Gatsby: Carelessness

The Great Gatsby: Carelessness
	Author F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the consequences of carelessness in his novel, The Great Gatsby. He implicitly portrays the reoccurring theme of carelessness through character’s reckless actions and an ultimate tragedy at the end of the story. Some of the main characters, such as Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy, show their careless personalities throughout the novel, and it is because of their individual acts of carelessness that a tragedy occurs at the end of the story in which Gatsby and George, Myrtle’s husband, are shot and killed.
	Nick begins the chain reaction of careless events by reintroducing Gatsby to his long lost love, Daisy. It is this event that begins the long path to the eventual tragedy that occurs in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s death. After Gatsby persisted, Nick organized a reunion between Gatsby and Daisy by inviting Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby would be attending as well. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy finally reconnect and find their love for each other. This is when they begin their affair, and the path to the ultimate tragedy of the story begins.
	When Gatsby finally reconnects with Daisy and they begin their affair, Gatsby’s carelessness shines out more than ever. Gatsby chooses not to hide his infatuation when he is around Daisy and her husband, Tom; even though he is aware she is married and has a child. He is foolish to believe that a married woman would leave her husband so easily for him, but the opposite would not occur to him. He is then stupefied when Daisy is so quick to choose Tom over him, showing that his carelessness and fallaciousness blinded him from making the correct choices. He is so careless in fact, that Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife’s relationship with Gatsby. For example, at a luncheon at the Buchanans’ house, Gatsby stares at Daisy in such undisguised manner that makes it obvious to Tom that Gatsby is in deeply love with her. Tom is enraged at the thought that his wife would ever be unfaithful towards him, even though he himself is involved in an affair with Myrtle. Not only is Gatsby careless with his affection for Daisy, but he is also extremely careless with his money, one of the prime reasons for Daisy’s attraction towards Gatsby.
Daisy is a character full of disillusionment. Such can be seen through her careless infatuation for Gatsby. She proved that her love was frivolous when she quickly decided that her allegiance was with Tom, and not with Gatsby. Instead of acting on reason and logic, she carelessly acts solely on her emotions, causing her to react quickly and irrationally, which lead to the eventual killing of Myrtle. And even when she ran her over, Daisy did not even stop to see what or whom she had hit. Proven to be one of the most careless characters in the story, Daisy also possibly had the most to lose due to her carelessness. She was married and had a young daughter, and could easily have lost it all. When she finally lost Gatsby as he was murdered by George, she didn’t even care to attend his funeral, showing that she her affection wasn’t based on true love, but based on infatuation.
Depicted in The Great Gatsby are the consequences of careless behavior and irrational thought. F. Scott Fitzgerald shows this by involving reckless characters who never reflect on their previous actions. After all of the reckless and careless behavior throughout the novel, an ultimate tragedy occurs as a summation of the entire individual acts of carelessness, where Gatsby is murdered by George, who then proceeds to take his own life.