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What Is The Main Theme Of The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby is set during the Jazz Age of the twenties in the Empire State. Told from the perspective of the Midwestern transplant Nick Carraway, the story centers around the suspiciously rich Jay Gatsby--his next-door neighbor. Nick sees this mysterious Gatsby standing out on his dock on several occasions, reaching for an ominous green light across the bay. In the first chapters of the novel, Nick is seen reuniting with his distant cousin, Daisy Buchanan. She and her ridiculously rich husband Tom introduce him to their dear friend, Jordan Baker, an excellent golfer, but a notorious cheater. Nick quietly observes the levity of their lifestyles and a green light on their porch. He learns of Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson, and is subsequently …show more content…

The characters are frequently depicted as longing for what is just out of their grasp: something so near they can almost feel it. Gatsby is the prime example of this, as he spends the entire novel fervently pursuing his lost love Daisy Buchanan. It seems that Gatsby possesses everything a man could want, yet he is solely focused on gaining the one thing he can’t have. It is revealed through what Gatsby tells Nick that even he can see the shallowness with which Daisy lives her life. He tries to gain her interest with extravagant parties and lavish things, but to no avail. Although she is impressed with the extent of his wealth and the fact that he had slaved to win over her for five years, nothing he could ever to do impress Daisy would cause her to forget social class and follow her heart. Nick’s girlfriend, Jordan Baker, is described as a notorious cheat and liar, and Tom, an obnoxious racist. Fitzgerald portrays the aristocratic members of society as suffering from severe disillusionment--a terminal disease that crippled the wealthy during this godless era. The death of the ever present yet, unattainable American Dream can be seen in the dubious ways in which characters like Meyer Wolfsheim and Gatsby himself earned their fortunes, and the measures they would take to protect what is not rightfully theirs. Gatsby’s murder is the …show more content…

Subtle details, such as the frequent use of yellow, represent the false security and mendacity in which persons like Daisy, Gatsby and Tom live. Daisy’s hair and Gatsby’s clothes, automobile and mansion are all described as being a yellowish gold, clueing the reader in on the empty attempts at true fortune and happiness. After all, yellow is not gold; it poses as a sincere, rich gold, yet is doomed to always remain a cheap

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