Themes of The Great Gatsby Essay

In book, “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts how the American was corrupted through wealth. Fitzgerald provides many examples. The most common example shown was Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s idea that to achieve his American Dream must be to acquire wealth. In order to show this, Fitzgerald uses various literary elements. Two of those being imagery and foreshadowing, these played a critical role in describing the theme, and specific moods to show what was to come and as well as describe the story as a whole. These play a vital role in representing Gatsby’s life and journey to acquiring Daisy, his version of the American Dream.

Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities.

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story about a wealthy man named Gatsby. Gatsby lives a luxuriant life in West Egg of New York. Gatsby’s wealth has an unknown secret because nobody seems to know where his wealth emerged from. Despite of having so much fortune, Gatsby’s true American dream has not been achieved. In the great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald develops Gatsby as a failed American dream to show the impossibility of the American dream in the 1920’s.

     In the text, The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald leads us to sympathize with the central character of the text, Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald evokes our sympathy using non-linear narrative and extended flashbacks as well as imagery, characterization and theme. Through these mediums, Fitzgerald is able to reveal Gatsby as a character who is in an unrelenting pursuit of an unattainable dream. While narrative and imagery reveal him to be a mysterious character, Gatsby's flaw is his ultimate dream which makes him a tragic figure and one with which we sympathize.

One of the most prominent themes or messages in the book The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald has to do with the meaningless aspiration for the superlative social class and wealth. This heavy theme is displayed by three ideas including, behavior of entitlement, tangible wealth, and the thirst for acceptance among the prominent.

Myrtle is the fourth person responsible for Gatsby’s death. If she was not having an affair with Tom then none of this would have happened. Myrtle was taking advantage of her husband’s kindness and his lack of intelligence, “A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity-except his wife, who moved close to Tom” (Fitzgerald 30). if her affair with Tom was non-existent then George would not have known who Gatsby was and he might not have shot him to avenge his wife’s murder. If Myrtle had not run in front of the car that she would still be alive and so would Gatsby. She could have just waited until the next day to see Tom she did not have to run in front of his car.

On the other hand Tom and Daisy’s relationship was incredibly flawed, however they suited each other in terms of social class. They both had the same shallow views, as Nick states in the end, “they were careless people, Tom and Daisy, they smashed things up and creatures and retreated back into their money and vast carelessness.” The ending of the novel reinforces the idea that in such a morally corrupt society only relationships concerning those of the same social standing could work even in the slightest, and even so those relationships were doomed to a certain extent.

Why should high schoolers be forced to read a book that isn’t interesting to them? Often times they either do not apply to real life situations or even teach anything that a teenager would understand. So, the high schooler skims through the book and does not pay attention to any detail. High school classrooms need better books that can teach history in a fun way, and add some interesting things to which students can reflect and think on. A book read in high school, should allow the students to think critically about the text they are reading, should include some references to history, and incorporate themes that are understandable and relatable to a high school student’s life. This makes a book want to be read as well as enjoyable. The

When reading a book you should be transported into a world that you can both relate to but also learn from. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald you are effectively transported into the early twentieth century. You see many things that people living in 1922 would have to go through as well as things that are still relatable to today. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald shows you many images to effectively convey and highlight his themes of the innocence and lose of innocence, differences in social classes, and the american dream.

Thesis: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the American society in the early twentieth century consumed by lust and avarice. In order to better understand the rational and motives behind the actions of individual characters, the use of literary lenses offer a closer insight behind each character's desires. Through the psychoanalytical perspective and the use of Freudian psychology, the behaviors of these characters can be explained by identifying the id, ego, and superego. Similarly, through the Marxist perspective, economic exploitation by the wealthy can also be incorporated in analyzing the character's actions.

In the flourishing and prosperous 1920s, chaos was vivid yet mostly invisible because everything that had happened was inside closed doors which makes it universally interesting and relatable. What we portray ourselves to the world is so different from our realistic self due to keeping a reputation. What makes The Great Gatsby so popular and relatable is because it expresses the actuality of lives that seems so fulfilled when in reality those are the one living with emptiness. A quote that is frequently used “Money doesn’t buy happiness” is extremely accurate. It’s belief of the “American Dreams” containing a universal theme that many people all around the world can relate to which indulges them towards curiosity and interest.This ought to be a Great American Novel because it talks about the 20s and we consider to be way passed that but the way it’s written and the characters that are portrayed being so relatable to its audience makes it a long lasting masterpiece and a successful novel. The way he describes the setting "This is a valley of ashes....ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens....” is very figurative described helping us to visualize it. The way characters are treated depending on their social status and their sexuality makes it personally relatable to all.

•Gatsby’s main reasons he is known around town is because of his crazy parties he throws. He then invites Nick via shofer

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays American society in the 1920’s after WWI has just ended, a decade of unprecedented economic prosperity. In the book, Fitzgerald critiques the loss of moral values and the degradation of American society, symbolizing it as a “valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where . . . ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke” (Fitzgerald 23). Through the characters of the book, Fitzgerald exposes the American dream from behind its dazzling veil of happiness and success, and characterizes its true form: a mad, desperate and hopeless chase towards something unattainable, turning a once innocent dream, into a shattered nightmare, destroying everything in its wake.

On first glance, The Great Gatsby is about a romance between Gatsby and Daisy. The true theme behind this wonderful novel is not merely romance, but is also a very skeptical view of the extinction of the American dream in the prosperous 19s. This loss of the American dream is shown by Fitzgerald's display of this decade as a morally deficient one. He shows its incredible decadence in Gatsby's lavish and ostentatious parties. This materialistic attitude toward life came from the disillusionment of the younger generation of the old Victorian values. Also, with Prohibition in effect, illegal bootlegging practices made for yet another way for Americans to fall down the path of

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is by far one of the most interesting yet congested books I have ever read. I feel as if the story is shifting as soon as I was able to tell what was happening. One idea that was constant was the themes, symbols and motifs used throughout. Love and the seduction of money, to me, were the most influential themes that I noticed in the book.