'The Great Gatsby' by F.Scott Fitzgerald.

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‘The Great Gatsby’ by F.Scott Fitzgerald, is about the lives of a high-class society during the 1920’s Jazz Age.  The story is focused around people striving to achieve their American Dream, whether through; love, materialism, wealth or power, to try and make their lives complete. (QUESTION) helped me to appreciate two important aspects of the text – theme and symbolism.

The main theme in the book was the sought after American Dream.  This was particularly true of the main character Gatsby.  He returned from war to find his first love – Daisy – had married Tom Buchanan who was in a higher-class of society compared to Gatsby.  For Gatsby, the dream was that through gaining wealth and power, one can acquire happiness.  To get this happiness, Gatsby had to reach into the past and relive his old dream – Daisy, and to do this he had to have wealth and power.  Gatsby spent countless years obtaining his fortune for one purpose only, to win back Daisy Buchanan.  He threw lavish parties but did not interact with his guests:

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“Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another.”

This quotation shows, that he was desperately seeking Daisy and threw his parties simply in the hope that she would come to one of them.  However, even after Gatsby achieved everything he wanted from his American Dream, he still was not happy – proving that power, materialism and wealth cannot make someone happy if they do not have it for the right reasons, which Gatsby didn’t – he did it for Daisy and after she left him for good, he had nothing to show ...

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