Two Themes In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Alex Rapp
Mrs. Strand
Second block
19 May 2023

The Great Gatsby Two Themes Analysis The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a tale of the upper class of New York in the 1920’s. It puts on display the people’s chasing of their dreams, the upper class’s hopeless hollowness, and the dichotomy of wanting for the past, yet moving ever farther away into the future. Throughout the story Fitzgerald repeatedly plays upon the idea of the American dream and its implications bringing about the idea that each and every person has their own goals and dreams that they shall chase forever, and never truly reach. His novel also brings about an obvious showing of how the past was great in all its glory, but we can never return to that past and must push

His being a central character and the focal point of the story makes this evident. Gatsby’s dream is the most obvious to see as it is his life with Daisy that he strives towards. His dream is first hinted at with the symbol that is the green light when Fitzgerald says, “[Gatsby] stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.”(Fitzgerald 26). This quote references his love of Daisy and how he is so close he can see it but will never reach it, as is finalized by his end. His end of being killed by Wilson for attempting to cover for Daisy is the perfect way to show that his dream could never be realized. This evidence proves that within the novel The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, the idea that people each have their own dreams that they chase and that these dreams are almost never realized, as all they are is dreams, something to strive for, not to

Fitzgerald seemed to believe that people wishing for the past was a hindrance to their dreams, however, it is a thought that each and every person has. One instance where he shows Gatsby’s inability to let go of his past is when Gatsby says, “‘Can’t repeat the past?’.... ‘Why of course you can!’”(Fitzgerald 116). This is the point where Fitzgerald shows openly that Gatsby is stuck in his past with Daisy and is hopelessly trapped by it. This trap eventually leads to his doom and proves the idea that we must stay out of the past if we wish to not ruin the present and future. Fitzgerald drives this point home with his final words in the novel, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”(Fitzgerald 189). These powerful words allude to the idea that all people are striving for the glory of the past but that the current of time is keeping them from reaching it. This analogy perfectly sums up his idea that people must not be stuck in the past, even though they often are. These ideas prove that the theme that the glory of the past must not occupy our minds if we wish to have a good present and great future is prevalent throughout the novel The Great