Motifs

Geography

"I lived at West Egg, the — well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. [...] Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans." - Nick Carraway (Chapter 1, page 5)

• East Egg represents the old aristocracy whereas West Egg symbolizes the newly rich
• the moral and social decay of the United States is depicted by the Valley of Ashes
• New York City is linked to the unrestrained and amoral quest for money and pleasure
• Eastern America corresponds with the moral decay and social cynicism of New York and the Valley of Ashes
• Western America portrays the more tradition social values and ideals
• actually The Great Gatsby is a story of the West since it recounts how people of the West react to the fast-paced lifestyle of the East

Weather

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." - Nick Carraway (Chapter 1, page 5)

• the weather relates to dictating the emotional and narrative tone and symboles the action (Chapter 5 it rains when Gatsby is supposed to meet Daisy for the first time in Nick‘s cottage, creating a gloomy atmosphere; after they reconnected, it is bright outside)
• heat in Chapter 7 reflects the tension that occurs when Gatsby meets Tom, Daisy, Jordan and Nick at Tom‘s house (hottest day of summer)
• also, the heat is used to portray confusion and panic
• Daisy remembers that she was married during a hot season and this makes her remember that she was still in love with Gatsby when she married Tom
• weather is used to describe the intensity of the events after Daisy admits that she loved Gatsby and Tom at the same time, things literally cool down as they all drive back in the cooling twilight
• the night that Daisy hits Myrtle with the car is hot
• the transition from summer into fall is rather depressing, yet additionally, the colder weather is connoted with calmness but also with an air of uncertainty, since Gatsby still believes that he can have a future with Daisy
• Gatsby is killed on the first day of fall and there is a chill in the air
• it rains during Gatsby‘s funeral, symbolizing the melancholy that comes with his tragic death

Cars

"It was a rich cream colour, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns. ...behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory." - Nick Carraway about Gatsby‘s car (Chapter 4, page 41)

• the cars in The Great Gatsby are considered easy pleasures of life
• Nick drives a presumably "old" Dodge - a surprising fact, considering that cars were available on the market only recently
• Gatsby drives a golden Rolls Royce that is considered a circus wagon by Tom who owns a coupe
• Myrtle Wilson is ran over by Daisy driving Gatsby‘s Rolls Royce for which she shows no remorse even though Gatsby accepts the blame on her behalf

Daisy‘s Voice

"It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again... there was an excitement in her voice that men who cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered "Listen," a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour." - Nick Carraway about Daisy‘s voice (Chapter 1, page 8)

• Daisy‘s voice has an alluring and seductive quality (almost Siren-like)
• her voice is also characterized by Nick as clear and artificial, when Daisy first meets Gatsby after they had parted five years ago (Chapter 5), after their meeting, her voice is full with aching and grieving beauty which tells of her unexpected joy
• also, Daisy‘s dreaminess can be seen through her voice when she talsk about the pink and golden billow of foamy clouds (she wants to put Nick in one of those clouds and push him around)
• Gatsby instead considers her voice as full of money she has always been privileged regarding her education and her lifestyle since she has never known deprivation
• when Daisy commands people around, her voice features a sense of superiority
• in conclusion, Daisy‘s voice is charming and alluring, as well as illusionary, decadent and sometimes arrogant