Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Professor Tony Bowers from the College of DuPage explains the symbols in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Professor Tony Bowers from the College of DuPage explains the themes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Within its mere 200 pages, The Great Gatsby has somehow managed to capture a variety of important themes that are found in the American literary tradition. These themes are often signified by the use of different motifs and symbols in the novel.