The Great Gatsby Themes

Overview of Key Themes in The Great Gatsby

Before we introduce our seven main themes, we’ll briefly describe how the story and characters
suggest the major Great Gatsby themes. Remember that the story is set in the 1920s, a period
when America’s economy was booming, and takes place in New York: specifically the wealthy
Long Island towns of West Egg and East Egg, as well as Manhattan and Queens.

As you should know from the book (check out our summary if you’re still hazy on the details!),
The Great Gatsby tells the story of James Gatz, a poor farm boy who manages to reinvent
himself as the fabulously rich Jay Gatsby, only to be killed after an attempt to win over his
old love Daisy Buchanan. Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, and they’re both from old
money, causing them to look down Gatsby’s newly rich crowd (and for Tom to look down at
Gatsby himself).

Meanwhile, Tom is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson, the wife of mechanic George Wilson.
Through the Wilsons, we see the struggles of the working class in dismal Queens, NY. As if they
didn’t already have it hard enough, Myrtle is killed in a hit-and-run accident (caused by Daisy
Buchanan), and George, who’s manipulated by Tom to believe that Jay Gatsby was both his
wife’s lover and her murderer, ends up shooting Gatsby and then himself.

The whole story is told by Nick Carraway, a second cousin of Daisy’s and classmate of Tom’s
who moves in next to Gatsby’s mansion and eventually befriends Jay -- and then comes to
deeply admire him, despite or perhaps because of Jay’s fervent desire to repeat his past with
Daisy. The tragic chain of events at the novel’s climax, along with the fact that both the
Buchanans can easily retreat from the damage they caused, causes Nick to become disillusioned
with life in New York and retreat back to his hometown in the Midwest.

The fact that the major characters come from three distinct class backgrounds (working
class, newly rich, and old money) suggests that class is a major theme. But the rampant
materialism and the sheer amount of money spent by Gatsby himself is a huge issue and its own
theme. Related to money and class, the fact that both Gatsby and the Wilsons strive to improve
their positions in American society, only to end up dead, also suggests that the American Dream
-- and specifically its hollowness -- is a key theme in the book as well.

But there are other themes at play here, too. Every major character is involved in at least one
romantic relationship, revealing that they are all driven by love, sex, and desire -- a major
theme. Also, the rampant bad behavior (crime, cheating, and finally murder) and lack of real
justice makes ethics and morality a key theme. Death also looms large over the novel’s plot,
alongside the threat of failure.

And finally, a strong undercurrent to all of these themes is identity itself: can James Gatz really
become Jay Gatsby, or was he doomed from the start? Can someone who is not from old money
ever blend in with that crowd? Could Gatsby really aspire to repeat his past with Daisy, or is that
past self gone forever?
In short, just by looking at the novel's plot, characters, and ending, we can already get a strong
sense of Gatsby's major themes. Let's now look at each of those themes one by one (and be sure
to check out the links to our full theme breakdowns!).

The 7 Major Great Gatsby Themes

Money and Materialism: Everyone in the novel is money-obsessed, whether they were born
with money (Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and Nick to a lesser extent), whether they made a fortune
(Gatsby), or whether they’re eager for more (Myrtle and George). So why are the characters so
materialistic? How does their materialism affect their choices? Get a guide to each of the
characters’ material motivations and how they shape the novel.

Society and Class: Building on the money and materialism theme, the novel draws clear
distinctions between the kind of money you have: old money (inherited) or new money (earned).
And there is also a clear difference between the lifestyles of the wealthy, who live on Long
Island and commute freely to Manhattan, and the working class people stuck in between, mired
in Queens. By the end of the novel, our main characters who are not old money (Gatsby, Myrtle,
and George) are all dead, while the inherited-money club is still alive. What does this say about
class in Gatsby? Why is their society so rigidly classist? Learn more about the various social
classes in Gatsby and how they affect the novel’s outcome.

