The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

A good novel has a number ofthemes. The following ar important themes of The GreatGatsby. The corruption of the Ameri back tooth dream, sight and insight, the meaning of the past, and the grooming of a youngman. The American Dream was based on the surmisalthat each person, no matter what his origins, could succeedin life on the sole basis of his or her own skill and effort. Thedream was substantiate in the ideal of the self-made man, justas it was embodied in Fitzgeralds own family by hisgrandfather, P. F. McQuillan. The Great Gatsby is a novelabout what happened to the American dream in the 1920s, aperiod when the old values that gave magnetic core to the dreamhad been corrupted by the vulgar pursuit of wealth. Thecharacters argon Midwesterners who consecrate come East inpursuit of this new dream of money, fame, success, glamour,and excitement. tom turkey and Daisy must have a huge house, astable of polo ponies, and friends in Europe. Gatsby musthave his enormous mansion befo re he can feel confidentenough to try to win Daisy. The energy that efficacy have goneinto the pursuit of noble goals has been channeled into thepursuit of power and pleasure, and a very showy, butfundamentally empty form of success. The characters mightbe divided into three groups 1. Nick, the observer andcommentator, who sees what has gone wrong 2. Gatsby,who lives the dream purely and 3. Tom, Daisy, and Jordan,the "foul dust" who are the prime examples of the corruptionof the dream. The primary juts and symbols thatFitzgerald employs in developing the theme are 1. the greenlight 2. the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg 3. the image of theEast and Midwest 4. Owl Eyes 5. Dan Codys yacht and6. religious foothold such as grail and incarnation. Both thecharacter groupings and the images and symbols suggest asecond major theme that we can call "sight and insight." Asyou read the novel, you will come across many images ofblindness is this because barely anyone seems to se e what isreally going on? The characters have little self-knowledgeand nevertheless less knowledge of each other. Even Gatsby- wemight say, especially Gatsby- lacks the insight to understandwhat is happening. He never truly sees either Daisy orhimself, so blinded is he by his dream. The only characterswho see, in the sense of "understand," are Nick and OwlEyes. The ever present eyes of Dr. Eckleburg seem to beef up the theme that there is no all-seeing presence in the