Lies are a treacherous thing, yet everyone tells some lie in their lifetime. Deception surrounds us all the time; even when reading classical literature. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald makes dishonesty a major theme in his novel The Great Gatsby. The falsehoods told by the characters in this novel lead to inevitable tragedy when the truth is revealed. Jay Gatsby, one of the main characters in the novel, fails to realize that when you tell a lie, it backfires. For example, he initially tells his neighbor, and potential friend Nick, that he has inherited his excess money from his family. One night, the night Gatsby reunites with Daisy, he and Nick are admiring her beautiful house. During the conversation, Gatsby says, “It only took me three years to earn the money to buy it” (Fitzgerald 90). From this, Gatsby can be seen lying about how he acquired the wealth he has. When Nick questions his inheritance of money, Gatsby automatically stutters with another lie: that he lost the family fortune in the war panic and had to earn all the money himself again. Gatsby may not have realized that he let this lie slip away from him due to the rush of emotions related to reuniting his long-lost love. However, he lied to Nick about his past, along with several other people, including Daisy. When he and his love first meet, he lies to her and presents himself as a rich, stable man, who she would be lucky to fall in love with. However this is not the case. He is not so innocent as to have inherited the wealth he boasts of. Fitzgerald states: “He might have despised himself, for he certainly had taken it under false pretenses. I do not mean to say that he had exchanged his phantom millions,...... middle of paper... events, which led to many deaths. On the other hand, since Gatsby lied and deceived people to try to achieve a goal, should his actions be considered ambitious? Since Tom and Daisy weren't truly in love and simply didn't want to hurt the other, should their actions be considered caring? Maybe there is a good intention behind the lies, but never a good outcome. Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. Print.Hermanson, Casie E. “An Overview of the Great Gatsby.” Literary Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Literature Resource Center. Network. February 24, 2011. Sutton, Brian. "Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby." Explainer 59.1 (Fall 2000): 37-39. Rpt. in twentieth-century literary criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. vol. 157. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Network. February 24. 2011.