The Great Gatsby

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Recommended: Social classes in the Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby Besides being a great novel, The Great Gatsby is a very symbolic book, not to mention it's many themes and meanings. This paper will discuss three of the major themes as well as some of the symbols, and try to explain the ending of the book. One of the first themes that comes to mind when one reads this book is the theme of position. This includes class, wealth and social standing. It is apparent that position is a large factor in this novel and time period within the first few chapters of the book. Nick is a middle class mid-westerner who moves to West Egg. Gatsby is rich, but he is only "new money" and also lives in East Egg. There is a position that he strives for and he wil do almost anything to achieve this. The Buchanans and however live in West Egg and are "old money". Even though they may have less money than Gatsby they have a better social standing. East and West Egg , as well as the water that seperates it are symbols in this book which strenghten this theme. The water seperates East and West Egg and creates a barrier between them much like social standing and wealth creates a barrier for the charachters in this book. Another theme of the novel is the theme of carelessness. Nick refers to Jordan, Tom and Daisy as careless. They are careless people who do careless acts, they live an irresponsible lifestyle and consequence is only an after thought. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness..." One example of this carelessness is when Jordan is driving Nick through the city, and another is when Daisy and Gatsby don't stop after they kill Myrtle. Jordan and Tom also display carelessness when they flee the city after the murder. These people do not care about paying for their actions and basically do as they please. Tom and Daisy are a married couple yet Tom doesn't worry about cheating on Daisy and she has no real guilt about her relationship with Gatsby.Consequence is almost unheard of to these people. Nick points out the carelessness in the other charachters but Jordan tells the reader that Nick too can be just as careless and false as the rest of them . Nick acts intrested in Jordan at first and on occasion but the next day he'll completely ignore her, showing

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