F. Scott Fitzgerald clearly has moral concerns about the characters in The Great Gatsby, most of whom are trapped by their materialism and lose opportunities for true love and authentic, open and honest lives. All the characters yearn to find something that will make them happy or to find something that they lost. Fitzgerald calls this something “the orgastic future that year by year recedes before [them]” (180). They all pursue the wrong targets by means that are not honest and true to themselves. Despite a great start in college, Tom, the adulterer, is completely absorbed by himself and his world. Through his drive and personal skills, Gatsby could have achieved all the material riches without changing his name or his character and, perhaps, even without succumbing to illegal practices, such as bootlegging. Daisy could have reciprocated her love to Gatsby but she seems unwilling to give up her material world which Tom is able to provide. Similarly, Jordan could have been more forgiving in her feelings for Nick, but she too throws away a chance at love. Even the Wilsonslie to themselves—Mr. Wilson believing that his wife is faithful while Myrtle believes that she is capable to living in the upper echelons of society. Only Nick, the narrator, while a participant in the decadence, and who also carelessly throws away his chance at love with Jordan Baker, who might have reciprocated his “half in love” (177), manages to escape. Fitzgerald suggests that individuals who lie to themselves and are trapped in materialism never give themselves a chance to see who they can really be. Fitzgerald makes an explicit point of contrasting the world of Tom, Daisy and Jordan in Chapter I by introducing in Chapter II the world of the “valley of the ashes”(23). The contrast between the worlds of East and West Egg and the poorer parts of Long Islandcould not be more black and white. The place is described as “foul,” “dismal,” “gray,” “ghastly,” and “ash-gray” with an “impenetrable...