The Great Gatsby

Themes!
 Theme #1

Gatsbys Self Invention

Thoughts?
 Gatsbys Self Invention
Post WW1, American Reality was one of loss,
particularly for youth
The American psyche (shared existence) carried a
profound sense that life was meaningless
The Pursuit of money now overtook the previous
cultural roots of working together for a common
good. This was the concept of the American
Dream.
 Gatsbys Self Invention
Fitzgerald embodied this concept in his creation
of his character Gatsby, by imposing on him a
sense of rootlessness
Gatsby acts for the characters around him,
becoming that person that he wishes to be in their
eyes
He is self-invented
He started as James Gatz, but created his name,
Jay Gatsby before boarding Dan Codys yacht.
 Gatsbys Self Invention
Gatsby confides in Carraway that he misled Daisy
five years earlier into believing that he was
wealthier than he is, and that he used his army
uniform as a guise to hide the fact that he could
not afford more expensive clothes.
He hides the illegal source of his wealth
(bootlegging and selling stolen or forged bonds).
Carraway does not learn the truth until after
Gatsbys death.
 Gatsbys Self Invention
Henry C. Gatz displays an old copy of Hopalong
Cassidy showing a schedule Gatsby penned in
when he was a boy. This shows that even as a
child, Gatsby sought to transform and improve
himself.
Material displays define him (ie. The yellow car
that Tom Buchanan considered clownish)
None of his displays of wealth provide his life with
meaning because his love for Daisy goes unfulfilled
 Gatsbys Self Invention
Roger Lewis, a critic, comments that
Gatsby sought to recreate the past
by marrying Daisy, but with his new
wealthy persona, in tact.
Lewis states:
When ones sense of self is self-created,
when one is present at ones own creation,
so to speak, one is in a paradoxical position.
One knows everything about oneself that
can be known, and yet, the significance of
such knowledge is unclear, for no outside
contexts exist to create meaning. The
result is that the self-created man turns
to the past, for he can know that. It is an
inescapable context. For Gatsby, and for
the novel, the past is crucial.
Any Thoughts?

Start to consider the

relationship of Gatsby
as a Christ-like figure.
What connections can
you make?
Theme #2

Love and Money

 Love and Money
Gatsbys adoration of Daisy is at the heart of the
plot.
Gatsby becomes the only character to see clearly
the connection between his quest for the ideal of
love and that of wealth
He describes Daisys voice by saying, her voice
is full of money[she is a] golden girl.
To Gatsby, her charm and his attraction to her is
allied in her wealth.
 Roger Lewis states:
It is true that from Wolfsheim to Nick Carraway,
people are in the East to earn their livings But
Gatsby with his boundless capacity for love, a
capacity unique in the sterile world he inhabits,
sees the pursuit of money as a substitute for love.
He knows himself well enough to see that his own
attraction toward love is tied to his love for
Daisy. The fact that Gatsbys money, like his love,
should be self-made gives his description of her
voice authority and depth.
 Theme #3

An Ambivalent Narrator
(Definition- having
opposing attitudes or
more than one point of
view)
 An Ambivalent Narrator
Nick Carraway is a practical character and
therefore is suitable to tell the story
Carraways character is marked by a need for
order, which, although allowing for the story to be
narrated, means that for a majority of the story,
he exists in a state of relative ambivalence
He prides himself on his honesty: I am one of
the few honest people I have ever known.
The reader believes and identifies with him
 An Ambivalent Narrator
His relative position to the characters
plays a role in his ability to narrate
A critic, A.E. Dyson explains, Carraway is
one middle class character in the novel -
vaguely at home in the worlds of both Daisy
and Myrtle, but not belonging to neither,
and so able to see and judge both very
clearly.
 An Ambivalent Narrator
He seeks to reserve judgment
However David Parker, another literary critic
states that Nick is slow-thinking. He does not
learn immediately from the experiences of Gatsby,
but slowly, reluctantly, and in retrospectThe
reader sees him, in the course of the novel,
gradually coming to realization Nick wants the
world and the people in it to be cleaner and
simpler that they are. This affects his reliability
as a narrator.
 Theme #4

Gatsby as a Heroic
Romantic
 Gatsby as a Heroic Romantic
When Fitzgerald was young he fell in love
with a girl named Ginevia King, who he later
found out called him the poor boy, and it
crushed him. This echoes the relationship
between Gatsby and Daisy.
Daisy does not share the romantic
sentiments of Gatsby and thus belongs to
Tom, because he understands the nature of
things, which reflects how she acts.
 Gatsby as a Heroic Romantic
Daisys character is too much like
Tom, so she is able to use Gatsby the
same way Tom uses Myrtle.
Although Toms attitude is realistic,
it is hard against Gatsbys romantic
ideas.
The reality shatters the fantasy
 Gatsby as a Heroic Romantic
Theevents leading to Gatsbys death symbolize that
[Gatsbys] downfall, though inevitable, is by no means an
unambiguous triumph of moral powers. His death is
brought about by Daisy who first lets him shield her and
then deserts him: by Tom who directs the demented
Wilson to the place where he is to be found; and by
Wilson himself- a representative of the ash-grey men
who comes to Gatsby, in his disillusionment, as a terrible
embodiment of the realities which have killed his dream.
(Dyson)
 Gatsby as a Heroic Romantic
Gatsby pays the price of death for
his loyalty, but it is his willingness to
adhere to his heroic passions that
allows Carraway, and the reader, to
overlook the faults of Gatsby and to
have the most repect for him as a
result.
Other Themes Unexplored:

-NickCarraways Price:
The Loss of Innocence
-The Art of The Great
Gatsby