Themes in The Great Gatsby

In describing her marriage, Myrtle presents herself as a victim, trapped with a man below her social status. Her situation develops several major themes in The Great Gatsby, especially those related to class emulation, reality versus illusion, and the roles of wealth and class in determining human value. George Wilson’s ability to seem like a gentleman could represent broader social anxieties about how status is determined—especially during a time when lower-status people could become fabulously wealthy, enabling them to imitate “old money” families like Tom’s. George is of lower value in Myrtle’s eyes, however, because he is neither wealthy nor a gentleman, though what that latter would entail is not fully described.

Drunkenness is an important motif, or repeating element with symbolic significance in a text, in The Great Gatsby. In the 19th century, a sect of Protestants began arguing for the outlawing of alcohol because of its ill effects on society. As a result, from 1920 to 1933, the United States government imposed a constitutional ban on the production, distribution, and consumption of alcoholic beverages, commonly referred to as “Prohibition.” Despite Prohibition, many continued to drink copiously. In Gatsby, alcohol consumption is often accompanied by foolish or even violent behavior. Intoxication seems to symbolize not only moral decline in the Roaring Twenties but also a pervading sense of shallow disconnect.

A “valley of ashes” is what Nick calls the industrialized area of Queens that separates West Egg from Manhattan, and it is an important symbol in The Great Gatsby. Though the ground is not literally made of ashes, its pollution gives it a gray appearance that resembles ash. The valley of ashes symbolizes the working class, which has no access to the privilege of East Eggers and West Eggers. Instead, they are trapped in the position of subsidizing a booming capitalist economy with their labor without ever having the opportunity to benefit from it. The novel’s vivid image of the depressing valley of ashes, as well as its connecting its misery to the working class, indicates its stance that the upper class’s reliance on poor laborers is exploitative.

It is interesting that Jordan characterizes her group as being “much too polite,” given that she is being rudely pursued by a man making “violent innuendo.” However, her boredom captures the ongoing examination of members of the “old money” class as being artificial and empty. Despite being from an established family in the West, here in New York, Nick could be considered to be of the new up-and-coming class and, Jordan hopes, more interesting than her other companions.

Nick repeatedly emphasizes the strangeness of the social interactions happening at Gatsby’s parties. Many guests are not only content to be strangers to each other, but also to the man whose hospitality they enjoy. The fact that Gatsby’s huge house is full of strangers who do not care about him indicates that his social life is superficial; he lacks meaningful connections with other people, which Fitzgerald seems to identify as an unspoken cost of pursuing wealth.

Authenticity is an important theme in The Great Gatsby, particularly as it relates to discerning reality from illusion. Much of Nick’s world is populated with appearances that are deceiving: genteel manners that mask contempt, stories that seem true but are not, relationships that seem secure but are full of unhappiness. Moreover, Nick’s actions in the novel so far show him to be both credulous and potentially deceptive himself: he has taken rumors at face value, encouraged gossip, and misled other characters—and readers—about his interests and intentions. This makes it difficult to know exactly what the truths of his positions are. Though he now says that Gatsby’s story “was all true,” the hyperbolic tone of his imaginings—tiger skins and treasure chests—creates ambiguity about how serious he is being in stating his belief. Like Owl Eyes in Gatsby’s library, Nick is aware that Gatsby’s efforts to appear genuine might involve the creation of convincing evidence to support his story.

Once again, illusion clashes with reality in a way that produces a life that is “confused and disordered,” instead of easy and happy. Gatsby may not be aware of “what that thing was” that he pursues by trying to recreate the past with Daisy, but it seems clear that he wishes—even if it is unconsciously—to return to a time when he could live in a dream state, even though he’s apparently accomplished everything he once dreamed of.

The tension between reality and illusion emerges once again as Gatsby builds his world of “ineffable gaudiness.” In the process of establishing his persona, Gatsby shuns the actual world and represses his actual identity. Anything and anyone not fitting into his new conception of himself will cease to exist for him.

It seems that Gatsby and Wolfshiem illegally redistilled industrial grain alcohol, which was manufactured with toxic additives, and sold it in their drug stores. During Prohibition, consumption of illegally redistilled grain alcohol led to the poisoning deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. Gatsby’s criminality ensures that his wealth and claims to social status will be perceived as illegitimate by Daisy. However, his history suggests to readers that the American dream, with its specific emphasis on the idea of making one’s fortune, is impossible to achieve without corrupting oneself as Gatsby has.

Gatsby’s “dead dream” is not only the loss of Daisy’s love, but also the fantasy of truly entering the upper class. Interestingly, Gatsby and Daisy are removed from the interaction in this paragraph—she “draw[s]...into herself,” he gives up on defending himself, and only his “dream” and her “lost voice” are left. Reducing the characters to their single most defining traits highlights their metaphorical natures and the thematic implications of their dynamic: Daisy is the unattainable, insubstantial promise of the American dream, and Gatsby is the hopeless attempt to achieve it.

The unsettling image of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg vigilantly gazing across the valley of ashes returns. Recall that the symbol of the faded billboard carries multiple meanings throughout the text, and that different characters have their own relationships with (and project their own beliefs onto) the billboard. For Wilson, the eyes represent a watchful God who judges the immoral. Michaelis’s reminder of the billboard’s purpose points to one of the major themes of the text: the replacement of spirituality by commercialism. In Gatsby, this exchange results in dissatisfaction, loneliness, and a lack of moral substance; it is also endemic to the populations of East and West Egg.

