Selfishness is a human characteristic that everyone has no matter how much you try. The definition of selfish is "someone who is devoted to caring about oneself or concerned primarily with one's benefits or welfare." Many people are selfish with not even realizing it, and others do it mainly for their own benefit. Selfishness can be a bad thing or a good thing depending on the circumstances. It can be good if you are benefiting yourself greatly and not pushing someone out of the way for it. Then there is the other way if you hurt or greatly put someone down for your benefit.
In The Great Gatsby there are a couple of selfish people, they are Mrytle, Jay Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy. Mrytle hates her husband, and the way to destroy him was to cheat on him and it was with Tom. She was not only looking to ruin her husband, but to move up in the social class. Mrytle chose Tom, because he is rich and he would buy her nice things and anything she wanted, like the puppy and the new clothes. Tom is selfish, because he is not thinking about Daisy's feelings when he cheats on her he is only thinking of his own benefits.
Jay Gatsby is selfish when he becomes a bootlegger. He is selling alcohol illegally so that he can become rich, to steal Daisy away from Tom. Jay will also throw people under the bus to get what he wants. Lastly there is Daisy, she knows about her husbands affair so she thinks the best way to get back at him is to cheat on him. And when Gatsby comes around she doesn't care about his feelings, only to get back at her husband. I believe this because she does not want to leave Tom just break his heart.
Work Cited
"Definition of Selfish". June 2, 2010
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