great gatsby presentation theme

Got any suggestions?

We want to hear from you! Send us a message and help improve Slidesgo

Top searches

Trending searches

46 templates

suicide prevention

8 templates

18 templates

41 templates

cybersecurity

6 templates

28 templates

Welcome to the 20s

Welcome to the 20s presentation, premium google slides theme and powerpoint template.

The Great Gatsby “believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” Fitzgerald recreated the flavor of the 20s in one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. Did you like Gatsby’s parties? Do you believe in the green light? Use our vintage presentation template and enjoy the roaring twenties!

This theme is based on a multi-purpose structure. Its style is clearly a reimagination of the Art Déco movement, typical of the 20s. The background is black and the geometric decorations, including lines, have been performed in golden yellow. The look is completed with black and white pictures and a geometric title typography. This sleek sans serif is in line with the decorations and the vintage taste of the template.

Features of this template

• A vintage presentation with geometric decorations mimicking the Art Déco style
• 100% editable and easy to modify
• 32 different slides to impress your audience
• Contains easy-to-edit graphics, maps and mockups
• Includes 500+ icons and Flaticon’s extension for customizing your slides
• Designed to be used in Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• 16:9 widescreen format suitable for all types of screens
• Includes information about fonts, colors, and credits of the free and premium resources used

What are the benefits of having a Premium account?

What Premium plans do you have?

What can I do to have unlimited downloads?

Combines with:

This template can be combined with this other one to create the perfect presentation:

Don’t want to attribute Slidesgo?

Gain access to over 22600 templates & presentations with premium from 1.67€/month.

Are you already Premium? Log in

Related posts on our blog

How to Add, Duplicate, Move, Delete or Hide Slides in Google Slides

How to Change Layouts in PowerPoint

How to Change the Slide Size in Google Slides

Related presentations.

Premium template

Unlock this template and gain unlimited access

Register for free and start editing online

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, most important themes in great gatsby, analyzed.

Book Guides

Need to write about a theme for a Great Gatsby assignment or just curious about what exactly a theme is? Not sure where to start? Learn here what a theme is, what the main themes in The Great Gatsby are, and what the best tips for writing about themes for your English/Language Arts class essays are.

We will also link to our specific articles on each theme so you can learn even more in-depth about themes central to Gatsby .

What Is a Theme? Why Should You Care?

First things first: what exactly is a theme? In literature, a theme is a central topic a book deals with. This central topic is revealed through plot events, the actions and dialogue of the characters, and even the narrator's tone. Themes can be very broad, like love, money, or death, or more specific, like people versus technology, racial discrimination, or the American Dream.

In short, a book's theme can usually answer the question, "what's the point of this book?". They're the "so what?" of literary analysis. Also, note that books can definitely have more than one major theme —in Gatsby we identify seven!

Knowing a book's major theme(s) is crucial to writing essays, since many assignments want you to connect your argument to a book's theme. For example, you might be asked to write an essay about a prompt like this: "How does the life of Jay Gatsby exemplify (or deconstruct) the idea of the American Dream?" This prompt has you connect specific details in Jay Gatsby's life to the larger theme of the American Dream. This is why many teachers love theme essays: because they encourage you to connect small details to big ideas!

Furthermore, the AP English Literature test always has an essay question that has you analyze some aspect of a book and then "compare it to the theme of the work as a whole." (If you want specific examples you can access the last 15 years of AP English Literature free response questions here , using your College Board account.) So this skill won't just help you in your English classes, it will also help you pass the AP English Literature test if you're taking it!

So keep reading to learn about the major themes in Gatsby and how they are revealed in the book, and also to get links to our in-depth articles about each theme.

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.

Aside from having a very unhappy ending, the novel might just ruin swimming pools for you as well.

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!

What's Next?

Now you're an expert on themes, but what about symbols? If you need to write about the important symbols in The Great Gatsby, check out our symbols overview for a complete guide.

Want a full analysis of Jay Gatsby and his backstory? Not sure how his story connects with the American Dream? Get the details here .

Want to go back to square one? Get started with Chapter 1 of our Great Gatsby plot summary.

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Halle Edwards graduated from Stanford University with honors. In high school, she earned 99th percentile ACT scores as well as 99th percentile scores on SAT subject tests. She also took nine AP classes, earning a perfect score of 5 on seven AP tests. As a graduate of a large public high school who tackled the college admission process largely on her own, she is passionate about helping high school students from different backgrounds get the knowledge they need to be successful in the college admissions process.

Student and Parent Forum

Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com , allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Improve With Our Famous Guides

• For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

'The Great Gatsby' Themes

Wealth, class, and society, love and romance, the loss of idealism, the failure of the american dream.

• M.F.A, Dramatic Writing, Arizona State University
• B.A., English Literature, Arizona State University
• B.A., Political Science, Arizona State University

The Great Gatsby , by F. Scott Fitzgerald, presents a critical portrait of the American dream through its portrayal of the 1920s New York elite. By exploring themes of wealth, class, love and idealism, The Great Gatsby raises powerful questions about American ideas and society.

The Great Gatsby 's characters represent the wealthiest members of 1920s New York society . Despite their money, however, they are not portrayed as particularly aspirational. Instead, the rich characters' negative qualities are put on display: wastefulness, hedonism, and carelessness.

The novel also suggests that wealth is not equivalent to social class. Tom Buchanan comes from the old money elite, while Jay Gatsby is a self-made millionaire. Gatsby, self-conscious about his "new money" social status, throws unbelievably lavish parties in hopes of catching Daisy Buchanan's attention. However, at the novel's conclusion, Daisy chooses to stay with Tom despite the fact that she genuinely loves Gatsby; her reasoning is that she could not bear to lose the social status that her marriage to Tom affords her. With this conclusion, Fitzgerald suggests that wealth alone does not guarantee entrance into the upper echelons of elite society.

In The Great Gatsby , love is intrinsically tied to class. As a young military officer, Gatsby fell quickly for debutante Daisy, who promised to wait for him after the war. However, any chance at a real relationship was precluded by Gatsby's lower social status. Instead of waiting for Gatsby, Daisy married Tom Buchanan, an old-money East Coast elite. It is an unhappy marriage of convenience: Tom has affairs and seems just as romantically uninterested in Daisy as she is in him.

The idea of unhappy marriages of convenience isn’t limited to the upper class. Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson, is a spirited woman in a seriously mismatched marriage to a suspicious, dull man. The novel suggests that she married him in hopes of being upwardly mobile, but instead the marriage is simply miserable, and Myrtle herself ends up dead. Indeed, the only unhappy couple to survive "unscathed" is Daisy and Tom, who eventually decide to retreat into the cocoon of wealth despite their marital problems.

In general, the novel takes a fairly cynical view of love. Even the central romance between Daisy and Gatsby is less a true love story and more a depiction of Gatsby's obsessive desire to relive—or even redo —his own past. He loves the image of Daisy more than the woman in front of him . Romantic love is not a powerful force in the world of The Great Gatsby .

