The main theme of The Great Gatsby, the moral and social decay of the 1920s, represents Fitzgerald’s view of his time. The Valley of ashes symbolizes this decay and the eyes of TJ Eckelburg symbolize God looking at the decaying morals and the plight of the poor. A victim of the bad morality of the rich, George Wilson lives next to the valley of ashes. The mood of The Great Gatsby, hot in the middle of summer, reveals something about why characters act the way they do. During hot and stuffy summer months, people tend to become antsy, nervous, and do not feel comfortable staying in one place.

The novel also portrays some false hopes. Gatsby, who loves Daisy, pursues her, not realizing that his hope of everything going back to the same as before cannot happen. The green light, at the end of Daisy’s dock, symbolizes Gatsby’s false hope and dreams of a life with Daisy. He has false hopes because he wants Daisy to love him, but Daisy also loves Tom and has a child with him. All of the characters in the book have the false hope of times not changing. Happy with the time, they feared change.

The ‘roaring twenties’ and the ‘jazz age’ refer to a time in American history in which many people rebelled against former ways of life and embraced new ideas. Jazz music became very popular during this time. The novel tells of Gatsby’s grandiose parties and importantly, mentions the music. Jazz music, a style of music native to America characterized by a strong but flexible rhythmic understructure with solo and ensemble improvisations on basic tunes and chord patterns, characterizes the 1920s. Music plays an important role not only at social events, but also in describing a time. It describes w

Some topics in this essay:
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