Thousands of years ago, the first human civilizations were formed. Their creation was caused by a gradual joining of nomadic tribes. The size of these connected groups became finally too big for a free movement and so people decided to settle in one place. Permanent staying in one region changed the rules that governed the lives of nomads. While traveling in the wastes, they were independent. Living in collectives, imposed limits on them. Some of them were written down and called laws. The others were considered as obvious for every member of the group, which from that very moment became society.
However, not all individuals in the societies around the world accept the reality that is imposed on them. Many of them try to break free and leave to establish their own world, independent from the conditions applied by their ancestors. This leads to the founding of small, closed societies, such as Amish villages and towns.
The cover of the first edition of The Great Gatsby...
The Great Gatsby (1926 film)
The Great Gatsby (1974 film)However, Amish communities are still groups, while only a single person is of concern of this essay - Jay Gatsby, the main character of Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby", who left the society behind. The question that should be asked is, whether he was not worthy of the society? Or perhaps he was "worth the whole damn bunch put together" as Nick exclaims while seeing Gatsby for the last time?
As Aristotle points out in his statement - an individual, who stays out of the society, must be either a beast or a god. In both these solutions, it is clear that he or she does not accept the rules that limit the members of the society. Gatsby did not accept these at all and he kept himself away from it. Since he came back from the war, his only target was to...