Jay Gatsby is perhaps one of the most idealistic characters in literature. Nothing can deter him from his belief in the possibility of dreams and romance. In fact, his entire pursuit of wealth and influence is carried out in hopes of making his dreams come true. However, Gatsby's single-minded pursuit of those dreams—particularly his pursuit of the idealized Daisy—is the quality that ultimately destroys him. After Gatsby's death, his funeral is attended by just three guests; the cynical "real world" moves on as though he'd never lived at all.

Nick Carraway also represents the failures of idealism through his journey from naïve Everyman observer to burgeoning cynic. At first, Nick buys into the plan reunite Daisy and Gatsby, as he believes in the power of love to conquer class differences. The more involved he becomes in the social world of Gatsby and the Buchanans, however, the more his idealism falters. He begins to see the elite social circle as careless and hurtful. By the end of the novel, when he finds out the role Tom cheerfully played in Gatsby’s death, he loses any remaining trace of idealization of elite society.

The American dream posits that anyone, no matter their origins, can work hard and achieve upward mobility in the United States. The Great Gatsby questions this idea through the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby. From the outside, Gatsby appears to be proof of the American dream: he is a man of humble origins who accumulated vast wealth. However, Gatsby is miserable. His life is devoid of meaningful connection. And because of his humble background, he remains an outsider in the eyes of elite society. Monetary gain is possible, Fitzgerald suggests, but class mobility is not so simple, and wealth accumulation does not guarantee a good life.

Fitzgerald specifically critiques the American dream within the context of the Roaring Twenties , a time when growing affluence and changing morals led to a culture of materialism. Consequently, the characters of The Great Gatsby equate the American dream with material goods, despite the fact that the original idea did not have such an explicitly materialistic intent. The novel suggests that rampant consumerism and the desire to consume has corroded the American social landscape and corrupted one of the country's foundational ideas.

• 'The Great Gatsby' Overview
• The Great Gatsby and the Lost Generation
• 'The Great Gatsby' Characters: Descriptions and Significance
• What is the role of women in 'The Great Gatsby'?
• 'The Great Gatsby' Plot Summary
• 'The Great Gatsby' Quotes Explained
• Critical Overview of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• F. Scott Fitzgerald's Inspiration for 'The Great Gatsby'
• 'The Great Gatsby' Study Questions
• The Lost Generation and the Writers Who Described Their World
• Why Was "The Great Gatsby" Banned?
• 'The Great Gatsby' Vocabulary
• 10 Classic Novels for Teens
• The Life of Zelda Fitzgerald, the Other Fitzgerald Writer
• 'Pride and Prejudice' Themes and Literary Devices
• 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' Themes, Symbols, and Literary Devices

Themes, Motifs, and Symbols in The Great Gatsby

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: March 1, 2022

One of the most commonly taught novels, The Great Gatsby is rich with opportunities for thematic analysis and broader real-world discussion. Gatsby is a fantastic opportunity to challenge students to see past the money, fancy clothes, and fancy cars and into what brings them lasting joy and purpose. In this post, we’ll break down the biggest themes , motifs, and symbols in The Great Gatsby .

What We Review

Major Themes in The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby lends itself to many themes , but the primary purpose of the novel is to provide a sharp criticism of the American Dream as defined during the 1920s. Other themes — such as obsession with the past or dysfunctional relationships — all tie in with this singular idea of the vanity of pursuing wealth as the only means to true happiness and success.

Pursuit of the American Dream

One very evident theme in Fitzgerald’s novel is the Pursuit of the American Dream during the 1920s. Then, as now,  many Americans believed that “anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, [could] attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone” (Barone). Born penniless, James Gatz, or Jay Gatsby, was determined to achieve his own American Dream the only way he knew how: by attaining massive wealth by whatever means necessary. However, even after seemingly fulfilling his dream by becoming filthy rich, those who inherited their wealth still treat Gatsby as an outsider —namely, the Buchanans. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s devastating realization to criticize people’s perception of the American Dream as simply the “culmination of wealth” (Pumphrey).

To paint a picture for the reader, Nick personifies Gatsby’s pursuit of the American Dream in the green light at the end of the Buchanans’ dock, calling it the “orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (Fitzgerald 180). Much like Gatsby, Americans still today work their entire lives to achieve their idea of the American dream, only for some to meet an untimely end before reaching this dream. One of the most poignant quotes of the entire novel is at the end where Nick states in reference to this unattainable dream that “We beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past,” showing the vanity and utter pointlessness, in his eyes, of this “American Dream” (Fitzgerald 180). 

Failure to Live in the Present; Obsession with the Past and Future

Gatsby is the clearest example of a character stuck in the past due to his obsession with Daisy. Nick observes him “stretch[ing] out his arms toward the dark water” (Fitzgerald 21). The reader soon learns that Gatsby is continuously reaching for a green light at the end of the Buchanans’ dock, signifying his continual pursuit of Daisy, who is always just out of his reach. Gatsby is so overcome with visions of his past that he is shackled by his own imagination and kept from forming a genuine connection with the real Daisy.

The past also consumes Tom Buchanan, his one claim to fame being his football career in New Haven. Nick recognizes this immediately, feeling that Tom would “drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game” (Fitzgerald 6). Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, is always rhapsodizing what she and Tom will do once they are married to one another, something Tom clearly does not see in his future. Even in casual conversation, the Buchanans, particularly Daisy, reminisce about the past or plan for the future, always planning trips to the city or recollecting old acquaintances. Whenever Daisy is forced into the present, she is visibly uncomfortable and anxious.

The Destructive Nature of Dysfunctional Relationships

Fitzgerald’s novel is littered with questionable characters and suspicious situations. Characters constantly act and speak behind each other’s back, making it difficult to trust or predict anyone’s motives in the novel. Tom and Daisy’s relationship is the most obvious example of secrecy leading to conflict regarding Tom’s “woman in New York” and Daisy’s long-lasting infatuation with Gatsby. Tom isn’t even truthful with Myrtle, his mistress, and tells her he cannot marry her because Daisy is Catholic and will not file for divorce. 

Miss Baker’s friendship with Daisy is just as secretive and manipulative. When she speaks to Nick behind Daisy’s back, she makes Daisy out to be a fool. She manipulates situations between Daisy and Gatsby behind Nick’s back, even when she knows nothing good can come from their secret romance. Daisy does not even have a functioning relationship with her own daughter; when Nick asks about her, all Daisy has to say is, “I suppose she talks, and eats, and everything” (Fitzgerald 16). We do not witness her daughter’s growth into adulthood, but we can only imagine the damage this separation from her parents has caused her. 

The parties that Gatsby hosts in his mansions are not filled with his closest friends; rather, complete strangers flood his halls to spill rumors about their host and leave without a word the next day. 

Gatsby, the only person who seems remotely interested in forming functional relationships, still lies to Nick about his upbringing immediately after asking Nick his opinion of him, as if to save himself preemptively. Throughout the novel, Gatsby attempts to form a real relationship with Daisy, which proves impossible because she can never live up to the Daisy of his imagination. 

