Theme 1 : Love

Here you will learn why love is a major theme

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Love is shown in The Great Gatsby in many ways. Tom and Daisy have some kind of attraction for each other but it definitely isn't love. Jordan and Nick also had something going but it still wasn't love. Gatsby was actually the one who fell in love with Daisy. Gatsby's love was shown as very powerful. Growing up as a poor boy, being in the war, and remembering about past memories about Daisy allows him to get rich, give himself a new name to win the heart of Daisy back. For Daisy, she is very confused about her feelings. She doesn't know what or who she wants. She has feelings for Gatsby but because she is married to Tom, had his child and he is known as the "old rich" she doesn't want to leave him for he is loved by everybody and has a good reputation, which is is the opposite of Gatsby. 

Theme 2 : Violence 

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Violence was another major theme in The Great Gatsby. We saw in multiple sections in the book. For example, Tom was portrayed as an intimidating character. He was very aggressive with Myrtle when she had brought up Daisy's name, slapping her across the face. Also, When Tom was getting to Gatsby's head in the hotel room, saying that he's not really rich and telling everyone where he really got his money, Gatsby rose his fist to Tom looking like he had killed the man according to Nick. Finally, the most obvious form of violence was when Daisy was driving Gatsby's car home and she accidentally hit Myrtle, causing her to die and then George went to kill Gatsby because Tom filled his head with lies. 

Theme 3: The American Dream

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In the Great Gatsby we learn the real side of Jay Gatsby's life. Gatsby came from a poor family, he tries to earn his way up into the high class status, somewhat gets the girl of his dreams, but really, he doesn't earn it. He cheated his way to live the high life, makes the wrong deals, with the wrong people, illegal things, lies about everything, and everybody knows about it. Yes, he gains a good amount of wealth, but in the end, he loses everything making him the tragic fool, instead of the tragic hero.