Mixed Motifs In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Mixed Motifs in The Great Gatsby Imagine yourself pulling up to a huge mansion in a fancy car. There are bright lights shining on every surface, and people are packed in as tightly as sardines in a can. They are all dressed in metallic-colored dresses and vibrant suits. There are drinks being brought around, and there are also enormous amounts of food. Before you know it, the host of the party comes out. He has a girl on his arm, and he is closely followed by another man. You can see the other man talking to another woman.
As you mill about through the hoards of people, you see the man that was following the host start an argument with the host. They begin to pull at the woman that the host had draped on his arm. Eventually, the woman and

An example of the motif of lies/ illusion is given when Jordan says, “She’s not to know about it. Gatsby doesn’t want her to know. You’re just supposed to invite her to tea”. Not only does this show that Gatsby and Daisy are lying, but it also shows Nick’s willingness to lie on behalf of Gatsby. Before Daisy arrived at Nick’s cottage, Gatsby had ordered lots of flowers and cakes, and he did this to make the cottage seem like a fancy place instead of a humble home. This plays into the motif of lies/ illusion and the motif of materialism because Gatsby is creating an illusion by adding all this stuff into Nick’s home. It also provides an example of materialism because Gatsby thinks that Daisy wouldn’t enjoy the cottage otherwise, which makes her seem very materialistic, and Gatsby as well because it gives the implication that he thinks Nick’s home is inappropriate for other people to see, as well. These are not the only examples of these motifs in this book

One hot, summer afternoon, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Nick, and Jordan all drive into town to get a room at the Plaza. The motif of lies/ illusion is exemplified when Tom and Gatsby get into the heated argument. Gatsby claims “Your wife doesn’t love you. She’s never loved you. She loves me.” This quote proves that Daisy had been lying to her husband, and to Gatsby through all of this mess. She had constantly been telling Tom that she loved him, and she had been telling Gatsby that she hated her life and she wanted to leave Tom to be with him. This argument causes a lot of distress, tension, and unhappiness between all of the characters. The next events all lead to the examples of materialism in the falling action. The first example of materialism in the falling action is when Gatsby’s father shows up for the funeral and Nick observes something that his father did. “when he looked around him now for the first time and saw the height and splendor of the hall and the great rooms opening out from it into other rooms his grief began to be mixed with an awed pride”. This shows that even though Gatsby’s father was poor, he was still materialistic. His son had just been killed, and he allowed the material items and money that his son had, to distract him from the grief that he should have been experiencing over the loss of his son.