Motifs and Symbols in The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald’s novel is rich with symbolism, whether it be through color, setting, or objects. Each detail, no matter how small, enforces the tone of the scene. Many colors and settings are used in stark contrast with one another; for example, the white and gold Buchanan mansion and Daisy are vastly different from the bleak and gray Valley of Ashes. Gatsby’s car is both gold and green, signifying both his achievement of wealth and his continual pursuit of rich things, including Daisy Buchanan.

Color 

There are four distinct colors repeated throughout the novel that each carry meaning beyond the surface. These colors are white, gray, green, and gold.

Daisy and Jordan are both dressed in white at the start of the novel, and the open windows cause the white curtains to float in the air. Both the curtains and the women in white represent both innocence and superficiality of these characters who float through life lacking depth of personality. Nick Carraway describes Daisy as being “high in a white palace”, calling her both “king’s daughter” and “the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 120). In this instance, Nick characterizes her as this lofty, worshiped being, which mirrors Gatsby’s perspective and reinforces the fact that Gatsby will never be good enough for her. 

By name, The Valley of Ashes is represented by the color gray, which symbolizes the harsh conditions of the working class and overall lack of joy or hope in this place. George Wilson’s garage naturally resides in this desolate place, described as “unprosperous and bare” (Fitzgerald 25). Words such as “foul”, “solemn”, and “wasteland” are used to describe the place constantly under the watch of T.J. Eckleburg’s gold-rimmed eyes (Fitzgerald 24).

Green symbolizes two primary things: money and lust. The leather seats in Gatsby’s car are a lush green color, implying that perhaps the bright yellow paint did not declare his wealth loudly enough. Tom forces himself into the driver’s seat of Gatsby’s car, emphasizing that he believes Gatsby to be undeserving of such luxury. The most prominent green object (other than money) is the green lantern at the end of the Buchanans’ dock. While this green light represents Gatsby’s dream to be with Daisy, it also more characteristically represents envy as Gatsby desires to have another man’s wife.

Gatsby’s Rolls Royce, later known as “The Death Car,” symbolizes money and the pompous lifestyle of the rich. Nick describes Daisy as a  “golden girl”, Gatsby dons a gold tie for one of his many parties, and even the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleberg are rimmed in gold frames. In every instance, gold is both synonymous with wealth and “otherness”. Whether it is Daisy, Gatsby’s car, or even Dr. T.J. Eckleberg, each golden person or object is completely detached from the rest of society and feeling any sort of social responsibility. For example, Dr. T.J. Eckelberg’s looming presence over the Valley of Ashes 

Valley of Ashes

George Wilson’s garage naturally resides in the Valley of Ashes, described as “unprosperous and bare” (Fitzgerald 25). Words such as “foul”, “solemn”, and “wasteland” are used to describe the place constantly under the watch of T.J. Eckleburg’s gold-rimmed eyes (Fitzgerald 24). Myrtle Wilson’s brightly-dressed, sensual persona stands out in stark contrast to her colorless background. Even though her character doesn’t “fit” the setting she lives in, she is permanently bound to live and eventually die in this hopeless place. George even attempts to leave, but the thoughtless actions of the rich quickly tear apart his dream of a better life.

West Egg and Gatsby’s Mansion

While similar in appearance, East Egg and West Egg are drastically different from one another in status. West Egg, where Gatsby’s mansion resides, is “less fashionable” than East Egg and represents “new money” (Fitzgerald 5). Nick describes Gatsby’s mansion ironically as an “imitation”, further supporting the idea that Gatsby is an imposter in the realm of the rich and famous. West Egg residents are more inclined to hold extravagant and wild parties than their East Egg neighbors, even though East Eggers have no problem attending these parties held by their “less fashionable” neighbors. 

East Egg and the Buchanan’s Mansion

The mansions across the bay in East Egg are described as “white palaces”, further supporting that the color white implies something untouchable (Fitzgerald 4). The French windows reflected gold; vast gardens framed the property; “frosted wedding cake ceilings” hovered above every room, and “wine-colored” rugs sprawled across the floors (Fitzgerald 8). The author spares no detail to ensure the reader understands the exquisite luxury of the Buchanans’ home. East Egg residents also live at a slower and calmer pace than their neighbors, likely because they don’t feel the need to indulge in the luxuries offered at parties that are already at their fingertips.

Objects 

Doctor T. J. Eckleberg’s eyes 

Dr. T.J. Eckelberg’s eyes are painted onto a fading billboard that overlooks the Valley of Ashes. The eyes float independently of a face or even a nose and are framed in a pair of gold eyeglasses. Not much is known about Dr. Eckelberg; the narrator assumes that he either “sank down himself into eternal blindness” or simply forgot about his billboard and moved to a different city (Fitzgerald 24). Either way, the enormous eyes have a looming presence over the Valley of Ashes; constantly “brood[ing]” over this desolate place. You can define Fitzgerald’s choice of the word “brood” in two very different ways. These eyes could be “brooding” and watching over the city like a worried mother hen wishing to care for her chicks. Or, these eyes could be “brooding” because they are thinking deeply about everything they see that makes them continually unhappy.

Green Light

The green light at the end of the Buchanans’ dock represents Daisy in Gatsby’s eyes. Every time he sees it, he thinks of her and desires to have her. He finds hope in this light; as long as he can see it, Daisy is still just within his grasp. However, Nick sees this green light through much more critical eyes by the end of the novel. He refers to it instead as the “orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (Fitzgerald 180).

Two important words are used to critique Gatsby’s dream, or more broadly, the American Dream. The first word, orgastic, has sexual connotations and pairs with this lustful desire Gatsby has for Daisy; she is his dream: she fascinates, entices, and overwhelms every part of his being. Likewise, the American Dream can become so consuming of an obsession that it takes on this euphoric or intoxicating appeal. The other crucial word is “recede”: as we pursue our version of the American Dream year after year, it doesn’t get any closer; it only “recedes” or moves farther and farther out of reach. Gatsby’s dream, personified in the green light, is the primary symbol of the novel and ties into Fitzgerald’s overwhelming critique of the American Dream throughout the novel.

Gatsby’s Car

Gatsby’s car has many roles throughout the novel, so much so, it could even be considered a secondary character. First, his car is used as a shuttle to bring people to his lavish parties; then, the car is used to impress Nick and convince him to do Gatsby a favor. Later in the novel, however, things take a dark turn. Tom forces himself into Gatsby’s car for their trip to the city. It is unclear why he does this other than to simply assert his own power over Gatsby. Finally, the car, driven by Daisy, murders Myrtle Wilson and is renamed the “Death Car”. A vivid picture of luxurious living with green leather interior and a bright yellowish gold paint job, Gatsby’s car is yet another failed attempt at reaching his American Dream through the accumulation of flashy and expensive things.

Wrapping Up 

Although a relatively brief read, Fitzgerald’s novel is jam-packed with rich opportunities for thematic analysis and tracking motifs and symbols. Drawing on the text For quick assignment ideas, check out our  200+ Great Gatsby review questions , and check out our pre-made chapter quizzes , designed to track your students’ reading progress and comprehension before moving on to a new section of the text.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby . Scribner, 2018.

