The Great Gatsby Study Guide: Themes, Symbols, Character Analysis + Essay Topics

• Major themes (American Dream, class divide, obsession)
• Key symbols (green light, Valley of Ashes, Eckleburg’s eyes)
• Character analysis (Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, Tom, Myrtle)
• College-level essay topics + thesis starters you can adapt

Quick Facts: The Great Gatsby at a Glance

Major Themes in The Great Gatsby

The Death (or Collapse) of the American Dream

• Gatsby’s self-invention shows the Dream as performance (reinventing name, status, backstory).
• Gatsby’s end suggests that effort and wealth don’t equal belonging when social power is inherited.

Fitzgerald frames the American Dream as a fantasy built on image-making; Gatsby’s rise proves ambition is possible, but his fall shows social legitimacy is guarded by old money.

If you need help structuring this debate into a cohesive paper, reviewing the basics of how to write an argumentative essay can help you organize your claims effectively.

Old Money vs. New Money (Class Divide)

• East Egg (old money): inherited status, social “permission,” protected by reputation
• West Egg (new money): wealth without pedigree, constantly judged as “not quite”
• Valley of Ashes: labor and waste—the human cost of elite lifestyles

The novel suggests class is not a financial category but a cultural one: Gatsby’s wealth grants access to spectacle, not to the social authority that East Egg inherits.

Love vs. Obsession (Idealization)

• Gatsby clings to an imagined past and treats Daisy as proof that the dream is real.
• Daisy cannot (and does not) match Gatsby’s fantasy—creating inevitable disappointment.

Gatsby’s relationship to Daisy is fundamentally an act of idealization: he turns her into a symbol of the social world that once excluded him. By insisting she confirm a “perfect” past and fit his scripted future, Gatsby treats love as proof that self-invention has succeeded. The inevitable collapse comes from the gap between Daisy as a person and Daisy as an emblem of status.

Key Symbols Explained (With Essay-Ready Structure)

The Green Light (Meaning + Evidence + Essay Use)

• Early in the novel, Gatsby reaches toward the light—desire made physical.
• Later, the light becomes “just a light,” suggesting the dream collapses when confronted with reality.

• Claim: The green light symbolizes desire as distance.
• Evidence: Gatsby’s reaching gesture (early) + the later deflation (ending).
• Analysis: The dream survives only while it remains unattained.

The Valley of Ashes (Moral & Social Decay)

• It sits between Eggs and NYC: a literal “in-between” space showing who is sacrificed for elite comfort.
• Myrtle and George’s lives are shaped by this environment, contrasting with the carelessness of the rich.

The Valley of Ashes reveals that the novel’s glamour depends on a system that produces waste—material and human.

Dr. T.J. Eckleburg’s Eyes (God, Surveillance, or Emptiness?)

1. God/judgment (as George Wilson interprets it)
2. Modern surveillance (people watched but not saved)
3. Spiritual emptiness (a sign with no true moral authority)

Color Symbolism (Fast Evidence Bank)

• White: “innocence” that can be performative or false
• Gold/Yellow: wealth + corruption + moral rot
• Grey/Ash: lifelessness, exploitation, decay

Character Analysis: Motivations You Can Argue

Jay Gatsby

Gatsby represents the American Dream as aspiration turned into obsession: he can manufacture wealth, but not the social reality that wealth is supposed to secure.

Daisy Buchanan (“a beautiful little fool”)

• Daisy understands that gender and class reward beauty and compliance, not honesty.
• Her choices reveal survival logic: safety > truth.

Nick Carraway (Unreliable Narrator?)

• moral judgments
• selective sympathy
• shifting standards for different characters

Nick’s narration functions like a filter: the novel’s moral universe is shaped by what Nick notices, excuses, and condemns.

10 Strong Essay Topics + Thesis Starters (College-Level)

• Nick Carraway’s Bias: How does Nick shape Gatsby into a myth more than a man?
• Class as Culture (East Egg vs. West Egg): Why is wealth not enough for Gatsby to “belong”?
• The American Dream: Does the novel argue the Dream is impossible—or corrupted by class and hypocrisy?
• Performance & Spectacle (Gatsby’s Parties): How do the parties function as social theater rather than community?
• Gender Roles (Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle): How do these women reveal the limits placed on women in the 1920s?
• Moral Geography (East Egg/West Egg/Valley of Ashes): How do locations act as moral maps that shape character destiny?
• Carelessness & Consequences (Tom and Daisy): How do the rich avoid accountability—and why does that drive the tragedy?
• The Green Light: Why does the green light lose symbolic power by the end of the novel?
• Cars and Modernity: What do cars symbolize about speed, power, and destruction in the story’s moral universe?
• Meyer Wolfsheim and Crime: How does Wolfsheim link wealth to crime, legitimacy, and “respectability”?

Fitzgerald uses [symbol/setting] to show that [theme] is sustained by [social structure], and the novel’s tragedy exposes [consequence] when image replaces reality.

A 1500-Word Essay Outline You Can Follow

• Hook (1–2 sentences): Start with a compelling statement or quote. If you’re stuck on the very first sentence, check out these creative essay hooks to grab the reader’s attention immediately.
• Context: Jazz Age + Class dynamics.
• Thesis: 1 sentence, specific and debatable.

• Topic sentence (theme claim)
• Evidence (1–2 quotes or moments)
• Analysis (how evidence proves claim)

• Topic sentence (symbol/setting)
• Evidence
• Analysis

• Topic sentence (character motivation or narration)
• Evidence
• Analysis

• Present a competing reading
• Refute with text-based reasoning

• Restate thesis in new words
• Explain why it matters (class, identity, modern relevance)

Writer’s Block? Turn This Guide Into an Essay Fast

1. Pick a topic from the list above (e.g., “Class as Culture”).
2. Copy the prompt below.
3. Paste it into Essaypass:

• “Write an argumentative essay analyzing how Fitzgerald uses the contrast between East Egg (inherited status) and West Egg (acquired wealth) to define social class. Argue why financial success alone is insufficient for Gatsby to ‘belong’ in the Buchanans’ world.
• Key considerations:
  • Analyze specific behaviors, tastes, or social rules that distinguish the two groups.
  • Discuss how the concept of ‘Old Money’ functions as an exclusive culture rather than just an economic bracket.”

4. Customize your settings: Select your desired word count and citation style (e.g., MLA or APA).
5. Hit Generate: In minutes, you will receive a complete first draft along with 5 essential study aids:
   1. A full summary
   2. Topic-specific FAQs
   3. A writing strategy
   4. Downloadable references
   5. An AI editing assistant to help you refine the final polish