The Great Gatsby Theme – Money
Gatsby’s natural talents, fearlessness, and agile mind allowed him to get unbelievably rich. Just like the author himself, he didn’t know what to do with his funds. He earned them through illegal ways of selling alcohol when it was prohibited to do so.
The author speaks very little about the way the protagonist made his fortune. Crime, however is not one of The Great Gatsby themes. At least not in the classical interpretation of the book. The wealth itself and the prosperity it brings is all over The Great Gatsby themes: one way or another Gatsby made it in life and the reader is overwhelmed with the descriptions of his huge villa, yachts, expensive cars, luxurious interior designs, amazing parties. Life is easy for those who are rich and those who are lucky enough to know them.
Love is often noticed as one of the main themes in The Great Gatsby. Love for another person and love for money. It’s important to say that in order to get close to Daisy, Jay (who was Jimmy at that time) has to lie to her. She was a young beautiful girl popular among the officers and in order to prove that he’s worthy of her, Gatsby lied about his origins and financial standing. Love, money, and lies are all intermingled throughout the book.
Aristocracy is also a theme of The Great Gatsby. Here we discover the upper class of America from their downsided viewpoint. The bourgeoisie built their life on cold calculations of cost vs. benefits. They are simply curious about other people’s money and worship whoever has more.
Gatsby’s surroundings don’t care about the origins of his money. They do think he might be a criminal to spend so much money on other people, but it doesn’t bother them much and the number of party guests keeps growing.
Another Gatsby theme is the American dream. With a not-so-happy ending, Gatsby still achieved what he wanted in life through hard work. He was a poor farmer’s son who made a lot of noise in the busiest city in the country – this is one of the more dominant themes of The Great Gatsby and many other American books of the 20th century.
