Appearance Vs Reality In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby has been described as being “known for its themes relating to love, loss, and social mobility… which transports the readers back to the Roaring Twenties” (Themes and Construction GG 1). The Great Gatsby takes place in the midst of the roaring twenties which was a time period known for its lavish parties and economic prosperity for most people. The novel is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway and his encounters with the ‘Great’ Gatsby. In Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the themes of appearance versus reality and the American dream to tell a riveting story of love, loss, and social mobility. One of the major themes in The Great Gatsby is the difference between appearances and reality.

reality relates to Gatsby in another way, in that Gatsby couldn’t see that there was no true love between him and Daisy. The article Themes and Construction: The Great Gatsby highlights this exquisitely by saying, “Since there is no real love between Gatsby and Daisy in The Great Gatsby, there is no real truth to Gatsby’s vision” (Themes and Construction GG 1). The vision that the statement is referring to is Gatsby’s dream that he and Daisy would end up together after all the years they had been apart, even after Daisy had already gotten married to someone different. The idea that there is no love between Gatsby and Daisy goes hand in hand with the appearances and reality theme. From what it appears in the story Daisy is into getting back with Gatsby, but when it came down to it she did not. The other major theme used in The Great Gatsby is the American dream. The American dream is explained by the author of A Note on Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby David Trask when Trask says, “The American dream consisted of the belief (sometimes thought of as a promise) that people of talent in this land of opportunity and plenty could reasonably aspire to material success if they adhered to a fairly well-defined set of behavioral rules…” (Trask