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Jazmyn Escobar

Mrs.Schenck

English 11/ Period 1

15 February 2022

Gatsby process essay

In The Great Gatsby, the midwest native, Nick Carraway arrives in New York in hopes of

uncovering the american dream. Through his environment change, Nick is drawn to the wealth

and fascination of this life and quickly becomes aware of the downside of these new people and

their behaviors that came with it, especially with Daisy and Tom Buchanan. In this novel, F.Scott

Fitzgerald portrays Daisy and Tom Buchanan as careless people through their insensitivity to

others and manipulation in situations.

Daisy Buchanan demonstrates her carelessness through several occasions. She doesn’t

really seem to care for what happens to others or how others may feel if it's benefiting her. What

she is best at is flirting with Gatsby even if there is a possibility for problems to arise. She openly

flirts with Gatsby and kisses him with Jordan and Nick in front of them at Gatsby’s home and

Jordan calls her a “low-vulgar girl” ( Fitzgerald 123) and Daisy responds doubtfully “you kiss

Nick too, I don't care! “ cried Daisy, and began to clog on the brick fireplace” ( Fitzgerald 123).

It’s obvious her words”I don’t care” shows her true intentions of not caring for how she makes

other people feel if she's having fun. It defines her insensitivity towards showing her affection

rudely in public without taking in consideration that her husband, Nick, and Jordan are there.

Furthermore , if problems do arise concerning Daisy, she begins to fall back and manipulates the

situation to no longer concern her. On a hot day things begin to rouse between the characters and

Gatsby openly states that Daisy no longer loves Tom and is going to leave him for Gatsby. This
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wasn’t the way she wanted things to go and burst out “Oh, you want too much!” she cried to

Gatsby. “I love you now, isn’t that enough? I can’t help what's past”. She began to sob helplessly

“ ( Fitzgerald 139-140) . She became so selfish and blinded by others feelings that she's confused

on how she can’t have both of the men as she wants whatever she wants regardless of how it will

look on other people and who it would hurt. It didn’t matter who she hurted, what mattered was

whether or not Daisy was able to keep her high maintenance lifestyle even if it hurted someone.

As to match Daisy’s ignorant misdoings, Tom Buchanan has portrayed his carelessness

in several occasions and encounters. He has an aggressive personality and as for Daisy she tends

to lean more on being upset when things don't go her way, Tom tends to take a more physical and

arrogant approach to getting what he wants. Dinner was held at the Buchanans and as the night

goes along Tom receives a call from someone during dinner and Jordan unabashedly states “

Tom’s got some woman in New York “( Fitzgerald 19) . From first instinct, Tom is openly

having an affair, not truly caring for Daisy and also not trying to make it less obvious for others

to notice and it becomes natural for others to question others on how they do not know. His

carelessness becomes so natural that Jordan jokes of how this mistress interrupts during dinner.

He continues being careless and blatantly by having a party in his affair apartment with his

mistresses and Nick. As the party goes on Tom's mistress Myrtle begins to put on the act of this

glamorous life she supposedly has by changing her clothes and attitude which causes her

behavior to get out of control. She begins to taunt Tom of Daisy yelling her name at the top of

her lungs continuously not caring for what Tom has to say and as before she screams Daisy's

name one more time Tom bursted with “ a short deft movement… and broke her nose with his

open hand ” ( Fitzgerald 41). He doesn’t care nor have respect for her since she didn’t listen to

him in the first place and he couldn’t have that control over her or the situation which made him
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act in that way to his emotions of wanting her to stop.

Finally, the Buchanans present themselves as careless, selfish, and manipulative people

who really don’t care about how they may affect others as long as they end up with what they

want. After the heated day in the city, there was an accident at George's garage with his wife

Myrtle being hit and killed by a car. Speculations go around trying to solve the situation and

George takes things into his own hands and instigates Tom of who was driving the car as “his

hand was on a revolver in his pocket every minute he was in the house ” ( Fitzgerald 187). Tom

apparently told George “the truth” and immediately claims he has no idea where the car came

from and that it was not his manipulating his way out of the situation and presenting that it was

Gatsby’s car and he was the one to kill her. Tom was put into a situation where he was met with

the consequences of his actions and with that he wanted to only care for himself and make the

situation not involve him anymore and drive his motive of disliking Gatsby by making him be

the one responsible. Moreover, Gastby’s death had come and it shocked people to believe “he”

was the one to commit the crime. In all honesty, Gatsby took the blame for Daisy; she was the

one to kill Myrtle and at this point Gatsby as well. At the funeral Nick was left with a few people

who knew Gatsby but what saddened Nick was the fact “Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower

” ( Fitzgerald 183). She knew that she was the one who killed Myrtle and she didn’t care enough

to attend his funeral nor remember him with a flower in fear of what would happen to her. She

was afraid of the possibility of being arrested and that she would have to live to her

consequences and being taken away from her lifestyle that she so desperately wanted that she

ended up having somewhat of an aid in someone's death.

In conclusion, F.Scott Fitzgerald has repeatedly displayed the aspect of carelessness in

the Buchanans. In their several encounters with who or whatever they come in contact with, they
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end up leaving a spoiled aura which later causes problems for others around them. Through

Daisy’s manipulation and inattentiveness towards others and Tom’s arrogance and abusive

actions mentally and physically towards the other characters affecting them in a way that hurts

them yet comforts the Buchanan couple into getting their way in life.