F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Themes in The Great Gatsby
Characters and themes from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Affecting the American Dream: Complications and Difficulties In Chapter One, we can immediately perceive the distinctions in social classes that exist between the residents of the West Egg and the people of the East Egg. In the same way that Gatsby is new to money, we know that the people from West Egg are old to money, whereas the people from East Egg are new to money too. In East Egg, the residents have come into wealth by inheritance from wealthy relatives: “…the less trendy of the two, albeit this is a most superficial tag to represent the odd and not a little ominous difference between them..” (Fitzgerald 7).
Gatsby’s entire life is a twisted version of the American Dream, as the reader discovers in Chapter 6 when he meets Jay Gatz. This other person, the man who is not Gatsby, is the actual man. He is the one who is truly alive. However, Gatsby has taken his position, so what does this indicate about the American Dream in general? Is it true that it kills the actual person?
Daisy is a living example of the American Dream, as well as the hurdles she has encountered in achieving it. She is not in a happy marriage, and she is willing to cheat on her spouse to make things better. Beyond the fact that happiness can only be obtained at the expense of morals, what does this say about the American Dream? It appears that Gatsby is willing to create a fictitious life in order to live up to the American Dream, which, unfortunately, never comes to fruition. His ambition is to dazzle Daisy with money, but achieving the American Dream is not as straightforward as it appears.
Morality has been corrupted.
Throughout the novel, the degeneration of morals is clearly demonstrated. The characters have all been corrupted, and none of them are who they appear to be. While Nick is most likely the most “genuine” person, he is also the most immoral. He is the one that conspires with Daisy in order to try to hook her up with Gatsby, as previously stated. To put it another way, he basically tells her not to bring her husband, implying that she will be doing something that her spouse would not approve of: “I told her not to bring Tom. Then she questioned innocently, “What?”/ “Don’t bring Tom.’/ “Who is a ‘Tom?’ she asked innocently” (Fitzgerald 89). Daisy’s willingness to go along with the game demonstrates that her values have been perverted.
Of fact, Tom is having an affair as well, so it is not the case that Daisy is the only one who is having an extramarital relationship. When Myrtle is hit by Daisy, the further degeneration of morality is demonstrated, and Gatsby accepts responsibility for the incident. The characters are willing to lie about killing someone in this manner, hence there is no morality in the story.
The Upper Class’s shallowness and hollowness are well documented.
Even though Nick recognizes how shallow the society is, he ends up becoming a part of the shallow society that he criticizes: “Or perhaps I had merely grown accustomed to it, grown to accept West Egg as a world complete in itself, with its own standards and its own great figures, second to nothing because it had no consciousness of being such…” [italics] Fizgerald 112 is an example of a euphemism. Nick understands that the reason everyone behaves the way they do is because no one takes the time to consider the morality of their choices.
Daisy sobs when she sees Gatsby’s clothing for the first time. She is not moved until she sees his nice clothing, at which point she is. This demonstrates that money is the driving force behind her actions. She is shallow and hollow as a result of her preference for money over love.
When Gatsby cancels his parties, it is a source of disappointment for everyone. These parties were solely for Daisy’s enjoyment, but when she expressed dissatisfaction with them, Gatsby decided to discontinue hosting them. All of the visitors were disappointed that there were no parties, and they were unconcerned about the reason for Gatsby’s cancellation. This demonstrates just how superficial his “friends” were that attended his gatherings.
References
“The Great Gatsby” is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925). PlanetEBook.com published a book in 2016.
