"THE GREAT GATSBY" F. SCOTT FITZGERALD. 
CORINNENOTES.
"THE GREAT GATSBY" F. SCOTT FITZGERALD.
THEMES
The theme which really dominates the novel is the American Dream (and its futility). Fitzgerald quite obviously didn't agree with the propaganda about how everything is possible in the USA. Instead he paints a picture with intense emphasis on materialism which leads to emptiness and disillusion. The valley of ashes is the reality of the dream. His biggest undermining of the myth is the contrast he creates between Gatsby's party and Gatsby's funeral. If the parties are the reality of the dream then a Gatsby who no one mourns is the product of this. Through this Fitzgerald is also attacking America, questioning whether it has lived up to what it should have been (see the final passages of the novel). It also relates to the more personal dreams in the novel,such as Gatsby's and Wilson's. The whole idea is personified by the "green light" and the fact that Gatsby never reaches it.
This theme leads on to the idea of a moral and spiritual waste land (the novel borrows heavily from the poem of the same name by T.S.Eliot). This means that the materialism of the unworn shirts, big houses, fast cars and cufflinks made of human molars is erasing any true feeling or meaning from society. Tom and Daisy would seem to typify this. Gatsby himself is part of this as he too is preoccupied with money and material possessions but he does manage to transcend the barriers this creates through his feelings for Daisy. Weather symbolism is highly important in this (especially the weather when Myrtle dies and at Gatsby's funeral). The fact that Gatsby is "blessed by the rain which falls" on him shows that he has been redeemed. Added to this Gatsby is like the books which are "absolutely real" - we may expect him to be fake but he isn't. Again this links closely to the valley of ashes which is Fitzgerald's literal waste land but it is also apparent in east and west egg and New York. The fact that the novel is full of fast drivers indicates the problems which this lack of spirituality has created. They are almost predestined to death.
A theme more specific to Gatsby is that of reconciling the past with the present. Gatsby's major flaw is that he can't do this - when he comes into contact with the clock he almost knocks it over (see symbolism). His dream is "already behind" him but he is unable to realise this until it is too late. There are other examples of this within the novel such as Gatsby's lies about his past (particularly the Oxford ones) and Tom's comment on making a "stable out of a garage" (this quote also fits in nicely with the American Dream).
There are several other themes that aren't quite so big but fit in with the other three. There's the contrast between east/west, the class system, the individual vs. society and the various conflicts which characterise the novel.There's also the issue of whether Gatsby is a time specific novel (i.e. only relevant to the 1920's) or whether it is a universal "tragedy".