Sunday, July 17, 2011

Who is most responsible for Gatsby's death? F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby, Wilson is most
responsible for Gatsby's death--he pulls the trigger.  He shoots Gatsby, and Gatsby
dies. 


Anyone else's role in the death is
ancillary--related to the primary cause, but not the primary
cause.


Tom and Daisy do wreak havoc by playing, so to
speak, with others in the novel, and Tom tells Wilson that Gatsby owns the car that hit
Myrtle.  But Tom probably doesn't know Daisy was driving.  When Nick meets Tom after
the story is basically over, Nick concludes that Tom doesn't know.  Though Nick may be
an unreliable narrator, he errs, if he errs, against Tom, not in his favor.  Nick is
ripe to heap more blame on Tom.  If there was a chance that Tom knows Daisy was the one
actually driving, Nick would say it.


Daisy, as well,
deserves blame.  She could have told the truth.  She should have told Tom and the police
and everybody else that she was driving, but she
doesn't. 


Nick could have intervened as well.  He knows the
truth, but he doesn't say anything, either.


There's much
blame to go around, but again, Wilson pulls the trigger.

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