“They Were Careless People, Tom and Daisy. They Smashed Up Things and People, and Then Retreated Back Into Their Money and Their Vast Carelessness" the Great Gatsby

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“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy. They smashed up things and people, and then retreated back into their money and their vast carelessness.” These words, from narrator Nick Carraway come near the end of the novel; by this time, a pretencious world of glitz and glamour has been smashed apart, and all that remains is disappointment, death and destruction. It is a sentence that may describes the kind of selfish people that many of you may know, who are careless with other peoples’ feelings and perhaps you even cleaned up after them. Carraway is an observant and insightful narrator. He is an outsider to wealthy class from the East or West End crowd and he is able to give us an overall perspective of the lives of those who chase the American dream at all costs. Throughout the novel, Carraway makes judgments about many of the characters, particularly Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby. Tom and Daisy are people who flaunted their money and did not care about the consequences of their actions. They never had to deal with it. Other people would take deal with the consequences of their actions. Their money protected and insulated them from the consequences of their actions, no matter what they did. Daisy and Tom are examples of callous people who are given to excesses and are not accountable for anything. In Carroway’s view, Tom and Daisy are “careless people,” frivolous, corrupted by greed, indulging in the empty pursuit of pleasure and untold wealth. To Carroway, Tom and Daisy are guilty of using people and he, Nick, George and Myrtle Wilson are all victims of being used by Tom and Daisy. "—they smashed up things and people and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.” This line states that it was their wealth, their indulgence of money that gave Tom and Daisy this arrogance to trample on people. Tom was powerfully built and

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