Free The Human Condition Essay Sample
The human condition as a whole is the knowledge of being present as humans. The novel “The Great Gatsby” portrays this fact in a more elaborate manner. The novel looks at the judgment humans make at every stage of their lives. The human morals and the human nature are very important as they are the human condition as a whole. This condition is depicted in the all of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s works. The characters depict this kind of condition through their own actions, their comments, and most importantly, the descriptions of the same characters in the novel.
The very words of Daisy Buchanan that people are a rotten multitude worth the group they are placed in shows how the human beings are usually judgmental. A good example is that the human race is quite judgmental, as they base most of their arguments on what they hear, what others say or what they have perceived themselves. Buchanan continues to say that the shirts are very nice shows that the character is very judgmental. These are the words the character says when she goes to Gatsby’s house. It is very evident that she is only concerned with what Gatsby has rather than the qualities that he possesses.
Nick is an educated character who has integrity but pulls himself away from other people. This is a normal human condition as others often look down upon other people when they are not in their level of doing things.
Every human being is expected to have morals that are the building blocks of any human condition. The morals depicted by any human determine the life he or she will lead. These morals are the same that will make humans take a different kind of action. In The Great Gatsby, the author mentions that there is a total decline of Gatsby’s levels of morals because of the parties that he has every weekend. This a true face of the total decay of the human nature as a whole.
The novel lives up to the old maxim: “What goes around usually comes around.” The human condition is in such a way that the retribution of people’s actions is never to come. This is depicted when Gatsby is dead. His actions at this point are inevitable. The conclusion of the novel when the murder of Gatsby takes place ends the novel with the message of the normal human conditions. As usual, when death comes, things that have been done will never be reversed. Fitzgerald shows that there ought to be a justice, and this is clearly shown in the way Gatsby is murdered because of the way he led his life. The condition of other characters is shown as those who really want justice to be served to all the people who do wrongs to others.
What led to the downfall of Gatsby were the illegal business deals that he used to partake of. This he continued to practice, as well as wild parties that took place every weekend. He also wanted to destroy his marriage to make himself great. All this actions lead to his demise at the end of the novel. Other characters, such as Tom, Daisy, and Myrtle, did many other things that are not morally right, thus bringing Gatsby to his end. This was a betrayal at its best. No wonder that we read in the Geraldine Brooks, “It is human nature to imagine, to put you in another's shoes. The past may be another country. But the only passport required is empathy.”
Gatsby wanted to live the American way of life, and having a very bad image of it is what makes him come to a bad at the end of the novel. For him the image of the American way of life was what made him work hard to gain such a status. Jay did all he could in his power to attain this wanted life of American way of life. This he did to succeed in his financial position and other sectors of his life as a whole. As he pushed towards this craving for success, he had to do away with the moral way of life to get to where he wanted.
He indeed became wealthy but his riches are not accounted for. Maybe the people who attended his parties contributed to his being wealthy and rich through dubious ways. He never mentions what he did to get the money he has or what he does now. One of his guests said once that he had killed a man in the pit. This he did to get to where he wanted. W. H. Auden said, “Our sufferings and weaknesses, in so far as they are personal, are of no literary interest whatsoever. They are only interesting in so far as we can see them as typical of the human condition.”
This is very true looking back to the novel as a whole. The works of Fitzgerald depict the way human nature was and still is now. It is true that there is a lot of betrayal and murder because of the desire of more money and power. This leads to nothing more than death.