Themes In The Great Gatsby

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Theme is the life lesson or moral that is in a piece of literature. Authors often give their opinions on life by using theme. Themes are used to send a message to the reader. In the story The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he coveys his thought on life in the 1920s through the main character Nick’s point of view. Fitzgerald develops multiple themes to show his thought on the American dream, money, and love. The American Dream can be a person’s want for happiness, money, fame, love, or a picture perfect family. Fitzgerald shows he thinks the American dream is not achievable by the characters in his book. For example Gatsby “at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career- when he saw …show more content…
Although some might agree with that stamen, Fitzgerald does not. He shows the reader that however amount of money you have, it does not bring happiness. For example, Gatsby always had extravagant parties with many people who came, and everyone thought he was happy with all these great friends. This thought was also in the readers mind until right before Gatsby’s funeral. Nick says to Gatsby’s spirt, “‘I’ll get somebody for you, Gatsby. Don’t worry. Just trust me and I’ll get somebody for you’” (164). This is then telling the reader that the idea that Gatsby had a lot of friends and happiness is not true, because they were just using him for his parties and other social states. Then when he died nobody was there and nick was desperately trying to find people to come to his funeral. Fitzgerald shows the reader at Gatsby’s funeral that having money didn’t bring happiness but he shows that having no money brought the realest of people by his side. “Henry C. Gatz arrived from a town in Minnesota” (167). When Gatsby was young he left his family because they didn’t have money, but when Gatsby died his father still came. Fitzgerald using Mr. Gatz is trying to convey to the reader that having money does not bring happiness at the end because the people that used him for the money he had didn’t come, but …show more content…
All of these themes play an important role in shaping the story line. The author shows the negative points for all these themes by implying that love is not real, money doesn’t bring happiness, and the American dream is unachievable. Fitzgerald gets all of his opinion from his own life experiences. He conveys theme through the characters by their life choices and shows the outcome of them. However, the choice is up to the reader to take the sourness of these themes by seeing how they affect the characters or in trust in a different opinion by those around