Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

Individuals perpetuate false personas to such an extent that they are convinced into a state of false consciousness of reaching the American dream, ultimately, this facade leads them to their downfall, exposing repressed reality from idealistic lies. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes symbols to describe the hollow nature of each character’s deceitful persona, which comes to show the ultimate theme of downfall through the individual’s perception of the American dream. The use of gold as a mask for the colour yellow represents authentic wealth versus fake wealth, further developed though Jay Gatsby’s pursuance of the American dream. The colour white known for is purity and simplicity is denoted by Daisy Buchanan, a character who represses the reality in which she lives, insinuated by her change in surroundings. Furthermore, the character of Myrtle Wilson, showcases her greed for wealth and her need of a rich-husband as an American dream, symbolized by the surrounding colour of grey, a representation of her veneer-rich persona.

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

People in America love to have a great deal of money. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby always wants to have money, and he finally gets it. Gatsby has parties to try to get Daisy to come to his house. Gatsby tell Nick to tell Daisy to come to Nick’s house without her husband. Gatsby finallys shows his big house off to Daisy and thinks he will win her love back again just because he has money. Gatsby’s plan do not work out. Fitzgerald uses symbols in The Great Gatsby to show how things are going wrong in America.

The Great Gatsby is a symbol itself. The Great Gatsby was written to represent the rise and fall of the American Dream. The author places the rich and wealthy lifestyle on a high pedestal while he shows the dramatic consequences of moral and social decay amongst the characters. As each turning point is revealed, the American Dream slowly crumbles in the selfish hands of those who remain ignorant to anything else in the world. The significance of the many symbolic elements in The Great Gatsby plays a role in revealing the underlying themes of the American Dream, the ongoing clash between love and wealth and social and moral destruction.

The book The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it’s a narrative told from the perspective of Nick Carraway. He tells the story of the tragic life of Jay Gatsby and talks about the society of the wealthy people with high social status. He talks about the conflict between the two huge power Tom and Gatsby, due to their similarity in their money and social status, while they compete for dominance and masculinity by fighting over Daisy. Through Nick’s narration and his close relationship with Gatsby, the readers realize that the motive behind everything that Gatsby does is to win back Daisy’s heart to repeat the past, the first time when he fell in love with Daisy.

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.

Everything has consequences. Either positive or negative every microscopic event has an effect on the one yet to come. Jay Gatsby is a man of wealth and power, he is the man that men crave to be. A man that makes women lavish over him. How he got the this status is a different story, the gritty kind of story. His story was unnatural for the time of the roaring twenties.  He was beautiful, his house luxurious, his garden luscious, none of it was natural. More unreal then anything but never real. The palace has too many secrets, too mysterious, never real with anybody. Gatsby is living a dream. The American Dream, the unrealistic standard where everybody has the things they want, but not the thing they desire the most. So people live a constant lie that they are fine, and consequently its not real.  To be real is to be raw and to be raw is to be vulnerable to the outside world. Nature is the most vulnerable piece of life there is, when it’s not forced to be something it’s not.   The The Great Gatsby exemplifies the symbolism organic material to display the natural beauty of characters or inanimate objects which tear down the superficial walls of forced actions that Fitzgerald ultimately parades through the course of the book.

A symbol can be anything that represents something else in a story or something that has a deep effect on the story. Symbols can be an object, a character, an animal, a color, etc. Being a great writer, Fitzgerald has used symbols in a very effective manner. In Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has been in love with Daisy for a quite long time. While he was at the war, she marries a rude yet a rich guy named Tom Buchanan. Desiring to win her back, Gatsby transmutes himself into a wealthy person. He conducts parties every weekend hoping to see her there. Finally, when she meets him, everything turns out badly. Fitzgerald, in this novel uses various symbols to make it more fascinating and these symbols mainly represents the life in America in the 1920’s and the American dream.

     F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, uses symbolism throughout the novel to create the characters and events of the post World War I period. Colors are one way symbolism was used to develop the characters’ personalities and set up events. This is shown by colors like the green at the end of Daisy Buchannan’s dock, the color of Jay Gatsby’s car and how Myrtle and Jordan surrounded themselves by white. Other symbolisms used to set up events are the difference in the people of the West Egg and East Egg and the sign in the “valley of ashes”.

ideas or concepts. For example, a dove is usually used to represent peace. In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald uses a lot of symbolism to connect the characters with each other or to other objects. Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism helps advance his thematic interest in his novel of The Great Gatsby. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses various colors, objects, and gestures as symbols to portray the lack of moral and spiritual values of people and the different aspects of society in the 1920's.

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, there is lots of reflection on symbolism, and especially colored symbolism. In this novel symbolism is a very important factor, it shows the difference between the different characters and scenes in the novel. The color green influences the story a lot. Green shows many thoughts, ideas, attitudes, and choices that Gatsby has throughout the story. White too plays an even more important role in the novel as it is used to represent some of the characters, it also talks about the drinking and the driving that happened, where the color green is more a symbol of the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. This sort of symbolism reoccurs in different places throughout the novel, especially with Gatsby.

Fitzgerald’s manipulation of colors symbolizes the extent to which Gatsby was able to fulfill his aspirations and break through social classes. Thomas C. Foster, author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, advises readers to use previous knowledge and rely on connotations when finding meaning of symbols in literature, as symbols have multiple meanings. (Foster 104, 248). For Gatsby, Daisy signifies the key to the fulfilment of his dreams as she is, “high in a white palace, the king’s daughter, the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 120). Emblematically, gold is a rich color used to highlight the importance or value of something. Fitzgerald describes Daisy as “golden” because she is the final and most important element in Gatsby’s dream. All Gatsby needed for his success is Daisy “go[ing] to Tom and say[ing]: ‘I never loved you’”(Fitzgerald

The first way that Fitzgerald shows Gatsby as a sinister gangster is by making him similar to the gangsters of that era. Instead of grimy thugs the wealthy criminals of Gatsby time were just like him: rich, powerful, and affluent. (1) We see this when Gatsby goes to meet Meyer Wolfshiem. Wolfshiem is described as a “gambler” and “The man who fixed the 1919 World Series” but he has still managed to evade incarceration. Nick was surprised that just one man could “play with the faith of fifty million people—with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe” not even considering the fact that he never went to jail for it. Another example stems from Tom’s investigation of Gatsby. Tom finds out that Gatsby was affiliated with Wolfshiem’s scheme

Symbolism is one of many literary elements that enhances a story with it's power of a deeper meaning and reader involvement. Involving the reader is important because it keeps them interested, and allows them to explore what the symbol's meaning is and how it contributes to a storyline. F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered to be a master of this technique. Throughout his novel, The Great Gatsby, he uses symbolism in many ways to contribute to the theme, money effects one's actions, personality, and feelings when they let the idea of wealth consume them. Major symbolisms Fitzgerald uses to support the theme would be the billboard of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and the character, Owl-Eyes.

Happiness can only truly be acquired through the fantastical idea of dreams, and it is well known that money cannot. But in the 1920s, this idea changed as it became into a desire for wealth by whatever means; mistaken that money will bring happiness in one’s life. This conception leads to the end of true morality and turned a person into someone very selfish. F.Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates this notion through the use of a variety of symbols and themes.One of the dominant ideas within this novel is wealth which is supported through the symbol: eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg.The eyes symbolize the loss of spiritual values and growing commercialism in America. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the theme wealth creates a pathway to the corruption of morals is evident through the decisions and thoughts of the Buchanans and Gatsby who are indirectly influenced by the symbol Eye of T.J Eckleburg.