Topic > Blindness in The Great Gatsby

In the 1920s people were blind to see that life is not just about breaking up and spending money. Using wealth they try to be seen. Sometimes people are so ignorant that they ignore what's in front of them. The blindness of the characters in Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby represents as if they are trying to avoid real life and not face reality. They have more money than they can spend and think they can get out of any situation. Some characters don't care what others think and do what they want. Dr. TJ Eckleburg's eyes observed society's blindness and ignorance. Ignorance is the key to the downfall of many characters. The characters in the novel think that wealth and money give them happiness, yet they end up living a lie. Using characters from The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows how society becomes blind to wealth which leads to ignorance and carelessness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Many characters are blind due to their lack of ignorance about society's problems. Ignorance leads to more materialistic thoughts and the desire for wealth as a result of not caring about others and only about themselves. Daisy talks to Nick as she describes her hopes for her daughter, saying, “I'm happy it's a girl. And I hope she's a fool: that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 20). Daisy's comment shows how she wants to raise her daughter in an ignorant and blind world. Daisy wants her daughter to not face reality and be a "pretty little fool" so that her daughter knows that her life isn't so wonderful. Furthermore, Daisy wants her daughter to be a “crazy girl” so she can be happy without knowing the cruelty of the world. She also wants her daughter to be accepted by wealth and high standards, and for that she has to be a fool. Daisy portrays this idea in her life as well. Wanting to be blind to the world, she managed to stay in East Egg and marry a rich man. Daisy doesn't care about others and is ignorant because she wants to stay rich. Daisy has no power over her own life. In the 1920s, American society viewed women as helpless and dependent on men because they could not have their own thoughts. Nick gives us an example of what women wanted by saying, “In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago…and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls worth three hundred and fifty thousand dollars” (Fitzgerald 82). This quote shows the dream of every woman in the 1920s. This dream of marrying a rich man and ending up having a beautiful life in wealth even if you don't love him. This was every woman's goal. It also represents the idea of ​​how money buys happiness and love. The women ended up going blind. Daisy wants her daughter to be beautiful because society prefers physically attractive women over their intellectual abilities. She wants her daughter to be accepted by society. In those days, the only thing that mattered for a woman was to end up in the arms of a rich man who would console her for the rest of her life. When they are at Gatsby's house, Daisy says "they are such beautiful shirts... I have never seen such beautiful shirts" (Fitzgerald 99). She is hoarded by all of Gatsby's wealth and cries because if she had waited, she could have had both, money and love. But in the end he prefers money. Here it shows how materialistic Daisy is and how she only thinks about money and wealth. Once someone has that amount of money in their life, they can't escape it. Society always wants more and Fitzgerald shows this blindness incomparisons of the wealth that people possess. Daisy appears to be innocent and pure but, in reality, she is ignorant. Gatsby describes his voice as “full of money” (Fitzgerald 128). His voice is also richly described. He wants to stay in good wealth with Tom. She could not bear to lose the social status that her marriage to Tom gave her. Daisy is selfish to Gatsby, making him think she will leave Tom for him, but ultimately she cared more about money. He thinks there will always be someone who will always clean up the mess he makes. Daisy is a selfish person and doesn't care about others, her ignorance and blindness come into play here because she refuses to be a selfish person, this leads to Gatsby's death. Daisy didn't even care about Gatsby's feelings and didn't send flowers to Gatsby's funeral. Because of his ignorance, three innocent people died. Nick describes Tom and Daisy by saying that “they were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed things and creatures to pieces and then retreated into their money or their immense carelessness” (Fitzgerald 191). Daisy and Tom, being blind due to wealth, are careless people. They don't care about anyone and do what they want. This inattention leads them to be reckless with others. They use their position of privilege as a mask for their failures in life and moral isolations. Another example of Daisy and Tom's carelessness is when Nick talks about their daughter, "the little girl, abandoned by the nurse, rushed across the room and shyly slipped into her mother's dress" (Fitzgerald 124). This quote indicates Tom and Daisy's disinterest in being a family. Their wealth makes them careless with their little daughter. They don't even pay attention to her. Daisy is careless when she tells Tom, “she looked at him blindly. Because… how could I love him?” (Fitzgerald 141). Here she is also rude to her husband. She is constantly inconsiderate to everyone. She doesn't care about hurting someone else's heart. Tom also constantly hurts everyone around him, thinking he has superiority because of his wealth. Daisy and Tom aren't really blind, they just want to be blind and ignorant. Jordan is the same as them. When Nick is talking to Jordan, he describes “Her gray eyes, strained by the sun looked straight ahead, but she had deliberately changed our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her” (Fitzgerald 64). His gray eyes represent a person who does what he wants to make himself happy. They are born with so much money that it floats through their lives like it's nothing. Jordan also follows the way society works and thinks. They don't know what it means to be poor. His gray eyes represent who he really is. He is a dishonest and careless person. Jordan is trapped in her own little world because that's where she feels most comfortable. Blindness does not allow them to see reality. Myrtle ends up blinded by Tom's wealth. When she saw him she said, “He was wearing a sharp suit and patent leather shoes, and I couldn't take my eyes off him” (Fitzgerald 40). Myrtle saw it as a way out of the Valley of Ashes and an entry into the high class surrounded by wealth. Money blinds reality. Use Tom as a way out. Myrtle and Tom are also ignorant due to their lack of responsibility. Nick describes a dog in this quote as a new responsibility by saying, “the little dog sat on the table looking with blind eyes through the smoke and moaned faintly from time to time” (Fitzgerald 41). When someone gets a new dog, it means responsibility, but Tom and Myrtle lacked it. The only thing they wanted to do was party, drink and be surrounded by wealth. They were ignorant, in that they didn't even take care of the dog. Myrtle ends up being killed by this ignorance..