The Morally Ambiguous

Back when heroes were everyones favorite person in a story, their flaws and
“good” doing was the fact that reeled every one of us in. Their flawed personality made them more realistic and relatable, but in the end they always did the right thing. It was great and cool in that time but, at the end of the day, that’s just plain boring. If I go into a book knowing that the character is never really going to do anything but “good”, I would of just thought there was really no point and just toss it to the side. It’s not realistic and it has to be a good page­turner that keeps us on the edge of our seat. The existence of a morally ambiguous character is what intrigues us the most. The anti­hero is what I call it. They are likeable and relatable while being uninhibited by expectations and of them being a representation of the American dream. In the classic novel The Great Gatsby by
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is one of the morally ambiguous characters that keeps us readers debating whether we should call him a hero or the villain in this 1920’s era.
Gatsby’s morality lies in his past. He leaves his past ambiguous in order to create a sense of mystery around himself, therefore gaining the approval of everyone, including Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan. He doesn’t want anyone to think badly from his history, so he never really tells what his past actually is. By doing so, Gatsby becomes infamous. Every one of his guests approves of him only because he seems to come from a background no one wants to ignore. For example, when Nick Carraway first was invited to one of Gatsby’s famous parties he can’t help but to hear