Significant Themes in The Great Gatsby and a Sample Textual Analysis Response
 Read and consider the following list of themes (main ideas) that are all
poignantly developed in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s haunting novel, The Great Gatsby.
Use this list of significant themes to help you when you are preparing for your
Textual Analysis Test. Consider where they are developed and revealed in your
practice sight passages.
A List of TEN Significant Themes:
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The disintegration of the American Dream
The superficiality and emptiness of the upper class
The foolishness of love and the disillusionment of love
The hypnotic power and allure of youth, beauty and wealth
The dangers of getting lost in the past
The dissatisfaction and isolation of a consumer society
The beauty and naivety of an unfaltering sense of hope
The harmful inequality between genders
The disintegration of marriage as an institution (plagued by adultery and deceit)
The motivating fear of mortality
A Sample Textual Analysis: From Practice Activity #2
Find two literary devices used in this passage. Identify each literary device, explain what
each means, and why each is significant to the passage? (6 marks)
The first important literary device that is used in this passage is a meaningful
metaphor. This is found in the text when Nick is narrating the story of Gatsby’s past with
Daisy, saying, “In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such
people but always with indiscernible barbed wire in between.” The metaphor of
“indiscernible barbed wire” compares the impenetrable distance between the upper
and lower classes with barbed wire, which effectively emphasizes the significant class
divide that existed between the rich and the poor in the 1920’s, as well as the ultimate
divide that exists between Jay and Daisy in the novel. This further proves that Jay and
Daisy are not destined to be together, and that getting too close to her will only cause
Gatsby pain. In addition, even though Gatsby makes a great fortune after their initial
romance, and therefore, he is eventually held in high esteem among the ‘new money’
citizens of West Egg, it is made obvious through this metaphor that Gatsby will always
be a penniless, uncultured man in the eyes of those people with ‘old money’, like Daisy
and Tom. Next, other crucial literary devices that are found within the passage are an
additional metaphor, as well as some vivid personification. Through Nick’s description of
Gatsby’s interpretation of young Daisy’s home and privileged life, he narrates, “There
was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than
other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of
romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and
breathing and redolent of this year's shining motor cars and of dances whose flowers
were scarcely withered.” In this quotation, the exciting, burgeoning romances that
Gatsby witnesses are contrasted to old, “musty” love that one might metaphorically
shut away in a drawer to be forgotten about completely. Also, the personification
within this example is seen when the romances that are “fresh and breathing and
redolent of this year's shining motor cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely
withered” are mentioned, which makes these new romances feel as if they are living,
breathing entities unto themselves. Gatsby’s love for Daisy will eventually take on a
similar life of its own. This type of love is reminiscent of youth and the rich emotions that
are associated with it. As well, this is the type of love that Gatsby first feels for Daisy, and
that he cannot let go of later on in the novel. It is also very significant that Gatsby feels
as though these fresh romances represent material wealth (automobiles) and
perfection (fresh flowers), because that is what he begins to strive for in order to win
Daisy’s love in the text; for Gatsby, money is equated with Daisy’s love.