The theme of reality versus fantasy is engaged in two ways as Nick imagines Gatsby lying in the pool, awaiting a call from Daisy that he no longer believes will come. First, there is Gatsby’s disillusionment: Nick reasons Gatsby must have felt exiled from the world in which he’d spent a lifetime trying to situate himself. The loss of the “old warm world” mirrors the yellow leaves that signal a dying summer. Thus, Gatsby’s fantasies fade away, leaving behind the chilly reality that his pursuit of greatness and wealth has been unimaginably costly.

Second, there is the fact that Gatsby’s disillusionment is actually Nick’s fantasy of how the afternoon played out. It can’t be known what Gatsby was thinking or feeling. The narrative Nick offers is more indicative of his own disillusionment than of anything that can be definitively tied to Gatsby, who was, when Nick left him, still expecting Daisy’s call.

Gatsby’s perception of the city develops two important themes in the novel: the past versus the present and idealism versus reality. His fantasy of resurrecting the past appears to begin when he makes his sorrowful return to Louisville to reminisce about his romance with Daisy, and her former presence in the city imbues it with an idealized, “melancholy beauty” for Gatsby.

The social class that Gatsby aspires to relies on economic inequality to sustain its wealth. Gatsby, along with the people of both Eggs, witnesses the suffering of the poor in the valley of ashes every time he drives to New York City. Nevertheless, none of them ever truly confront the grim cost of their privilege. Gatsby’s dream of class ascension is dependent on the maintenance of this system, and therefore, the suffering it causes.

Nick interprets Gatsby’s willingness to confide in him about the past as evidence that his persona has shattered “like glass” under Tom’s attack. The specific simile emphasizes the fragile nature of the “long secret extravaganza” Gatsby carried on for so long. Its breaking implies that the “new money” class cannot truly stand alongside the wealth of families like the Buchanans. The American dream, therefore, is untenable.

Gatsby’s schedule demonstrates the initial purity of his intentions. As a young man, he was dedicated to honing his self-control and cultivating strength of both mind and body. His routine, as well as his list of “general resolves,” reflect many of the qualities associated with successfully achieving the American dream. By this account, it seems inevitable that Gatsby should have reached the heights he did. However, the roles of Dan Cody and Meyer Wolfshiem in elevating Gatsby cast the efficacy of such hard work in doubt. The narrative leaves it highly doubtful that Gatz’s admirable work ethic would have been enough to achieve the success he desired. Moreover, the inclusion of the schedule and resolves in a book of violent frontier adventures implies a romanticism to Gatsby’s ideas of personal success and the American dream as a concept that may have made him particularly open to the corrupt means offered by Wolfshiem.

Wolfshiem’s claim of having “made” Gatsby raises questions about the role of individualism and personal responsibility when pursuing the American dream. If one need only rely on vision and work ethic to become wealthy and successful, then the involvement of someone like Dan Cody or Meyer Wolfshiem would not have been necessary for Gatsby. However, Gatsby evidently needed the help—when Wolfshiem met him, he hadn’t eaten for days. His acceptance of Wolfshiem’s offer was the only way for him to become successful enough to feel he had achieved his supposed birthright, showing that in Gatsby’s capitalism, success is inevitably the result of corruption.

Nick is haunted by Gatsby and hurt by how many people do not care about him. Fitzgerald subtly develops the themes of reality versus fantasy and the past versus the present: Nick’s attempt to validate the self-worth of a dead man is similar to Gatsby’s insistence that he could recreate his past with Daisy. Nick’s struggle to “get somebody” for Gatsby emphasizes how successful James Gatz was in erasing his identity, as well as the painful cost of his pursuit of status. It also shows a shift in Nick’s own values, which now prioritize genuine human connection over the shallow socialization he’s participated in all summer.

Fitzgerald perhaps implies that returning to an authentic, genuine state of being involves shedding the individualism that often characterizes capitalism and the pursuit of the American dream. In returning home, the individuals become part of the greater whole that makes up a community. In the Midwest, the process of losing oneself in the country with which one identifies is therefore a positive experience—especially considering that, in Gatsby, the main cost of personal ambition is loneliness. Midwestern unity contrasts sharply with the selfish people of West Egg and East Egg, who are so preoccupied with their own interests that they are blind to everyone else.

Nick’s memory of seeing “real snow, our snow” once again develops the novel’s theme of reality versus fantasy. The idea of “real snow” from home carries implications of authenticity, which is lacking in the East.

It seems likely that the “one fine morning” represents the continued promise of a better future. Gatsby’s character embodies the fantasy of what should be possible in the United States: the American dream. Despite Gatsby’s death, Nick recognizes that the dream of a better life is inherent either to human nature or to American culture. In switching to second person, he includes himself in this belief that despite all evidence to the contrary, someday that “orgastic future” will be achieved.

Nick concludes his story by portraying all of humanity as rowing “against the current” of time in order to reach an idealized future. According to this metaphor, people struggle to free themselves from the effects of the past, which keep them from achieving their goals. Gatsby commits this error by refusing to envision a future without Daisy, though she is lost to him. To Fitzgerald, ambition involves a fruitless pursuit of what is gone, for everything that is present today exists because of the past—and the past is all that one knows.