Interested in a school license?​

Popular posts.

AP® Score Calculators

Simulate how different MCQ and FRQ scores translate into AP® scores

AP® Review Guides

The ultimate review guides for AP® subjects to help you plan and structure your prep.

Core Subject Review Guides

Review the most important topics in Physics and Algebra 1 .

SAT® Score Calculator

See how scores on each section impacts your overall SAT® score

ACT® Score Calculator

See how scores on each section impacts your overall ACT® score

Grammar Review Hub

Comprehensive review of grammar skills

AP® Posters

Download updated posters summarizing the main topics and structure for each AP® exam.

The Great Gatsby

F. scott fitzgerald, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The Roaring Twenties

F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term "Jazz Age" to describe the decade of decadence and prosperity that America enjoyed in the 1920s, which was also known as the Roaring Twenties. After World War I ended in 1918, the United States and much of the rest of the world experienced an enormous economic expansion. The surging economy turned the 1920s into a time of easy money, hard drinking (despite the Prohibition amendment to the Constitution), and…

The American Dream

The American Dream—that hard work can lead one from rags to riches—has been a core facet of American identity since its inception. Settlers came west to America from Europe seeking wealth and freedom. The pioneers headed west for the same reason. The Great Gatsby shows the tide turning east, as hordes flock to New York City seeking stock market fortunes. The Great Gatsby portrays this shift as a symbol of the American Dream's corruption. It's…

Class (Old Money, New Money, No Money)

The Great Gatsby portrays three different social classes: "old money" ( Tom and Daisy Buchanan ); "new money" ( Gatsby ); and a class that might be called "no money" ( George and Myrtle Wilson ). "Old money" families have fortunes dating from the 19th century or before, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility. The "new money" class made their…

Past and Future

Nick and Gatsby are continually troubled by time—the past haunts Gatsby and the future weighs down on Nick. When Nick tells Gatsby that you can't repeat the past, Gatsby says "Why of course you can!" Gatsby has dedicated his entire life to recapturing a golden, perfect past with Daisy . Gatsby believes that money can recreate the past. Fitzgerald describes Gatsby as "overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves." But…

The Great Gatsby

By f. scott fitzgerald, the great gatsby themes.

Honesty is does not seem to determine which characters are sympathetic and which are not in this novel in quite the same way that it does in others. Nick is able to admire Gatsby despite his knowledge of the man's illegal dealings and bootlegging. Ironically, it is the corrupt Daisy who takes pause at Gatsby's sordid past. Her indignation at his "dishonesty," however, is less moral than class-based. Her sense of why Gatsby should not behave in an immoral manner is based on what she expects from members of her milieu, rather than what she believes to be intrinsically right. The standards for honesty and morality seem to be dependent on class and gender in this novel. Tom finds his wife's infidelity intolerable, however, he does not hesitate to lie to her about his own affair.

Decay is a word that constantly comes up in The Great Gatsby , which is appropriate in a novel which centers around the death of the American Dream. Decay is most evident in the so-called "valley of ashes." With great virtuosity, Fitzgerald describes a barren wasteland which probably has little to do with the New York landscape and instead serves to comment on the downfall of American society. It seems that the American dream has been perverted, reversed. Gatsby lives in West Egg and Daisy in East Egg; therefore, Gatsby looks East with yearning, rather than West, the traditional direction of American frontier ambitions. Fitzgerald portrays the chauvinistic and racist Tom in a very negative light, clearly scoffing at his apocalyptic vision of the races intermarrying. Fitzgerald's implication seems to be that society has already decayed enough and requires no new twist.

Gender Roles

In some respects, Fitzgerald writes about gender roles in a quite conservative manner. In his novel, men work to earn money for the maintenance of the women. Men are dominant over women, especially in the case of Tom, who asserts his physical strength to subdue them. The only hint of a role reversal is in the pair of Nick and Jordan. Jordan's androgynous name and cool, collected style masculinize her more than any other female character. However, in the end, Nick does exert his dominance over her by ending the relationship. The women in the novel are an interesting group, because they do not divide into the traditional groups of Mary Magdalene and Madonna figures, instead, none of them are pure. Myrtle is the most obviously sensual, but the fact that Jordan and Daisy wear white dresses only highlights their corruption.

Violence is a key theme in The Great Gatsby, and is most embodied by the character of Tom. An ex-football player, he uses his immense physical strength to intimidate those around him. When Myrtle taunts him with his wife's name, he strikes her across the face. The other source of violence in the novel besides Tom are cars. A new commodity at the time that The Great Gatsby was published, Fitzgerald uses cars to symbolize the dangers of modernity and the dangers of wealth. The climax of the novel, the accident that kills Myrtle, is foreshadowed by the conversation between Nick and Jordan about how bad driving can cause explosive violence. The end of the novel, of course, consists of violence against Gatsby. The choice of handgun as a weapon suggests Gatsby's shady past, but it is symbolic that it is his love affair, not his business life, that kills Gatsby in the end.

Class is an unusual theme for an American novel. It is more common to find references to it in European, especially British novels. However, the societies of East and West Egg are deeply divided by the difference between the noveau riche and the older moneyed families. Gatsby is aware of the existence of a class structure in America, because a true meritocracy would put him in touch with some of the finest people, but, as things stand, he is held at arm's length. Gatsby tries desperately to fake status, even buying British shirts and claiming to have attended Oxford in an attempt to justify his position in society. Ultimately, however, it is a class gulf that seperates Gatsby and Daisy, and cements the latter in her relationship to her husbad, who is from the same class as she is.

It is interesting that Fitzgerald chooses to use some religious tropes in a novel that focuses on the American Dream, a concept which leaves no room for religion save for the doctrine of individualism. The most obvious is the image of the "valley of ashes," which exemplifies America's moral state during the "Roaring Twenties." This wasteland is presided over by the empty eyes of an advertisement. Fitzgerald strongly implies that these are the eyes of God. This equation of religion with advertising and material gain are made even more terrifying by the fact that the eyes see nothing and can help no one (for example, this "God" can do nothing to prevent Myrtle or Gatsby's deaths).

World War I

Because The Great Gatsby is set in the Roaring Twenties, the topic of the Great War is unavoidable. The war was crucial to Gatsby's development, providing a brief period of social mobility which, Fitzgerald claims, quickly closed after the war. Gatsby only came into contact with a classy young debutante like Daisy as a result of the fact that he was a soldier and that no one could vouch for whether he was upper-class or not. The war provided him with further opportunities to see the world, and make some money in the service of a millionaire. Gatsby's opportunities closed up after the end of the war, however, when he found upon returning to America that the social structure there was every bit as rigid as it was in Europe. Unable to convince anyone that he is truly upper-class (although his participation in the war gave him some leeway about lying), Gatsby finds himself unable to break into East Egg society.

The Great Gatsby Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Great Gatsby is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What are some quotes in chapter 1 of the great gatsby that show the theme of violence?

