After reading the book The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the strong themes, motifs, and symbols stand out more than ever. The action in the book takes place over a short time period of a few months during the summer of 1922 and the entire book is extremely symbolic of the entire decade. The decade is portrayed as an era of decaying social and moral values, which are extremely visible throughout the book. Greed and lust are also very sought after and the velocity of increasing corruption of society, especially the upper class, is at its height.
During this time period at the end of world war one and the rise of the stock market, Americans were taking extreme advantage over life and by doing so the rise of materialism brought a feeling of unhappiness and ingratitude to society. The "old money" and the "new money" began to collide, which also brought upon unnecessary rivalries between wealthy families. This clash is visible through the separation of the communities of the east egg and the west egg, the west egg being "new money" and the east egg representing the established "old money.".
One other representation of this in the book is Gatsby's unrequited love for Daisy. His dream is ruined by the differences in social status regardless of his attempt to acquire enough money to impress her. Gatsby tried endlessly to salvage a dream from his past but did not succeed, the same problem many others were facing during this time period as well.
Throughout this book Fitzgerald uses an immense amount of pathetic fallacy. Gatsby and Daisy's reunion takes place in the middle of a storm and just as the storm fades away, their love begins to rekindle. Gatsby's intense confrontation with Tom occurs on the hottest day of summer and Gatsby's murder occurs on the first day of fall and ironically he is swimming in his pool which is symbolic for his attempt at preserving his relationship with Daisy.
