revenge, so he went to gatsby’s 

because he thought that myrtle was having an affair with gatsby and that gatsby had also killed 

myrtle, but it was tom who was cheating with myrtle and it was daisy who killed myrtle, the 

bucannons were at fault for the problems and deaths caused by their will to escape their lives, but 

it was partially gatsby's fault with his constant pursuit of daisy that led this loop of affairs to his 

end. Through these relationships, nick has experienced more than a sane person can take, leading 

him to get help from a mental institution.  

This all lead nick at the mental institution writing about his experience of all of these 

problems. It is well justified for nick to be at this psychiatric hospital due to these people, their 

personalities, and the events they caused, with nick in the middle of it, at this time in the roaring 

twenties, it was people wanting to escape their lives, to party, to love (even though you are 

married or that person is), to basically feel like life is good, and nick saw this stack up like a 

tower of cards and fall before his feet.