I don't recall any violence in in chapter 1.

the most significant men in daisy Buchanan's life are Tom and Gatsby. compare and contrast the two men and include a discussion about what Daisy finds attractive in each.

Tom is a philandering brute. He doesn't treat Daisy well but affords her a rich lifestyle that comes from old money (money inherited through generations). Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy. He puts Daisy on a pedestal and sees her as a goddess. His...

What is your question here?

Study Guide for The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is typically considered F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest novel. The Great Gatsby study guide contains a biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Great Gatsby
• The Great Gatsby Summary
• The Great Gatsby Video
• Character List

Essays for The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

• Foreshadowing Destiny
• The Eulogy of a Dream
• Materialism Portrayed By Cars in The Great Gatsby
• Role of Narration in The Great Gatsby
• A Great American Dream

Lesson Plan for The Great Gatsby

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Great Gatsby
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Great Gatsby Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Great Gatsby

• Introduction
• Historical and biographical context
• Plot summary
• Major characters
• Writing and production

• My presentations

Auth with social network:

Download presentation

We think you have liked this presentation. If you wish to download it, please recommend it to your friends in any social system. Share buttons are a little bit lower. Thank you!

Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Themes of The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Published by Oswin Dalton Modified over 8 years ago

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "Themes of The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald."— Presentation transcript:

Gatsby Jeopardy.

Form, Time and Sight The Great Gatsby. Fitzgeralds Chapter Structure Chapter 1 and 2: – Dinner party at the Buchanans – Party with Myrtle and McKees –

F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby About the Author Born-September 24, 1896 Born-September 24, 1896 Died-December 21, 1940 Died-December 21, 1940.

Symbolism in The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby. Background Born in St. Paul, Minnesota The dominant influences on F. Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration, literature,

“CATCH- PHRASE!” …(or something like it) A review exercise of: THE GREAT GATSBY.

Symbolism in The Great Gatsby English 3 Mrs. Kinney.

The Great Gatsby Review Game

The Great Gatsby Literary Notes – Symbols. Symbols the green light the green light Gatsby’s hope to recapture the past. Gatsby’s hope to recapture the.

Themes The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920’s

The Great Gatsby Take Notes. Background Discussion  Prohibition  Speakeasies and Bootlegging  The Jazz Age  Suffragette Movement and Sexual Freedom.

The Great Gatsby Symbols.

Motif: A unifying element in an artistic work, especially any recurrent image, symbol, theme, character type, subject, or narrative detail. A given motif.

The Great Gatsby Important Facts, Characters, Themes, History.

Instructions for using this template. Remember this is Jeopardy, so where I have written “Answer” this is the prompt the students will see, and where.

F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Setting: Summer of 1922 on Long Island and in New York City  Point of view: First and Third person  Narrator: Nick Carraway 

Gatsby Guided Questions

Images and Motifs in The Great Gatsby

The great gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald.

About project

© 2024 SlidePlayer.com Inc. All rights reserved.

Character Descriptions

The Great Gatsby

Narrator and Protagonist

• Nick Carroway – the narrator of the novel – Nick is from Minnesota, and after graduating from Yale and fighting in WW I, he goes to NYC to learn the bond business. He is honest, tolerant, and typically reserves judgment. Nick often serves as a confidant for people with troubling secrets. After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of Long Island (home to the newly rich), Nick quickly befriends his neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby (James Gatz). As Daisy Buchanan’s cousin, he facilitates the rekindling of the romance between her and Gatsby. The story is told entirely through Nick’s eyes.
• Jay Gatsby – He is the title character and protagonist of the novel. Gatsby is a fabulously wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg. He is famous for lavish parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where he comes from, what he does, or how he made his fortune. (He actually made his fortune through criminal activity) He will do anything to win Daisy, and he feels that money and social position are the keys. Nick views him as flawed, dishonest, vulgar, but “great” due to his optimism and power in transforming his dreams into reality.

The Buchanans

• Daisy Buchanan – She is Nick’s cousin, and the love of Gatsby’s life. Daisy is a beautiful woman who has been courted by many men before the war, including Gatsby. She fell in love with Gatsby and promised to wait for him; however, Daisy harbors a deep need to be loved, and when Tom Buchanan, a wealthy, powerful, young man, asked her to marry him, Daisy decided not to wait for Gatsby. Not a beautiful socialite, she lives across from Gatsby in East Egg, Long Island. She is sardonic and a little cynical. She behaves superficially to mask her pain from her husband’s infidelity.
• Tom Buchanan – He is Daisy’s extremely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick’s social club at Yale. Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers living up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. He has no qualms regarding his affair with Myrtle, but when he suspects Daisy, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation.

Minor Characters

• Myrtle Wilson – She is Tom’s lover. Her husband, George, owns a run-down garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle desperately wants to improve her situation; unfortunately, she chooses Tom, who treats her as a mere object of his desire.
• George Wilson – Myrtle’s husband, who owns the run-down garage. He idealizes Myrtle, and he is devastated by her affair with Tom. He can be compared to Gatsby in that they both are dreamers ruined by unrequited love.
• Jordan Baker - love interest for Nick, friends with Daisy and women’s golf pro
• Klipspringer – a freeloader living with Gatsby (symbolic)
• Owl Eyes - makes insights about Gatsby (Symbolic)

Character Images - Nick Carroway

Character Images - Jay Gatsby

Character Images - Daisy Buchanan

Character Images - Tom Buchanan

Character Images - Myrtle Wilson

Character Images - George Wilson

Character Images - Jordan Baker

Character Images - Kilpspringer and Owl Eyes

Free PowerPoint Templates and Google Slides Themes

Free templates for your stunning presentation

Gatsby Pattern Presentation Template

Gatsby pattern free presentation template – google slides theme and powerpoint template.

Gatsby Pattern Free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme – presentation by PPTMON

This Pitch Deck has a very classic and elegant design. For example, the background is mainly gold and black, including geometric patterns to create a harmonious contrast. In addition, the black background further enhances the elegance and, with the help of other graphic elements, the presentation will always shine. So if you believe that classic style never goes out of style, this template is for you. Get a fancy message with this free presentation template. You can edit it in minutes with Google Slides or Powerpoint. This template is a multipurpose presentation, so the content and message is up to you.

Gatsby Pattern – This Presentation template and theme makes it easy to create professional PowerPoint and Google Slides.

We want to help you save time by using our free presentation background design to create more meaningful presentations.

With this free presentation design template, you’ll going to be very popular do you hear that it’s people clapping at your fabulous presentation.

