Coming of Age
Will has been raised to be a con artist and consequently that is what he has become. He excels at the con, and is always thinking of new ways in which he can swindle people. As he experiences life at his expensive new school, he begins to find out that he has other talents that can make him stand out just as much as his perfectly executed cons do. He also learns that other things begin to matter to him; he starts to care about people, and the consequences that his actions can have on them. He grows tired of hurting others and begins to find that he is not the person he has always believed himself to be.
At the end of the novel Gatsby tells him that everyone makes mistakes; the real mark of a person is how they learn from them and what they do with the new knowledge of themselves that they have. This is especially true of Will, who comes to find that he is a far different person than he had at first believed.
Nature versus Nurture
Will is a con. He is the son of a con, and together they have created a life for Will that is based entirely on his unrivaled ability to con people. He has never really been encouraged to pursue any other direction in life and so it has never occurred to him that there are any other opportunities open to him. His father approves of him and is proud of him when he pulls off the ultimate con - and so that is what he does.
However, when he is left to his own devices a little more, his true character begins to come out. He discovers that he does not like to con people he loves, and he develops genuine personal relationships, a new experience for him. The novel uses this as one of the key themes; is nature or nurture a stronger influence on a person's character? Is Will a con artist because he is raised to be one or is he like his father and a con at heart? This is one of the key questions in the book and is one of its more interesting themes.
