Love, And Social Classes In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel that takes place in West Egg, located in long island New York. It follows the journey of Nick Carraway and his befriending of Jay Gatsby, who is passionately in love with Nick’s cousin, Daisy Buchanon. Throughout the book, there are many themes prominent in The Great Gatsby such as the American Dream, Love, and social classes. Many of these themes relate to real life and display what actually occurs.

The American Dream is an achievement all Americans are striving for. The American Dream is the idea that in America, all citizens are set on an equal pedestal to achieve a state of success and prosperity. Many people of the jazz age and present worked very hard to achieve this position. In

the book, the American Dream manifests itself through symbols which reflect on real life occurrences, and how it’s a constant goal people reach for. An example of this is in The Great Gatsby as Nick notices when Gatsby,

“stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.” (Fitzgerald 36)

This “green light” can be viewed as the American Dream, and Gatsby is the American who is longing to achieve this dream.

The American Dream embodies the pursuit of an idea that you are aching to achieve.

Another theme found in The Great Gatsby are Social Classes. The Book highlights a class based society that categorizes people based on their wealth and success. In Larsen’s text, he states that with the “widespread association of success with the accumulation of material wealth has increasingly turned consumer products into status symbols through which consumers seek to position themselves socially.” Within the Great Gatsby, it is a very obvious concept to notice due to the setting, and the material items the characters value and display to others. Jay Gatsby and The Buchanons all fall into the elite or highest class which is shown through the extravagant lifestyle they are living within the book. An example of this would be, “On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight.” These parties Gatsby would throw and items such as his Rolls-Royce are a few ways he would flaunt his success and what classifies him into the high class. This extravagant lifestyle he lived was all for the hope that Daisy would fall in love with

him.
Another theme found in The Great Gatsby is Love.

Jay Gatsby struggles with this in his pursuit of Daisy, being that in the end he just can’t seem to achieve this love he’s looking for. Gatsby’s love for Daisy is genuine and true. The relationship between Daisy and Tom on the other hand isn’t as genuine, there had been a lot of cheating going on, and their relationship in a way felt non-existent due to the way Daisy looked at Gatsby and also by what she had said to Gatsby in front of Tom, “She had told him that she loved him.” (Fitzgerald 180) This love she had for Gatsby was real and genuine, while what she had with Tom at the time was more so to better the quality of her life rather than to have an honest

relationship.
In conclusion, many of the themes in The Great Gatsby, reflect real life events and occurrences. Those themes being the American Dream, Social Classes, and Love. From learning characters goals and aspirations of achieving success and wealth apply to the notion of the American Dream. After further review of characters, actions, and lifestyle, these ideas all add to the idea of a class based society. Lastly of the relationships made and feelings toward other characters supplement towards the theme of love.