One of the most important themes in F. Scott Fritzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, is the theme of the American dream. The American dream can be defined as someone who becomes happy and successful in life through hard work. Fritzgerald uses this theme to show how the American dream can fail. Although Gatsby became rich, he did it through illegal practices, the practice of prohibition. He did this because he thought he would be able to win the love of Daisy Buchanan. Unfortunately, his American dream only failed due to his obliviousness to the faces of reality. The reality of realizing that his money will never be the same compared to the Buchanans who were actually born in the American dream. Aside from Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson is also another person trying to achieve the American dream. Her desperation to reach that goal goes to the extent that she would cheat on her husband with Tom so she would be able to receive all the material items that rich people would have. She likes to act as if she belongs to the upper-class. However, it is obvious that she can never be part of the upper-class such as when Tom punches her in the face for mentioning Daisy's name. Tom shows that just because she's dress like she's rich, it doesn't mean that she's actually rich which means that she has no right to speak about them in vain. Tom shows that he is much superior than her and will always be.
A motif in this novel is the color green. The color green is seen through money and the green light on the dock.Green money represents the people's desire to attain wealth which is also the American dream. The green light represents Gatsby's dream-Daisy. He uses that green light to watch Daisy on her dock. He would always admire her whenever he saw her.
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