The American Dream: The American Dream is the idea anyone can make it in America (e.g.
gain fame, fortune, and success) through enough hard work and determination. So is Jay Gatsby
an example of the dream? Or does his involvement in crime suggest the Dream isn’t actually
real? And where does this leave the Wilsons, who are also eager to improve their lot in life but
don’t make it out of the novel alive? Finally, do the closing pages of the novel endorse the
American Dream or write it off as a fantasy? Learn what the American Dream is and how the
novel sometimes believes in it, and sometimes sees it as a reckless fantasy.

Love, Desire, and Relationships: All of the major characters are driven by love, desire, or both,
but only Tom and Daisy’s marriage lasts out of the novel’s five major relationships and affairs.
So is love an inherently unstable force? Or do the characters just experience it in the wrong way?
Get an in-depth guide to each of Gatsby’s major relationships.

Death and Failure: Nick narrates Gatsby two years after the events in question, and since he’s
obviously aware of the tragedy awaiting not only Gatsby but Myrtle and George as well, the
novel has a sad, reflective, even mournful tone. Is the novel saying that ambition is inherently
dangerous (especially in a classist society like 1920s America), or is it more concerned with the
danger of Gatsby’s intense desire to reclaim the past? Explore those questions here.

Morality and Ethics: The novel is full of bad behavior: lying, cheating, physical abuse, crime,
and finally murder. Yet none of the characters ever answer to the law, and God is only
mentioned as an exclamation, or briefly projected onto an advertisement. Does the novel push for
the need to fix this lack of morality, or does it accept it as the normal state of affairs in the “wild,
wild East”?
The Mutability of Identity: Mutability just means “subject to change,” so this theme is about
how changeable (or not!) personal identity is. Do people really change? Or are our past selves
always with us? And how would this shape our desire to reclaim parts of our past? Gatsby wants
to have it both ways: to change himself from James Gatz into the sophisticated, wealthy Jay
Gatsby, but also to preserve his past with Daisy. Does he fail because it’s impossible to change?
Because it’s impossible to repeat the past? Or both?

How to Write About The Great Gatsby Themes

So now that you know about the major themes of The Great Gatsby, how can you go about
writing about them? First up: look closely at your prompt.

Sometimes an essay prompt will come right out and ask you to write about a theme, for
example “is The American Dream in Gatsby alive or dead?” or “Write about the relationships in
Gatsby. What is the novel saying about the nature of love and desire?” For those essays, you will
obviously be writing about one of the novel’s major themes. But even though those prompts have
big-picture questions, make sure to find small supporting details to help make your argument.

For example, if you’re discussing the American Dream and arguing it’s dead in the novel, don’t
just make that claim and be done with it. Instead, you can explore Gatsby’s past as James
Gatz, George Wilson’s exhausted complacency, and Myrtle’s treatment at the hands of
Tom as examples of how the American Dream is treated in the novel. Obviously those
examples are far from exhaustive, but hopefully you get the idea: find smaller details to support
the larger argument.

On the other hand, many essay prompts about Gatsby will look like a question about something
specific, like a character or symbol:

 Explore Tom and Daisy as people who ‘retreat into their money.'
 What does the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock represent? How does its meaning
change throughout the novel?
 Show how Fitzgerald uses clothing (and the changing of costumes) to tell the reader more
about the characters and/or express theme(s).

These prompts are actually a chance for you to take that detailed analysis and connect it to one of
the larger themes – in other words, even though the prompt doesn’t state it explicitly, you
should still be connecting those more focused topics to one of the big-picture themes.

For example, if you talk about Tom and Daisy Buchanan, you will definitely end up talking
about society and class. If you talk about the green light, you will end up talking about dreams
and goals, specifically the American Dream. And if you discuss clothing to talk about the
characters, you will definitely touch on money and materialism, as well as society and class (like
how Gatsby’s pink suit makes him stand out as new money to Tom Buchanan, or how Myrtle
adopts a different dress to play at being wealthy and sophisticated).
In short, for these more specific prompts, you start from the ground (small details and
observations) and build up to discussing the larger themes, even if the prompt doesn’t say to do
so explicitly!