This is a really broad question, but here are a few things
for you to think about in regards to Jay Gatsby.
1. He
lives on West Egg, the "new money" side of town.
2. He
throws lavish parties in the hopes of attracting Daisy's
attention.
3. He is likely involved in gangster activities
as evidenced by his assocation with a man like
Wolfsheim.
4. He has loved and longed for Daisy for years,
and has accumulated great wealth in an effort to regain
her.
5. He has actually had grand ambitions since
childhood, so Daisy isn't his only motive.
6. He has a
naive and optimistic view of life -- he even thinks you can repeat the
past.
7. He is loyal to Daisy, even when it becomes
apparant to us that he will never truly get her back.
All
of these elements of his characterization play into the most salient of the themes of
the novel: the achievement and decay of the American Dream; true love; reality vs.
illusion; the moral corruption of society, especially of the upper classes; infidelity;
honesty/dishonesty; and the list could go on.
In order
to respond to this task, you need to consider some specific thing you know about Gatsby,
and then connect it to some specific point that Fitzgerald is making throughout the
novel. You can take the above lists and start making some connections there, and then
you can fill in with other details of Gatsby's character and connect those to a specific
theme or themes.
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