The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story about wealth and love in the 1920s. The story is told by Nick Carraway, a young man who moves to New York and becomes neighbors with millionaire Jay Gatsby. Gatsby throws big parties, but he does it all to try and win back Daisy Buchanan, a woman who he loved years earlier. The problem Gatsby has is that Daisy is now married to Tom Buchanan, another rich man.
The goal is to analyze the various characters within The Great Gatsby and break down their ethical principles using a set of predetermined rules. Which characters have actions that are morally justified? Which characters operate with questionable intent?
Analyzing ethics within these characters allows you to think to a different extent about the writing and allows you to have ethical reasoning when it comes to fictional book scenarios and in real life.
We need to define what makes a character ethical and unethical relating to The Great Gatsby. This is what this list is for (using Kohlberg/Markkula ethics)
This rule approaches virtue ethics with Markkula connection to Rights Stuff and Thinking Ethically.
Ethical integrity requires living up to the consequences of your actions rather than avoiding it. Ethical decision-making involves identifying harm and responding responsibly.
Justice entails fairness and equal accountability. Using privileges to avoid consequences breaks social trust and harms society.
Ethical decision making requires considering harm and benefit to others. Acting solely from desire and self interest leads to the harming of others. This is kind of like narcissism.
Ethical relativism makes immoral behavior not look bad by normalizing it. Markkula emphasizes that ethical standards must transcend social norms when those norms are harmful.
There's a list of all the characters ranging from highest moral values to completely morally corrupt. Essentially a glorified slideshow.
gatsby.quest