PPTMON Presentation Templates Features : Free Google Slides theme and PowerPoint template

• Fully editable and easy to edit
• 25 unique slides
• Contain editable graphics and maps
• Templates designed to be used in Google Slides and PowerPoint
• 16:9 widescreen format suitable for all types of screens
• Minimal and corporate design that works with any accent color.
• Feature-rich theme with examples of styles for graphs, charts and tables

Keep up to date on the latest content

You can also find me and ask any doubt at : facebook | twitter | pinterest | behance

You may also like : Multi-purpose Google Slides theme and PowerPoint templates

• Use as Google Slides theme
• Download as PowerPoint template

Home » Gatsby Pattern Presentation Template

• All Templates
• Multi-purpose
• Design IDEA
• Infographic
• Red Tone Templates
• Yellow Tone Templates
• Green Tone Templates
• Blue Tone Templates
• Purple Tone Templates
• Pastel Tone Templates
• Vivid Tone Templates
• Grayscale Tone Templates

Related presentation templates

Elegant Floral Wedding Invitation

Elegant Floral Wedding Invitation Presentation Design for Free Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates ...

Elegant Graduation Invitation

Elegant Graduation Invitation Presentation Design for Free Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates Elegant ...

Aesthetic Sticky Notes

Aesthetic Sticky Notes Presentation Design for Free Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates Aesthetic Sticky ...

Business Project Management

Business Project Management Presentation Design for Free Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates Business ...

Elegant Natural Black Marble

Elegant Natural Black Marble Presentation Design for Free Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates Elegant ...

Galaxy Cloud Nebula

Galaxy Cloud Nebula Presentation Design for Free Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates Galaxy Cloud Nebula ...

Greenery Floral Wedding Invitation

Greenery Floral Wedding Invitation Presentation Design for Free Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates ...

Watercolor Company Profile

Watercolor Company Profile Presentation Design for Free Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates Watercolor ...

Celebrate Mother’s Day

Celebrate Mother’s Day Presentation Design for Free Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates Celebrate ...

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Themes in The Great Gatsby , A Presentation Prepared by Fahmida Sharmin

Related Papers

Stephen L. Gardner

The American dream that excludes inequality among people through individual endeavor and merit has faced varied human flaws after World War I. Equal opportunity, egalitarianism, inclusiveness and social mass progress have been replaced by cynicism, selfishness, sexism, racism, disappointment, and easy money. Should the principles of the dream incite the use of corruption and fraudulous ways to reach a successful goal? Or should the upper class members prevent the other class from emerging in freedom and abide by the dream’s principles? This article observes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of the American characters in his novel The Great Gatsby. The partition of the characters of that novel into aristocrats and workers reveals the variation of the disruption of the American moral values due to increase in material. If the gap between the working class and the upper class keeps widening, the American dream would keep fading.

I have learned this, at least, from my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854. Cited in Jim Cullen, 2003 The

Natascha Ewert

In this essay, I've analysed the role and representation of the female characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's work: Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Myrtle Wilson. Why these three women embody the concept of the American Dream is also one of the main research questions.

The Journal of Men's Studies

Maggie Gordon Froehlich

This essay examines relationships between men and the role patriarchal capitalism plays in the construction of sexuality in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby(1925), a novel written during a critical period in the history of sexuality, as well as of gay and lesbian history. The ambivalence about male bonds—in particular the simultaneously loving and abusive dynamics of mentoring—depicted in this canonical work of American literature reveals the author's unease about his relationship with Catholic priest and teacher Sigourney Fay and provides insight into the author's well-known lifelong anxiety about his gender and sexuality.

Azhin Namiq

Intro The lexical deviation and word connotations are mainly used for characterization and theme revelation. In terms of the syntactical aspects, narrative sentence type and the contrast of registers are employed, and the author's sentence endings with elaborate appositions and prepositional phrases provide an effective way to describe the surroundings and evoke moods, serving to generate suspense as well as to create interest and expectation on the part of the reader. Abstract —The thesis tries to adopt the method used by Leech and Short in their book Style in Fiction to make a relatively overall and objective analysis of the novel's language from the context category. From the context perspective, point of view and modes of speech presentation are used to produce special stylistic effects. In the category of point of view, the author makes use of both limited first-person witness perspective and shifts of narrative perspective-the adoption of these narrative techniques is closely related to the theme of the novel. Modes of speech presentation in the novel, which involve

Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever shrewd men . . . because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard jaunty body.-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (63)Nearly every early twentieth-century American social bias is represented in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925). We see such bias in narrator Nick Carraway's ruminations on class and on women, in the rumors of criminality surrounding the newly rich Jay Gatsby, and, most explicitly, in the racism, classism, anti-Semitism, and anti-immigrant sentiment espoused by Tom Buchanan, whose wealth, race, and gender position him as the voice of the dominant ideology. Tom's reading of &...

REBECA GUALBERTO VALVERDE

This article aims to reassess F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby (1925), taking into consideration the myth-critical hypotheses of philosopher René Girard. Specifically, this essay will analyse the concepts of mimetic desire, resentment and reprisal violence as emotional components of myth, paying close attention to how the reinterpreted mythical pattern of the novel influences the depiction of such emotions as social traits of corruption. Finally, this article will challenge interpretations that have regarded Gatsby as a successful scapegoat-figure, examining instead how the mythical meanings and structures of the text stage an emotional crisis of frustrated desire and antagonism that ultimately offers no hope of communal restoration.

Malaysian Journal of Languages and Linguistics (MJLL)

lale Massiha

The Great Gatsby, as the icon of 20th century American Novel generated a wide range of criticism and reactions, since its publication in 1925. J Gatsby is believed to be an undeniably true American following his American dream.He strongly believes in his success by employing all the means he owns. This is the force behind Gatsby's strong but blind belief in the fantasy of his ideally sketched future. Although he achieves his dream of financial success hetragically falls. Any classic tragic fall, definitely, claims a tragic hero guilty of a tragic flaw. Psychoanalytic studies have been conducted to identify the inner causes of this fall related to the lack of family, secured social position andhis desires. This paper, however, attempts to bring the external destructive agents of this modern tragic hero into the spotlight. The opportunity to earn wealth, to construct a fake social identity and to believe that the impossible ispossible pushes him down the hill. And that is nothing ...

Joseph Vogel

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

RELATED PAPERS

Hyeheon (Hannah) Seo

Marcos Antonio Norris

Fahmida Chowdhury

tom cousineau

Türkiye İletişim Araştırmaları Dergisi

Rose MacLean

Amaltea. Revista de mitocrítica

Buletin Al-Turas

Hasnul I Djohar

English Journal

Michael Macaluso

Marketing Theory

Andrea Davies

Nasrum Nasrum

Celine Tung

Shama Rangwala

H A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF AVT UNDER SKOPOS THEORY

Refika Z U H A L VURAL

Greg Forter

Gaurav Thakarar

Vitis: Journal of Grapevine Research

Nasser Abbaspour

Joshua Phillip

Loiva Salete Vogt

Chung Chin-Yi

Arkaprabha Chakraborty

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• Preferences

Themes of The Great Gatsby - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Themes of The Great Gatsby

Themes of the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald the decline of the american dream in the 1920s the disintegration of the american dream in an era of prosperity and ... – powerpoint ppt presentation.

