“It’s a shallow life that doesn’t give a person a few scars”. This quote said by Garrison Keillor, metaphorically exemplifies the true meaning of hollowness and shallowness. Hollowness and shallowness were a major part of people’s characteristics in the 1920’s ‘easy money’ era because of the great economic boom. During this era, people earned their money by corruption with smuggling alcohol during prohibition. In addition, people earned their money by people unknowingly investing in major stocks. A few people earned their money with hard work; it was mostly made easily for them. Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the shallowness and hollowness of the upper class is persistently shown. Hollowness and
Shallowness and hollowness is further more shown in The Great Gatsby by the lack of respect of Tom and Daisy have on themselves which eventually leads to the death of not only George; in addition, Jay Gatsby. The shallowness and hollowness of the upper class is perhaps the main reason of the tragic death of Jay Gatsby. Tom cheats on Daisy; and Daisy cheats on Tom; therefore, they have no respect for each other, for themselves and their family; therefore they are careless and hollow. The anger that the affair and Tom brought to George Wilson allowed him to snap and murder Jay Gatsby. The shallowness of the upper class with the cheating, affairs and lying eventually lead George to murder Jay Gatsby. In addition, Tom’s respect of George with the poor treatment allowed Gatsby to be murdered. “God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You can fool me, but you can’t fool God!” (Fitzgerald, 150-152). This quote exemplifies the innocence of people in the lower class like George Wilson and it also shows the shallowness of the people in upper class such as Tom, and Daisy. Shallowness and hollowness are shown through out the novel The Great Gatsby by Tom’s disrespect towards people in the lower class, the shallowness of Daisy and her addiction for money, and the lack of self-respect for the upper class people like Daisy and Tom. Shallowness is perhaps the main characterization of the