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Examples Of Dichotomy In The Great Gatsby

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The Dichotomy of Truth vs Fun F. Scott Fitzgerald was able to create a unique structure for his novel The Great Gatsby which effectively handled his dichotomy of “Do we really want to know the truth?” vs “Do we really want to ruin people’s fun?” Fitzgerald narrates the story through the character of Nick Carraway which allows the reader to see character development through the eyes of someone actually living and seeing it. The structure of the novel is also a scrambled mess with new information constantly being learned just not always in chronological order. This causes Nick to be detective-like and put the story together for us by using flashbacks and other forms of storytelling. Multiple scenarios throughout the novel such as Tom and Myrtle’s secret affair, Nick reserving all judgement, and Gatsby’s parties show us how the structure of the novel …show more content…
Nick learns of Tom’s mistress through Daisy who gets irritated with Tom for leaving the table to receive a call from her. This Relates to the part of the dichotomy “Do we really want to know the truth?” because for Daisy this is not an easy thing to just accept. It becomes a case where you don’t really want to know the truth about his mistress because it’s a matter that you wouldn’t want to believe as true. Daisy is clearly bothered by the mistress but she doesn’t do much about it because it would ruin Tom’s fun. Everyone knows what’s going on deep down but admitting it would just make it worse. If Daisy were to take the power of knowing the truth and do something about it she would ruin Tom and Myrtle’s fun and her “perfect” relationship. Due to Tom’s authority over Daisy she keeps his secret and does nothing because she is afraid to lose what she has. Throughout the novel we see this affair playing into the dichotomy and affecting how characters

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