Imagery and Symbolism in F. Scott Fitzgerald´s The Great Gatsby

In life everyone strives to get rich, but is having an abundance of money always good? Sometimes people use money for personal benefits, sometimes it's for the benefit of others, but at times people with money use it to create their social status. In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the idea of wealth is seen throughout. Jay Gatsby, who lives next door to Nick Carraway; the Narrator of the story, wants to be with his dream girl Daisy. Gatsby is wealthy and throws parties to impress Daisy. Daisy however, is married to another man Tom Buchanan. Throughout the story the people with money use it to create their social status. In The Great Gatsby F.Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism to convey, wealth causes people to assert

The first symbol we see appears at the end of Chapter one. It is a

Another symbol that Fitzgerald uses in The Great Gatsby is the bill board with T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes. “But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.”(Fitzgerald 23-24). Fitzgerald uses T.J. Eckleburg's as a symbol to represent God’s

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby focuses on the corruption of the American dream during the 1920‘s. For the duration of this time period, the American dream was no longer about hard work and reaching a set goal, it had become materialistic and immoral. Many people that had honest and incorruptible dreams, such as Jay Gatsby, used corrupted pathways to realize their fantasy. People’s carelessness was shown through their actions and speech towards others. Fitzgerald uses characterization and symbolism from different characters and items to convey the corruption of the American dream.

Gatsby is not misleading, and cares and hopes for the best to every one of the characters he meets. Gatsby progressed in a multitude of ways, such as how he talked and thought of certain people such as Daisy. The way F. Scott Fitzgerald described Gatsby as a character and how he progressed Gatsby couldn't be more fitting as a caring and more respectful kind of guy. How Gatsby relates to society is that he threw parties and how a lot of rich people went to his parties. He may even be able to challenge societal norms because of how he brought himself up to be a kind of character who looks like a rich guy who is just like everyone else, normal, but really he had so much inside of him that Nick Carraway(friend and Narrator) can for some reason only see. Through this journey, some may feel that Fitzgerald wanted to that there is always some sort of light around, maybe you will have to look hard for it but there will always be light, in Gatsby’s case, there was a green light, and how he looked at the light made it seem as it was his hope, but not for loss. As Gatsby says "single green light" and how it was "unattainable dream," the "dream [that] must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it”. This is one of Gatsby’s quotes that he used with a reference to the green light.

Good Morning Mr Peinke and 11A today I will be discussing how F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, uses the techniques of symbolism and characterisation to position readers to view the George and Myrtle Wilson, a married couple living in the Valley of Ashes during the 1920’s. While the 20’s were a great time of optimism, Fitzgerald portrays the much bleaker side of the revelry by focusing on its indulgence, two-facedness, shallow recklessness. While we don’t know a lot about Myrtle and George Wilsons background, through the descriptions given by Nick and other characters the readers have been positioned to view them given their status.

The Great Gatsby has been around for ages; it is a story of a young man in the 1920’s who is thrown into a new world made up of the new and the old rich. He is confused by the way these people act and in the end cannot stay another minute in this strange, insensitive, materialistic world. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many techniques to help the reader understand how Nick Carraway (the narrator) is feeling throughout the story. In the book The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses effective language to make his writing successful. He uses the techniques of imagery and irony to display this message.

“The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place during the roaring 20’s, an especially great time for the wealthy. Symbolism is used thoroughly throughout the book to allow us to see how differently people see things and how we are affected by certain things that are out of our control. The color green is used to make us aware of money, wealth, even the future such as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Here it symbolizes the future that Gatsby hopes to resume with Daisy. The Valley of Ashes symbolizes the desperation of the lower class, and the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleberg, the eyes of “God”, symbolizes the fact that there is someone watching and judging all that happens. It was a very desperate time.

As one of the most recognizable book covers in the history of American literature: two sad female eyes and bright red lips adrift in the deep blue of a night sky, hovering ominously above a carnival scene. Full of sorrow and excess, this image has become so connected to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that many of the elements within the cover such as the eyes and the figure within them reflect the haunting messages found in the novel.

One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth, specifically, how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differ from and relate to the old aristocracy of the country’s richest families. In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce,

A few symbolisms in novels are as memorable as the green light in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Shining at the end of Daisy’s dock, it is close enough to be seen, but too far away to be reached. Still, Gatsby, an eternal optimist, stares at it at night, as if it showed him that all his far-away dreams were about to come true. The green light in The Great Gatsby is symbolic of hope, a source of inspiration, and a representation of the American Dream to Gatsby and to the novel’s readers.

“You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans” (Ronald Reagan). You can tell a lot about a person’s character by examining their way of life. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author shows the characteristics of each character through the symbol of their house. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the simplistic and honest nature of Nick’s house to show that he himself is honest and open. He also uses the colors of the Buchanan’s house to symbolize the true Daisy and F. Scott FItzgerald uses the lavish, but empty, Gatsby mansion to show how Gatsby appears to be extravagant on the outside, but empty on the inside.

The Great Gatsby is one of the most read pieces of literature throughout the current modern Western world. High school kids all across the globe must learn and read it as part of their curriculum. One of the aspects that makes this novel so notable is that Fitzgerald, at no point in the story, needs to convey to his audience the theme of his novel directly. The main points of his novel are brought out by the powerful symbols he infuses in the book. Not only does he use them to convey his theme, but also ties them in to the rest of the story. Every aspect of this book is affected by the presence of one of his symbols. Through the use of the green light, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, and the Valley of the Ashes as symbols,

In the first book, a Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene, the narrator, meets Phineas and they become very close friends. Their life is based in the Devon high school during the WWII period. Gene goes through a lot of confusion after others blame him of pushing Phineas off a tree and breaking his leg, even if he feels very connected to Phineas as a friend. The other book, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is narrated through Nick’s eyes who observes the story of his neighbor Gatsby’s difficult life as he is trying to get the person who he loves: Daisy. This book does well in representing the wealthy life and struggles during the 1920s with Gatsby’s big parties and the Buchanans capability of escaping punishment from crimes thanks to

He felt their presence all about the house, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions” (149). Gatsby felt that Daisy’s glamour and wealth must have made her attractive to other men, “it increased her value in his eyes” and held more appeal than her love for him. However, at the same time, Daisy 's desires are also driven by wealth, but she is not attracted to the new money that Gatsby has. Tom’s old money is much more appealing to Daisy. The two men fight over Daisy and in the end she chooses Tom because of his historic wealth.