• By F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The disintegration of the American Dream in an era of prosperity and material excess
• Unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals
• Americans who fought in the War, disillusioned
• New Wealth scorned by old wealth
• Rich industrialists, speculators and bootleggers vs. old wealth
• American Dreamdiscovery, individualism and pursuit of happiness
• 1920s, as portrayed in The Great Gatsby, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dreamon East Coast
• Gatsbys dream of loving Daisy is ruined by social class status
• He needs to resort to crime to impress her
• She needs rampant materialism to support her lifestyle
• The Past holds something that both Gatsby and Nick long for
• A simpler, better, nobler time
• Tom, Daisy and Jordan are creatures of the presentso attractive, but so rootless and spiritually empty
• East Eggold aristocracy
• West Eggnewly rich, vulgar, ostentatious and lacking social graces and taste
• Gatsbyornate mansion, pink suit, Rolls-Royce, but does not pick up on the insincerity of the Sloanes invitation to lunch
• Old aristocracygrace, taste, elegance epitomized by the Buchanans tasteful home, flowing white dresses
• Old aristocracylack heartcareless, inconsiderate bullies dont worry about hurting others
• The Buchanans purchase a new house at the end fickle and uncaring
• West EggersGatsby, sincere and loyal heart
• The Great Gatsby, a story of Nicks initiation into life
• Trip East gives him the education he needs to grow up
• He hits 30, he realizes his youth is over, and he needs to reevaluate his choices
• Nick, writes The Great Gatsby to show us what he learned
• The I of the novel becomes ourselves, and we, like Nick, wonder who Gatsby is
• By writing from limited first person point of view, gives it an air of realism
• We find out more about Gatsby because Nick does
• We care about Gatsby because Nick does
• Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the texts major themes
• Geographyplaces and settings epitomize aspects of the 1920s American society
• Weatherthe weather in the novel matches the emotional and narrative tone of the story
• Rain (melancholy), sun (love reawakens), hottest day (confrontation)
• The Green Light
• The Valley of Ashes
• The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg--?

PowerShow.com is a leading presentation sharing website. It has millions of presentations already uploaded and available with 1,000s more being uploaded by its users every day. Whatever your area of interest, here you’ll be able to find and view presentations you’ll love and possibly download. And, best of all, it is completely free and easy to use.

You might even have a presentation you’d like to share with others. If so, just upload it to PowerShow.com. We’ll convert it to an HTML5 slideshow that includes all the media types you’ve already added: audio, video, music, pictures, animations and transition effects. Then you can share it with your target audience as well as PowerShow.com’s millions of monthly visitors. And, again, it’s all free.

About the Developers

PowerShow.com is brought to you by  CrystalGraphics , the award-winning developer and market-leading publisher of rich-media enhancement products for presentations. Our product offerings include millions of PowerPoint templates, diagrams, animated 3D characters and more.

The Great Gatsby

Aug 01, 2014

400 likes | 1.51k Views

The Great Gatsby . Chapter 1 By: Rebecca, Shayne & Kesley. Summary. The narrator of The Great Gatsby is Nick Carraway whom he is also casted as the book’s author.

Share Presentation

• physical specimen
• competitive golf player
• irresistibly seductive
• criminal activity
• stark contrast

Presentation Transcript

The Great Gatsby • Chapter 1 • By: Rebecca, Shayne & Kesley

Summary • The narrator of The Great Gatsby is Nick Carraway whom he is also casted as the book’s author. • The chapter begins with Nick commenting on himself, saying that he had learned to reserve judgement about other people from his father because if he holds them to his own moral standards, he would misunderstand them. • In the summer of 1922, Nick had just arrived in New York to join in the bond business and he had also rented a house on West Egg. • He also introduces West Egg as home to the “new rich” and the East Egg as home to the “old rich”. • Nick graduated from Yale and has many connections on East Egg.

Summary • One night, he drives out to East Egg to have dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom Buchanan. • Upon arriving, Tom greets Nick on the porch. Inside, Daisy lies on a couch with her friend, Jordan who is a competitive golf player. • Tom tries to interest the others in a book called The Rise Of The Colored Empires which expresses racism. • Tom was interrupted with an incoming phone call from his lover from New York. Daisy hurriedly follows him. • After an awkward dinner, Jordan goes to sleep and Tom and Daisy hint that they would like for Nick to take a romantic interest in Jordan. • When Nick arrives at his home in West Egg, he sees Gatsby, whom he did not know who he was yet, stretching his arms towards the green light at the end of a dock.

Characters in Chapter 1 • Nick • Gatsby • Tom • Jordan • Daisy

Nick Carraway • He is the narrator of the book. Nick is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. • Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a confidant for those with troubling secrets. • After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of Long Island that is home to the newly rich, Nick quickly befriends his next-door neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is told entirely through Nick’s eyes; his thoughts and perceptions shape and color the story.

Jay Gatsby • The title character and protagonist of the novel, Gatsby is a fabulously wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg. • He is famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where he comes from, what he does, or how he made his fortune. • As the novel progresses, Nick learns that Gatsby was born James Gatz on a farm in North Dakota; working for a millionaire made him dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth. When he met Daisy while training to be an officer in Louisville, he fell in love with her. • Nick also learns that Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain the social position he thought necessary to win Daisy.

Tom Buchanan • Daisy’s immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick’s social club at Yale. • Powerfully built and hailing from a socially solid old family, Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. • He also has no moral second thoughts about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle, but when he begins to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation.

Jordan Baker • Daisy’s friend, a woman with whom Nick becomes romantically involved during the course of the novel. • A competitive golfer, Jordan represents one of the “new women” of the 1920s—cynical, boyish, and self-centered. • Jordan is beautiful, but also dishonest: she cheated in order to win her first golf tournament and continually bends the truth.

Daisy Faye • Daisy stands in stark contrast to her husband, Tom. She is a very frail and diminutive person that labors at being shallow and laughs at every opportunity. • Though she breezily remarks that everything is in decline, she does so only in order to seem to agree with her husband. • As a young woman in Louisville before the war, Daisy was courted by a number of officers, including Gatsby. She fell in love with Gatsby and promised to wait for him. • However, Daisy harbors a deep need to be loved, and when a wealthy, powerful young man named Tom Buchanan asked her to marry him, Daisy decided not to wait for Gatsby after all. Now a beautiful socialite, Daisy lives with Tom across from Gatsby in the fashionable East Egg district of Long Island.

Themes • Violence • Violence is a key theme in The Great Gatsby and is mostly embodied by the character of Tom. As an ex-football player, he uses his immense physical strength to intimidate those around him. Tom Buchanan vulgarly exploits his status: he is grotesque, completely lacking redeeming features. Daisy describes him as a “big, hulking physical specimen,” and it is seen that he mainly uses his size to intimidate and dominate others.

Themes • Class • The societies of East and West Egg are deeply divided by the difference between the people who have “new money” and the people who have “old money”. Gatsby is “new money” which means he only recently began to earn his large sums of money. He tries desperately to fake status, even buying British shirts and claiming to have attended Oxford in an attempt to seem as if he is part of “old money”. Ultimately, it is class that separates Gatsby and Daisy, which cements Daisy’s relationship with her husband, Tom who is from the same class as she is.

