A Voice Full of Money

Some of the characters seem to be able to separate different types of wealth. Even though there are characters that show different types of wealth, there are also characters that seem to show about the same amount of wealth in all of their characteristics. Daisy dresses, behaves, and even sounds wealthy. She wears nice, clean clothes. She acts like a lady, never raising her voice and doing her best to please her husband. She speaks quietly, with small flutters in her voice that make it rich with many tones. Then there is Myrtle. When she is with her husband, she is dressed to fit her personality. Sort of rough looking clothes, compared to those that Tom gives her. This shows the rough part of her. She lies and yells, and is not much of a lady. She speaks out of turn and treats her husband like he is nothing.  Nick seems to be able to tell that even though Gatsby has plenty of money and he speaks like an educated man, Gatsby does not have the nicest personality. Nick can also see this with Tom. Daisy on the other hand does not seem to be able to separate types of wealth. She sees that Gatsby and Tom are both very wealthy and she has been in love with both of them. She seems too naive to be able to notice that wealth does not make person's personality.

You Can't Repeat the Past

The past cannot and should not be repeated. The past is the past so that we can take it and learn from it, not to redo it. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is trying to go back five years and win Daisy over and try to move on to the future that they were suppose to have together if he had not gone off to war and if Daisy had not met Tom. This causes Gatsby to have a dream that is nearly impossible to achieve. To make his dream reality, he has to make Daisy completely forget about Tom, which will never happen. She admits that she had loved him at one time, but she does not seem to love neither Tom nor Gatsby at this point. Trying to recreate his past can ruin not only Gatsby's future, but Tom's and Daisy's too. I do think that Gatsby should be seen as an eccentric because the past cannot be relived or changed no matter how hard you try. You should just learn from the past and move on to the future. Use your past to shape the person you want to be in the later years of your life.

Gatsby's American Dream

Gatsby's American Dream was to marry Daisy and to live in a big house and have a nice family with some money in his pocket. He was born into poverty and ended up in the military. Even after fighting in a war, he didn't have a single dime to his name. He was penniless and still tried his hardest to find Daisy. I believe that Tom corrupted his dream as a result of the war that he fought in. Since Gatsby had to go off to war, he left Daisy open to predators. This led to her meeting Tom and getting married. Even after her marriage to Tom, Gatsby never let her go. He continued to look for her and follow her where ever she went. Once he finally got her alone, he started to use his charm on her and persuade her that she still loved him. I don't think that Gatsby achieved his American Dream. He had to do so much work to get it, and in the end, Daisy still doesn't leave Tom.

Social Class

It is easy to tell that the East Egg is filled with residents of a high social class, while the West Egg, with the exception of Jay Gatsby, is filled with working class people. Then there are the people that live in the Valley of Ashes. Most of the people there seem to be poor, but they have enough money to survive. The higher you are on the social class ladder, the more you look down on the people below you. The people in East Egg look down at the people from West Egg and would probably not be caught dead even looking at someone from the Valley of Ashes. People look down at others because they pity those below them. They have everything that could ever want and believe that everyone should be as wealthy as they are. If they aren't , they shouldn't even be in the same general area. They are undeserving of the presence of the wealthy, yet the lower you are on the social class ladder, the more you look forward to meeting people of a higher rung on the ladder. Mr. Wilson, from the Valley of Ashes, looks up to Nick, who is from the West Egg, but he absolutely admires Tom because he is from the East Egg. This is because anyone that could use an extra boost in their pay could probably get it from those that have more money than themselves. Tom offered Mr. Wilson his car. Mr. Wilson really wanted one so that he could leave and Tom could go buy a new one if he wanted to, whenever he wanted to. Wealth always seems to be something that earns respect. Maybe that is just because everyone wants a piece of it.

Narrator

Nick Carraway plays the role of the narrator in The Great Gatsby. The book seems to be told from his point of view. From the things that he is seeing, hearing, and leaning from other people. His greatest influence seems to be Jay Gatsby, which would be while the book is titled as it is.
I enjoy reading the book from his point of view. I find that it makes the story very believable. He tells the story as he sees it. Yes, there may be some bias in the story, but what story doesn't have a little bit of bias in it?
The story seems more believable because it is told from someones point of view. I find it easier to understand it from another person's point of view rather than just someone looking down on the happenings from above. There seems to be more emotion behind telling it from the point of view of someone that is actually in the story.

Color Psychology

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many colors in his book, The Great Gatsby. I believe that he uses them to show emotion and other hidden meanings. For example, on page 24, the color yellow is used to represent sunshine and even a glimmer of hope for a dark place. "The only building in sight was a small block of yellow bricks sitting on the edge of waste..." Yellow can mean sunlight, joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, wealth, summer, and hope. I believe that is this quote, it represents many of those things.
The color red is used to express passion, strength, fire, heat, and power. The quote, "...sticky bob of red hair...," is in reference to Mrs. Wilson's sister's hair. Catherine seems to be much like her sister, as shown on page 30, who is full of lust and passion.
Then there are moments of color confusion. Page 92 mentions many colors. "Shirts with stripes and plaids in coral and apple green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue." I feel that this could show many different things. It could be saying that Gatsby behaves in many different manors. He is happy, rich, and strong, or it could be saying that he is depressed and dangerous. On the other hand, it could simply be saying that he is trying to find himself, or in a completely different direction, he is trying to hide himself and his true personality from the world by using different colors to "confuse" on lookers.