Besides being a great novel, The Great Gatsby is a very symbolic book, not to mention it’s many themes and meanings. This paper will discuss three of the majorthemes as well as some of the symbols, and try to explain the ending of the book. One of the first themes that comes to mind when one reads this book is thetheme of position. This includes class, wealth and social standing. It is apparent thatposition is a large factor in this novel and time period within the first few chapters ofthe book. Nick is a middle class mid-westerner who moves to West Egg. Gatsby isrich, but he is only “new money” and also lives in East Egg. There is a position thathe strives for and he wil do almost anything to achieve this. The Buchanans andhowever live in West Egg and are “old money”. Even though they may have lessmoney than Gatsby they have a better social standing. East and West Egg , as well asthe water that seperates it are symbols in this book which strenghten this theme. Thewater seperates East and West Egg and creates a barrier between them much like socialstanding and wealth creates a barrier for the charachters in this book. Another theme of the novel is the theme of carelessness. Nick refers toJordan, Tom and Daisy as careless. They are careless people who do careless acts, theylive an irresponsible lifestyle and consequence is only an after thought. “They werecareless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and thenretreated back into their money or their vast carelessness...” One example of thiscarelessness is when Jordan is driving Nick through the city, and another is when Daisyand Gatsby don’t stop after they kill Myrtle. Jordan and Tom also display carelessnesswhen they flee the city after the murder. These people do not care about paying fortheir actions and basically do as they please. Tom and Daisy are a married couple yetTom doesn’t worry ab...
