The Great Gatsby: Themes.

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Gatsby Themes In the 1920's the concepts of materialism, carelessness, and hypocrisy were clearly relevant. Due to prohibition there was illicit buying and selling of alcohol as well as women displaying new-aged defiance. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, all three of these traits are illustrated in a plethora of instances throughout the novel. When Nick Carraway moved to West Egg, materialism, carelessness, and hypocrisy were apparent in the majority of the people he met. Therefore, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses this novel to demonstrate the three themes. When someone is preoccupied with material items that person is materialistic. Almost all of Fitzgerald's characters are endowed with materialism. Daisy Buchanan displays this when she is at Gatsby’s house and begins to cry,” ‘It’s the shirts.' she sobbed, 'it makes me sad because I've never seen such beautiful shirts'"(Fitzgerald 92). This demonstrates the materialism of Daisy because when she discovered Gatsby was wealthier than she and Tom, her 'love' shifted back to Gatsby. If she had loved with her heart instead of her need for riches, the wealth of Gatsby would make no difference to her. The inhabitants of the fictitious West Egg present themselves as very careless people. When Jordan Baker is driving with Nick Carraway, Nick, "protests '[Jordan is] a rotten driver... ought to be more careful or oughtn't drive at all' Jordan replies lightly, 'other people are careful. They'll stay out of my way... it takes two to make an accident"(Fitzgerald 58). This illustrates the carelessness of Jordan and that she depends on others to insure her safety. Jordan displays how she makes no effort to care about anything or anyone and she sees nothing wrong with that. Acting in or speaking in a way that contradicts what a character has said previously is hypocritical. In the opening chapter of the
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