Impact of Fake Images on Commitment Between Characters

The lack of attendance at Gatsby’s funeral drew my attention to a theme that was present throughout the book and between most characters. That idea was that the characters lacked commitment to each other. The first example of this was Tom and Daisy. They were married and professed love for each other, but each had affairs. Tom passionately fought Gatsby for Daisy, but he was still involved with Myrtle. When Myrtle showed apparent disrespect for Daisy, Tom punched her and broke her nose even though Tom was showing disrespect for his marriage with Daisy. After Gatsby died, Tom showed no grief for the loss and continued to show the casual nature of all his relationships. Even Jordan became engaged to another man while still seeing Nick. Similarly, everyone professed to being Gatsby’s friends when he held parties and invited everyone to his house, but when the parties ended and hard times came, they were all gone. Even Wolfshiem, the man who led Gatsby up the social ladder and was a close associate with Gatsby, did not show up when there was nothing to be gained. Most people in this story failed to show commitment to Gatsby or anyone else that was close to them because very few of them truly knew the people around them. The main people who showed up at the funeral (Nick, Gatsby’s father, Owl Eyes) knew the true Gatsby and were able to establish commitment as a result. Few commitments were able to form in this society of fake images and selfish behaviors because few were able to let down their masks and be themselves for fear of falling from social grace, thereby forming this problem as a main theme of the novel.