Contradictions In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is unique because of the great contradictions between different people and places throughout the novel. The novel shows what wealth can do to moral values, on small and large scales. Most of the binaries in the novel are based on this key idea. Another key idea is how dreams of the future and memories of the past transfer into the present and how that changes one’s mentality about life. These are some of the most important themes of the novel and can be expressed with binaries. These binaries include: Long Island (rich) vs. the Valley of Ashes (poor), “Old money” (East Egg) vs. “New money” (West Egg), East Coast vs. Midwestern values, past vs. present, and dreams vs. reality. Long Island vs. the Valley of Ashes is one of the most apparent binaries in the novel. In this case, Long Island includes East and West Egg, two of the most wealthy neighborhoods in the New York area. In order to get to New York City from Long Island, one must take the …show more content…
reality. Gatsby is very hopeful and always overestimates the probability of his dreams coming true. This quality is a double edged sword. It helped Gatsby get his fortune and success, but it always leaves him wanting more. In this case, he wants Daisy not just to love him, but for her to admit to never loving Tom. This is not only not true, but very hard for Daisy. It is hard enough for her to choose Tom over Gatsby because of it. Gatsby’s dreams are never aligned with reality because, according to Nick, he thinks he is akin to a god. Gods control the world how they want it, and no matter how rich Gatsby gets, he will never be able to control the world. In his narcissism, Gatsby does not realize this and he expects everyone to behave according to his dreams. When they don’t, he gets very angry and upset, so much so that the consequences could be deadly. Gatsby will never realize that reality is not like his dreams, and this makes the binary very