Motifs In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Motif Essay The roaring 20’s, an age of complete corruption and loss of morality. The Great Gatsby, the famous American novel which highlights bad character written by F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes unconscious acts by the use of motifs. Fitzgerald connects the motifs of Adultery;lying;carelessness;cars to send the message that everyone needs a conscious. The recurring motifs of adultery and lying illustrates Fitzgerald’s message to the reader that everyone needs a conscience and that these acts only lead to corruption. Miss Baker informs Nick that “Tom’s got some woman in New York” revealing that Tom is having an affair (Fitzgerald 15). Tom’s act of adultery against his wife is a clear indication that he is in need of a conscious. When Myrtle …show more content…

Tom is carrying out an affair and his mistress, Myrtle, is living a double ego of not only cheating on her husband, but being careless enough to pretend to be at a higher standard than others of the lower class as herself. The common motif of carelessness highlights Fitzgerald’s message that everyone needs a conscience to maintain real friendships. Gatsby throws parties allowing complete strangers into his mansion who “pay him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing” about him (Fitzgerald 61). Guests came and went without “having met Gatsby” at all (Fitzgerald 41). Gatsby generously offered his very large home and various hospitalities to people who never even gave the effort of actually getting to know him. None of those guests were attending Gatsby’s parties to be his Chau2 friend. These party goers of Gatsby are going to his home and behaving in an unmannerly fashion. When all of Gatsby’s cars and various luxuries go away, so does his party guests. The repeated motif of cars links to Fitzgerald’s insight that everyone needs conscience in order to not reveal one’s poor qualities. Tom was caught with “one of the chambermaids” when they were in an automobile accident in Santa Barbara (Fitzgerald 77). If Tom wasn’t in