Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. These traits allow the novel to bring about a sense of treason, dishonesty, and a lack of moral values to the story. This applies no greater than to James Gatsby, the novel's main character. Throughout the novel Gatsby is revealed more and more as a man totally different than the general conception about him. Furthermore Gatsby's questionable behavior, or ambiguous morality, is proven as fact. This ingredient of uncertain morality present in James Gatsby helps narrow the proverbial time gap between the roaring 20's and the present. Gatsby's ambiguous morality is undoubtedly present in his past and history, his dealing with business and finance, and his manipulated views on relationships and love. No doubt do these factors play a major role both in Gatsby's moral substance and the novel's main theme.
Gatsby enters the novel as the mysterious new resident in a high class neighborhood. Not long after he takes residence there, he hosts elaborate parties every night in his enormous mansion. It seems as if Gatsby would associate himself with his guests. After all, it is he who is hosting these outrageous parties night after night. It doesn't take the locals, or the reader for that matter, to question just who this man is and why he is conducting himself in the manner that he is. This initial question acts as a gateway for the many questions about Gatsby's moral virtue as the story progresses. Above all it sets a foundation for one of the novel's main themes: lie and deception. This theme is recurred again and again throughout the novel, and as a result these first events foreshadow many uncertain thoughts about Gatsby in an incredible way. It is here that Gatsby's questionable behavior affects the novel as a whole. The main reason The Great Gatsby was written to begin with was to show how life and society in the 1920's had become a decade of impurity and deceit, and the uncertainty of the history concerning Gatsby represents the doorway to these impurities.
