F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby develops a number of themes related to Fitzgerald's view of his society. The novel makes use of a number of symbols and symbolic actions. The social classes in the novel are intended to be symbolic of the age, an age in which one group was considered the "lost" generation because it had lost its way after World War I.
There is a symbolic interaction between the Long Island world of money and leisure and the more frenetic and working-class image of the city of New York, and the characters in the novel can move between the two realms as much of the working class cannot. The city becomes a metaphor for a mechanistic and materialistic society. The city is also a source of ambivalent feelings, for the writer is both attracted to the energy and life of the city while also seeing it as a microcosm for all the ills of American society. The ideal of the American dream is another symbol shown to be an empty dream. For Fitzgerald, the artist is equated with the romantic, and the romantic--such as Jay Gatsby--is lost in that sort of society. For Gatsby, the dream proves illusory, and the reality is the hypocritical society of West Egg. One of the primary symbolic actions in the piece is represented by a physical symbol in the form of a long forgotten ad for an optometrist.
This is a novel of observation, and the ever-present eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg only emphasizes this fact. Indeed, eyes are symbolic throughout the novel. Gatsby gazes across the bay; Nick watches Jordan and Gatsby; and the reader watches them all. Parallels exist between characters and groupings of characters--Nick and Gatsby are both outsiders, Nick and Jordan parallel Gatsby and Daisy to a degree--and from these juxtapositions and interactions the reader sees an interplay of ideas, attitudes, and perceptions to develop the themes. Through all this, Gatsby stands as the alienated man who wants to cross the bay an...