The Great Gatsby Analytical Essay
The 1920’s was a period of economic corruption and the decade between WW1 and the
Stock Market crash of 1929, and was thought of as a time of frivolity. The novel, The Great
Gatsby represents this time period within a love story and is filled with many themes and motifs that intertwine together to create this American classic. One of the themes in the novel is wealth which is used to show a person’s social status, money and power. Fitzgerald gives each character different cars to show their status of wealth and where they fit in society.
The first example, that shows cars are a sing of wealth, is when Gatsby comes to pick
Nick up at his house for lunch. It states in the book, “Gatsby’s gorgeous car lurched up…gave…show more content… he saw me looking with admiration at his car”
(Fitzgerald 64). These text evidences, determine that Gatsby was showing off his bright yellow car to Nick and showing that Gatsby is a very successful, important, has money and that Gatsby wants to be seen.
The second example, of a motif to illustrate wealth and social class, in the book is when
Nick’s cousin, Daisy, comes for tea to his house and she arrives in a “large open car” and states to her chauffeur to go and “come back in an hour” (Fitzgerald 85). This shows that Daisy is so high class and well-off that a private chauffer has to drive her to and from places.
The third example, of transportation portraying affluence, is the night when a man from
Gatsby’s library and they guys that were with him in the car, who Nick and Jordan met at the party, drove off the road into a ditch in their station wagon. When the police where trying to ask them what had happened the men were acting like it was no big deal that they just wrecked. For example they were stating, “What’s the problem… Did we run out a gas… I didn’t even notice we stopped” (Fitzgerald 54). This displays that the men just came from a party, wasted and