Literary Analysis of The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby Literary Analysis Introduction The essential story of F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby seems simple enough. Meanwhile, when asked exactly why readers enjoy the novel and what makes it work, they usually realize that it is a very complex book that means much more than it seems at the first glance. American Dream in the Great Gatsby The novel has a perfect unity of effect: every image, character, symbol, and turn of the plot contributes to the theme and to the feeling a reader carries away from reading it. The major themes of the novel include class and status in society, true feelings, loyalty and the American Dream. However, exactly the theme of the loss of morality in America of that time, when the true values were replaced by the false ones, occurs throughout the novel and provokes much thinking. The author shows how poor morality has turned the American Dream, one of the finest fruits of the Western culture, into the dead materialism. Additionally, Gatsbys life and death show that if the values are false, they will finally destroy individuals no matter how innocently and wholeheartedly they pursue their goal.