Great Gatsby Moral

The Great Gatsby is a modern classic of the early twentieth century, a novel which truly captured the luxurious atmosphere of the “Jazz Age.” It is a moniker given to the 1920’s which is suitable, as the spread of wealth led to a decade of glamor and decadence. Among the variations of the novel’s themes, the one moral that is evident and shadows over the rest of the “American Dream,” is the ideal that a person of any racial or financial background could start a new life in America and live in riches and wealth. The implementation of the “American Dream” in the novel seems to encircle the character of Jay Gatsby, as his background reveals him having grown up into a poor family of farmers who inhabited North Dakota. The novel portrays how Gatsby
A theme of The Great Gatsby which consistently makes an appearance throughout the entire novel is the idea of the “green light,” which can be seen discussed numerous times throughout the novel, such as when Nick states about Gatsby, “Distinguished nothing except a single green light,” (21). That “green light” was at the end of Daisy’s dock, which represented a small and green glimpse of hope which Jay Gatsby held on to despite the fact that all the odds were stacked against him, the glimmer of hope which compels a normal man to become an extraordinary man. Even the last sentence of the novel which describes a boat beating against the current, is a clear reference to the inaccuracy of the “American Dream” and the “green light,” and when the final impression of the novel revolves around a certain theme, then that theme is undoubtedly dominant and no other theme can surpass it in any measure. The themes and moralities that emphasize and legitimately represent The Great Gatsby are those morals which elaborate on the inaccuracies regarding the “American Dream” which Fitzgerald wrote of, the dark secrets of inequality and racial tensions of the 1920’s masked behind lovable characters and confrontations that regarded no inequality