The deaths in the story “The Great Gatsby” can be blamed on many people. Myrtle, George, and Gatsby died due to a complex chain of events, but with much investigation it is possible to see the true cause of each death.
The death of Myrtle was directly caused by Daisy hitting her with Gatsby’s car, but that was just an accident. The true cause of her demise was her own greed and lust for material things. She had everything she needed in life with George. He loved her and took care of her. If she would have only come to her senses and realized this, she would not have run away from him and get hit by Daisy, whom she most likely thought was Tom.
George’s suicide was the result of his own sadness over Myrtle’s death and her want to leave him. He put himself out of his own misery by shooting himself. Myrtle caused his death by her own selfishness. Even if Myrtle would not have been killed, she still would have left George. George would have still been heartbroken and devastated. The only difference there would be if Myrtle still lived would be that George would be angrier with Tom than with Gatsby.
The murderer of “The Great Gatsby” was George. He physically shot and killed Gatsby, but his death was not entirely George’s fault. If it weren’t for Tom telling George that it was Gatsby’s car and not making sure of all the details, George would have killed Tom, thinking he was the true cause of Myrtle’s death. Another indirect killer was Daisy. She was driving Gatsby’s car carelessly and was not concentrating very well on what she was doing. She ran over Myrtle, causing George to become upset and shoot Gatsby. Also, Gatsby, through a chain of events, killed himself. He should not have let Daisy drive the car. Gatsby should have just given up his chase for Daisy and left everything the way he found it. If he had stayed away from her, he would still be alive and enjoying life.
“The Great Gatsby” is a story that has many twists and turns and is very complex. The deaths can also be attributed to this. No one person can truly be blamed, but it is possible to say that many, if not all of the events in this story would not have happened if it weren’t for the characters’ moral carelessness and lack of maturity.