Thoughts of The Great Gatsby (2013)

"I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

- 

The Great Gatsby

***

This quote rings so true to me. How many time a day to we encounter said “careless” people in our lives? 

If you’re honest with yourself and others, you’d have to say A LOT.

It’s so hard for me, as somewhat of a quiet, careful person, to look around and observe others’ carelessness. I usually take is as cruelty, or something other than what is actually is–random people in random situations, not giving a damn.

Carelessness hurts, and I would argue that Fitzgerald believes it can hurt worse than outright cruelty, sometimes.

To live without care sounds wonderful. But in Gatsby, Fitzgerald elaborates on its deep ties with destruction.

When we don’t care, we place ourselves in a position that runs through and over the nuances in life that make things precious to us.

In a world where nothing seems worthy or valuable to us, despite it’s actual, tangible value, it is hard to see reason for much of anything. And without reason, both things and people tend to collapse. 

Gold is no longer gold. Instead, it becomes a moldy yellow, smelling of decay. Both things and people seem hallow and rotten.

Society still and probably will always suffer from carelessness, making it hard to brand those who do wrong separately from those who “just don’t care.”

We simply cannot seem to justify to ourselves that apathy, toward anything in life, is deadly and will only ever be deadly in the future. 

I think it’s EASY to be apathetic in life, especially if you can afford to do so. 

You have to MAKE A CHOICE not to be.