3 Significant Quotes • “I hope she’ll be a fool - that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” • Daisy spoke these words as she describes to Nick and Jordan her hopes for her daughter. This quote reveals a glimpse into Daisy’s character. Daisy is not a fool herself but is the product of a social environment that does not value intelligence in women. She describes her own boredom with life and seems to imply that a girl can have more fun if she is beautiful and simplistic. She herself thinks that being a “beautiful fool” is what men expects of women and this is her mindset on how to get past tough situations. This is also an excuse for her to live a luxurious life as she expects Tom to provide for her.

3 Significant Quotes • “It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.” • This shows that Daisy’s voice can be described as being full, not just of money, but of promises. There’s something about the description of the voice that tells the listener/reader that wonderful things are on the horizon. Daisy’s voice is irresistibly seductive and all the other characters are drawn to her because of it.

3 Significant Quotes • “A single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” • The green light is a complex piece of symbolism in the book. The obvious reason is that the green light represents where Daisy is at and his longing for her. However, the green light means so much more, Daisy is just part of it. The green light represents all his wants in life which include: wealth, success, acceptance and Daisy. And no matter how much the wealth or materialistic possessions he has, he still never feels complete. Even with a large house full of people partying and seeking his attention, he still longs for Daisy. So to possess the green light, that is the ultimate combination he longs for.

Thoughts About The Chapter • The first chapter of The Great Gatsby gives an introduction to the narrator which is Nick and his personality in his point of view. • It also introduces the East and West Egg. • It makes the reader want to know more about Gatsby because of Fitzgerald’s mysterious portrayal of him towards the end of the chapter.

• More by User

The Great Gatsby. Chapter Six. Learning Intentions. Think about Gatsby’s transformation in this chapter and how it alters your perception of his character Understand the importance of the ‘Sloane’ incident and how it conveys some of the major themes

349 views • 17 slides

The Great Gatsby. Chapter 5. A date is set . Nick returns to his home at 2 am Gatsby’s house is all lit up Gatsby is uneasy. The offer . Gatsby offers Nick a chance to make some money Nick refuses It could have been a changing point in Nick’s life. Gatsby. A change Page 84

151 views • 13 slides

The Great Gatsby. Test Review. Who’s Who. This person believed in getting back the past. They believed in the green light. They threw large parties. Jay Gatsby. Who’s Who. This person played a sport professionally (golf) They were incurably dishonest according to Nick. Jordan Baker.

1.54k views • 97 slides

The Great Gatsby. Recurring Images. Recurring Images. Color. Eyes or Vision. Wasteland. Sunlight / Shadows. Death. Time. Gold. Chapter 1 The front was broken by a line of French windows , glowing now with reflected gold . . . . Chapter 5

556 views • 18 slides

The Great Gatsby. By F. Scott Fitzgerald Student Notes. F. Scott Fitzgerald. born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Intelligent child, he did poorly in school and was sent to a New Jersey boarding school Enrolled at Princeton in 1913

2.17k views • 95 slides

The Great Gatsby. Chapter 7. A couple of contextual asides:.

302 views • 9 slides

The Great Gatsby. The point of view is the first person, Nick Carraway’s . Nick is a reliable narrator. The reader

573 views • 19 slides

The Great Gatsby. Chapter Seven. Summary. Nick and Gatsby visit the Buchanans ’, where Jordan is also a guest, and meet Daisy. En route to the city, the group stops at George Wilson’s garage, and Wilson reveals that he and his wife are planning to go West.

446 views • 8 slides

The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Context AO4 – the ‘Roaring 20s’ The Roaring Twenties. The jazz age Flappers Prohibition Wealth and opulence of post WW1 America Growing consumerism/materialism Conspicuous consumption Mass culture American Dream Naturalism Social inequality .

1.19k views • 12 slides

The Great Gatsby . Review of The American Dream, Symbols Chapter 5 Analysis April 2011. Review, The American Dream. Four Dreams of Consumerism??? Dream of Abundance – material goods, rich country Dream of a Democracy of Goods – access to same products

361 views • 11 slides

The Great Gatsby. Chapter Two. The valley of ashes was the narrow channel through which the railroad traveller had to pass on his way between New York City and the resort villages of East and West Egg on the North Shore of Long Island.

354 views • 17 slides

3003.8.1 –I can identify characteristics of the Modern and Contemporary Period . 3003.8.3 —I can determine how the conflict in Gatsby impacts the characters . 3003.8.5 —I can analyze characters to determine their roles/functions in Gatsby .

537 views • 28 slides

The great gatsby

The great gatsby. Practice Quiz # 1 Click anywhere to continue. Where is nick’s home located?. Brooklyn West Egg Park Avenue East Egg. Drats !. That is incorrect! Click here to return. Atta’boy !. Good job! Click here to continue.

460 views • 29 slides

The Great Gatsby:

The Great Gatsby:. The 1920s and the American Dream. A Quick Introduction…. The 20’s: an age of transition. World War I and After

579 views • 43 slides

The Great Gatsby. Novel Analysis By Emily White Kathy Saunders AP English Literature April 9, 2014. Author. F Scott Fitzgerald Born in St. paul , Minnesota in 1896 The Great Gatsby is his 3 rd book Not a great student Attended Princeton University (1913)

474 views • 12 slides

The Great Gatsby. Symbols. The Green Light. Everyone has something that they long and search for that is just off in the distance. That is the green light. Literally, green means “go” (traffic light). It give Gatsby the “go ahead” to pursue his dream of Daisy. The eyes of T.J. Eckleburg.

536 views • 21 slides

The Great Gatsby . F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald (1896-1940). F. Scott Fitzgerald is named for Francis Scott Key (wrote Star Spangled Banner), a distant relative. He married Zelda Sayre.

486 views • 23 slides

The Great Gatsby. Character Study of Tom. Quote One. “I had no sight into Daisy’s heart, but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game”. Quote Two.

270 views • 6 slides

THE GREAT GATSBY

THE GREAT GATSBY. ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS. JAY GATSBY. Ambitious Determined Corrupt Material/interested in wealth & possessions Illusive (not real, although seeming to be) Single-minded Loyal. NICK CARRAWAY. Thoughtful/reflective Tolerant Biased Conflicted:. DAISY BUCHANAN.

302 views • 5 slides

The Great Gatsby. March 2011. Take Introduction and Chapter 1 quiz over The Great Gatsby. Do Now. Understanding Chapter 1 Introduction to major themes and symbols . Objectives. The Great Gatsby, Chapter 2, pages 22 - 38. Homework.

557 views • 13 slides

The Great Gatsby . By F. Scott Fitzgerald. Key Vocab. Setting : New York, 1922 Mood : Innocent, Euphoric, Foreboding, Dark Protagonist : Nick Carraway Main Characters : Jay Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchannan, Jordan Baker, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. Summary.

400 views • 9 slides

The Great Gatsby. FAKEBOOK. Your Task…. As you will read in The Great Gatsby , there were many extravagant parties thrown on Long Island in the 1920s.  Imagine if you were one of the guests of Mr. Gatsby. What would your life be like?

392 views • 3 slides