The Great Gatsby Themes
Standing as one of the great novels of the 20th century, The Great Gatsby has endured because of its amazing understanding and explanation of human nature in its purest form. The themes and ideals in this novel have remained eminent even now, some 80 years later, because The Great Gatsby is a book about the strongest of human emotions and needs; love, hate, distrust, and most of all, desire. The most prevalent theme, however, is the loose morals, extravagant wealth, and the steady disintegration of dreams in the 1920s. Our narrator in this tale is a young man by the name of Nick Carraway. Nick is not a wealthy man himself, but comes from generations of money. He resides in a humble cottage in West egg, an area typically inhabited by what is called "new money". Nick is a sensible man, and is determined to make his own place in the world, and is not concerned with becoming rich so much as becoming happy. Nick doesn't quite fit in with his new neighbors and friends, and in the end finds himself appalled by t
He sees nothing wrong with his infidelities with Myrtle Wilson, but becomes enraged when he suspects Daisy and Gatsby. He is arrogant and racist, and believes in male domination over women. Despite his money, parties and affections, he cannot win back the girl he thinks he loves. Like 1920s Americans in general, fruitlessly seeking a bygone era in which their dreams had value, Gatsby longs to re-create a vanished past-his time in Louisville with Daisy-but is incapable of doing so. As we move through the novel we see more and more examples of the deterioration of dreams. Nick compares the green bulk of America rising from the ocean to the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. Daisy believes that money is everything and can get you everything, though she refuses to be with Gatsby even when he acquired money, saying that being with Jay would cause her social status to drop. She leaves the man she loves for another who is in better social standings, and is obsessed with money and possessions. Jay has an immense mansion on the coast of West Egg and furnishes it with everything a man could desire. Daisy, however, doesn't know what she wants, and Jay's dream is crushed. Just as Americans have given America meaning through their dreams for their own lives, Gatsby instills Daisy with a kind of idealized perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses. Gatsby's dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream in the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its object-money and pleasure. She characterizes the twenties more than any other character.
Common topics in this essay:
Tom Buchanan,
Gatsby Standing,
Americans America,
Carraway Nick,
Gatsby Tom,
Carraway Jay,
Jay Gatsby,
West Egg,
Louisville Daisy-but,
Myrtle Wilson,
west egg,
nick carraway,
tom buchanan,
ruined unworthiness,
believes money,
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